Med Clearance

We had hoped to hear something about our medical clearance Thursday or Friday, but no such luck:o( I then checked a fellow surros blog and hers took almost 3 weeks, so I had resigned myself to having to wait another whole week, when, this afternoon (yes it is Sunday!), I got an e-mail from the nurse from the fertility clinic saying that Dr. Kolb cleared us and the letter has been sent to GG! YIPPEE! Though I figured we would pass, I think this was the most nerve-wrecking part because we are so close to being able to help a couple build their family. Next, GG will send our profile to the IPs and then, we wait to hear if they want to meet us. Hopefully that won't take too long, but you never know. Fingers crossed that they like us:o)

IP Profile

Until we are officially matched and I have discussed this blog with our IPs, I can't say a ton. I will say that they are a same-sex couple and they live in So Cal. We really liked their answers to the questions. The first time I read the profile, I liked them, but I wasn't super excited like I expected I would be. I think that I was afraid to like them because I don't want to get attached and then have them not like us back. I have read it two times since and I like them more and more each time:o) I reeeaaaaly hope they like us too! GG won't send them our profile until they get the official medical clearance, so even though we like them, we will have to wait at least two weeks to find out if they like us. Hopefully, if they want to meet us, scheduling the match meeting won't be too hard, since they live relatively close to the GG office.

LA Screening Trip

Let me apologize in advance for the poor pictures. We took our point and shoot camera with every intention of taking pictures, but I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off most of the day, so we only got a few pics, taken by DH with his cell phone.


We started our day at 5 am. Early for me, but sleeping in for DH! When we got to LAX, we found our ride waiting for us. DH was pretty excited to be one of those people who has a person waiting for them with a sign. The driver was very nice and the ride was cushie.

Our first stop was HRCFertility. DH was pretty impressed with this waiting room. It was pretty swanky!

HRC waiting room- this pic doesn't do it justice.

 We had held it when we got off the plane, so we would be able to provide a urine sample, so we got to do that first. Then, I filled out some paperwork and we both had our blood drawn. Next, we met Carrie, the GG liaison, who introduced us to the nurse, who went over the consent form and explained the process and the upcoming exam. Finally, we met Dr. Kolb, who asked me some questions about my health history and other stuff pertaining to my ability to be a surrogate. Then, he explained the uterine exam and the IVF profess. All this talk about the sonohysterogram (SHG) had made me a little nervous because they said there might be cramping, but there was nothing:o) Basically, Dr. K stuck a catheter with a little balloon on it through my cervix, then in went the "weenie wand" (as the internal ultrasound wand is called by many surros- I think the name creates the proper picture, especially given its condom attire). 

Waiting for Dr. K to come back and do the SHG- you can kinda see the weenie wand;o)

He inflated the balloon with some saline and examined all of my reproductive organs. He said it all looked good and I am really fertile because I have lots of good looking follicles. For this reason, he told me not to go get pregnant on him. It was pretty funny, especially since he doesn't know how over-resposible I am, and even more so with that:o) Lastly, the nurse answered any more questions and gave me a prescription for the pill, which I was planning on starting again next cycle anyways, but they will use it to synch my cycle with the egg donor's. The results from the urine analysis and blood work will take about 2 weeks to come back. 

We took a cab to the GG office. Let me just say that I am not a fan of cabs and this trip followed suit. Both of the cab drivers we had were not very friendly and a little crazy with the driving:o( We had about 45 minutes before our appointment, so we picked a restaurant nearby the GG building and got some lunch, which we gobbled up quickly.

We went up to the 13th floor and found the GG office. We sat down with Dr. Bergman for a few minutes, then she introduced us to Erica (Big E) and she gave us a profile of IPs whom they think would be a good match for us! OMG! I figured we would get one soon, but I wasn't expecting it to be that quickly! David took the profile and went for a walk while I did the oh so fun computer test. This test was looonnnnggggg:o( 567 true/false questions! This test is basically a personality test and it also looks for possible flags for depression, bi-polar, conspiracy theories, a distrust for the human race, self confidence, friendships and some other things. It took me a little over an hour. Some of the questions were worded weirdly, so I had to read them a couple of times to makes sure I clicked the right thing. It is also looking for inconsistencies so lots of questions were asked several times in different ways. I am glad it is over, but it wasn't too bad. 

We took another cab back to the airport where I finally had a chance to read the IP profile (which I will talk a little more about later). We called to check on the bambino, did some reading and got dinner. It was a busy day, but I am super excited about the journey ahead! This is the beginning of the first 2 week wait (2ww) and hoping for a couple more of them in the near future:o) 

LA here we come!

Monday is the day we will fly to LA for the last part of the application process for becoming a GG surrogate. It is the psychological (which we have already done part of) and medical screenings. The medical screening will consist of a urine test (to check for drug use), bloodwork (to check for STDs or other diseases that we may not have disclosed) and a uterine evaluation. It is going to be a crazy day! We will leave our house at 6 AM and get back home about 9 PM. Hopefully, everything will run smoothly:o) Then, it takes up to 2 weeks to get all of the results from the medical part, at which point, we will know if we can move forward. The next step after that will be GG sending us IP profiles, and once approved from both sides, another trip to LA for the match meeting! Yippee!

Psych Eval Pt. 1

Sooooo. . . I talked to Dr. Bergman and she is going to be flying in from her vacation the morning of our screening and getting to the office on time will be tight in the best of circumstances. Since we already met this past weekend, she wanted to do the interview part either today or Friday via Skype, so that if she doesn't make it, the formal part will be done. David had just gotten home from work and I had just put Haley down for a nap, so we hopped on Skype and did the interview with the psychologist. It actually worked out perfectly because my hubby has a tendency to waaaaayyy over-think things. Anytime he has a meeting of any kind, he spends hours or days beforehand thinking of every possible question he might be asked and how he should answer it, so this arrangement avoided that:o) We found out that David is atypical, which he is pretty proud of. Overall, I think it went pretty well. When we go to LA for the screening, we will still go to the GG office to meet the staff and chat with the COO and do the fun computer test.

This is getting REAL!

A few things have happened in the past week. I finished the Letter to IPs. I had to go get a Glucose Tolerance Test because my BMI is over 30. It was a fasting 2 hour and the 2 I did during my pregnancy were 1 hr, no fasting. Luckily, the lab was a pretty busy place and there were some interesting people to talk to.
Saturday, I went to a GG Meet and Greet. There were a few surrogates in different stages of their journeys and the psychologist from GG (Dr. Kim Bergman). It was really nice to have the time to sit with the women and pick their brains about what they have been through and what advice they have. Since Dr. Bergman will be doing the psych part of my screening, it was awesome to be able to sit and chat with her in this casual setting. It made me feel a lot less nervous about the screening:o)
Monday, I got the results of my GTT, which I passed, YAY!
Then, we scheduled my screening! David and I will fly to LA on April 9th. That is 2 weeks from yesterday! I pretty much got to pick the day within that week, so the 9th is pretty perfect for us:o) My mom will be off work from one of her jobs, which makes me feel a little better, since she will be watching Little Miss Haley for the day. It will be a long day. We will leave super early in the morning and get back pretty late. I don't know the exact times yet because we are still waiting for the insurance pre-authorization before they will schedule the flights. I do know that the psych part will be 10 am and the appt with the RE will be at 1:30 pm.YAY!

Moving Forward

Friday, we sat down and completed all of the paperwork and e-mailed it off to GG! This is getting kinda real (she says with excitement and a couple of nerves)! We should have our pre- authorization for the life and secondary medical insurance in the next week. I have to finish my letter to the IPs, which I am pretty much done with. I just want to get some second, third and fourth opinions, clean it up and ponder a bit more. Then, we wait for dear AF, then off to LA for the screening! This will probably be the second week of April. Then we will start the cycle of hurry-up and wait:o) OMG, I love progress!