So, when last we spoke, our heroine was gearing up for IUI Day 2.
I got up early to get ready. When I called in to AICGB at 8:30am, I got the weekend answering service. Following the instructions in my welcome packet, I asked them to page the midwife on-call so that I could schedule an IUI for today. The woman on the other end of the line took my number and said the midwife would call me back soon. And she did. While I was brushing my teeth. Her name was Laura and she asked me if I could come in at 10:30am. I said yes. I finished getting myself together and asked Auntie if she'd give me a ride to Wonderland Station. She was eating breakfast, so I made myself some oatmeal with flax and raisins and put it in a container to go. I also packed a baggy with some almonds and cashews and more raisins in case I got hungry between the IUI and getting out to the alternate acupuncture office in Brookline. Which reminded me...I called Karin to let her know what time my appointment was, and made plans to meet her in Brookline at 1pm.
By this time, I knew a ride to Wonderland probably wouldn't cut it. I asked Auntie if she'd mind dropping me closer in/further along on my trek. She took me to the Red Line at South Station. How I love Auntie so! With the extra-transportational push, I was able to get to AICGB by 10:50am. It might have been sooner if I hadn't just missed the bus coming out of Porter St. Station. The next one took forever to come. I called Laura en route, but she didn't pick up, so I left a message.
When I arrived, Laura was there to greet me...and so was Margi!!! Margi, without whom none of this would have been possible. She fielded all my e-mails and answered all of my questions and really made everything fall into place. It was like old home week. Hugs ensued. I may have mentioned my tendency to erode people's boundaries. I'm a hugger. If I like you, you're probably gonna get hugged. Deal with it. Margi had actually come in just to meet me face-to-face and wish me luck. How sweet is that?! After she left, Laura showed me into the exam room and closed the door. I undressed from the waist down (except for my purple fuzzy socks), got up on the exam table, and draped myself with a clean white sheet. I reached over and pulled the chair with my things on it closer, and dug into my bag for my phone - which is really more of an mp3 player on which I send and receive texts and occasionally place calls.
Laura came in and I scoot-scoot-scooted to the edge of the table, trying to relax. I'm not sure if it was me or Laura, but the speculum definitely required more breathe-through on my part this time around. I asked how things were looking. She said, "Good! Like you're ovulating..." The catheter pinched as it went through. It hadn't before. I turned on Adele and worked on relaxing all the muscles in my body, starting with my girl parts. As before, the IUI was over in an instant. Laura suggested something new. Instead of the lay-back-with-a-pillow-under-my-bottom, she had me completely rotate myself on the table so that my bottom was on the elevated incline part, and my head was resting on a pillow on the pull-out extension part. It felt odd, but anything for the cause! I lay there, once again, quietly singing Adele to myself, and my eggs, and the swimmers, and hopefully my future baby for thirty minutes. It's not easy to quietly hold notes in your smallest voice when you're upside down.
Got dressed. Thanked Laura effusively. On to the next step. Acupuncture with Karin. I hadn't been to the Brookline office before. Actually, I can't definitively say I'd ever been to Brookline at all before. I just followed the directions I'd gotten from the MBTA travel planner. Bus to Harvard Station. Then another bus from somewhere in that neighborhood that would take me directly there. First problem, the first bus took forever to come. Second problem, when I got off at Harvard Station, I had no idea where I was. I found the bus stop at last. Oops. No I didn't. I was on the wrong side. After making my way to the right side, the bus actually came pretty quickly. And soon we were on Harvard Street, so I just kept an eye out for the address. 318. We passed it by a block, so I got off and walked back. Didn't look particularly office-like. But my massage place in Brooklyn is the ground floor of a residential brownstone with a modest little shingle out front, so I figured it was just more low-key than the other location. Rang the bell and an unkempt, but very polite college guy came to the door looking as confused as I felt. I said I'd come to see Karin (maybe she worked out of her home on weekends???). He said it was just him and three other guys living there, and before they moved in it was also a bunch of guys, so he didn't really know what to tell me...I confirmed the address. And therein lies the rub...I was at 318 WEST Harvard Street. It was freezing outside, so I walked down the block to a library I'd seen and stepped inside the foyer. I called Karin. I was tired and cold and now lost. I thought I'd call it quits and just go back home the way I'd come. There was no way I was gonna get to her in time. She (much like Laura and Margi) had come in especially for me that day, so now I felt like a total ass. She asked me where I was exactly, and said she'd call me right back. After what I assume was some astute internetting, she figured out that the bus I was on probably did stop at her office if I'd have stayed on. I told her the buses were coming pretty frequently (i.e. I'd just seen one go by as I answered her call, so I figured they were coming about every 10 mins or so). I'd hop back on the bus and head her way, unless I could snag a cab (which I didn't think likely in this neighborhood). But just as I was crossing the street to the bus stop, a cab came down the street and I flagged him down. There was a lot of traffic on Harvard Street once we finally got there, but we got there and that's the main point.
I paid him and thanked him for picking me up and hurried upstairs to meet Karin. I rather like the Brookline office. It's in a "wellness studio" that also has yoga, pilates, and other stuff. But today it was just Karin and me. I apologized for being late (I think. I hope I did...It seems like the sort of thing I would do in that situation). She was super nice about it. After a quick trip to the bathroom, I was ready to surrender myself to a rigorous poke-a-thon of relaxticity. Yes, I made up both of those words. She also did some moxibustion, which I'd never had done before. Good stuff. Overall, I think it was a really good session. She knew I was heading for New York the next day, but we planned another session for the day after I got back. I paid. Said goodbye. Hugged. And off home back to Autie's...this time via the Green Line which was just down the block and so much quicker than the bus.
And now, we wait...
Stay tuned...
No comments:
Post a Comment