Hi, Blogger Bob Here, The Husband...

Well we’re here in Mumbai (Bombay)! The 15 hour flight really wasn’t as bad as I though ti was going to be. A couple of Ambian really knocked me out and for a loop. I slept the first 10 hours of the flight. Lisa tells me I did wake up and ate the airline dinner., but I really have no recollection of it, but a few stains on my shirt convince me that I must have eaten it. We sat next to a nice guy who worked for Carnival Cruiselines and he was going to home to have surgery on his shoulder. Nice guy, he gave us a few tips.

1) Never encourage begging. If you give out a dollar, you’ll be swarmed by hundreds of other beggers

2) When your shopping/haggling. Start at ½ the cost and barter from there.\

3) Pick up a Taxi rate card which explains all the costs and distances for taxi rides.

We breezed through customs and were our the door of the Airport in about 10 minutes. We quickly noticed our name on a plaque and the driver whisked us into a waiting car. It took about 45 minutes to get to the hotel from the airport. It was 10:00 PM and too dark to see much, but the driver did point out some mosques, restaurants and a Rolls Royce dealership, just in case. Indians drive on the left side of the road and it seemed pretty crazy. The driver assured us that “we haven’t seen anything yet” in regards to the traffic. Wait until the morning and evening. It’s CRAZZZZYYY!. More on that next post after we experience it. We have a 2:00 appt. at the Rotunda clinic, our first one. I’ve scheduled a consultation at a Laser Eye place later too. The cost is $900 for both eyes. Back in the states, the cost is about $5000.00. Lisa might get Lasik also. She has astigmatism, so they have to do an exam first. OK, we’re off to explore our first day in India. We’ll take lots of pictures and upload them.

On The Junk Again

I started my Lupron shots on Sunday night and I think I gained ten pounds overnight. I haven't been on injectibles ("The Junk" as we call it) since last May and I forgot how much fun the bloating, hot flashes and headaches are. Oh, and the mood swings. But then, I don't mind them as much as Bob does.

I have a huge pile of medication to take with me. I am bringing my own drugs since I had enough left over from previous cycles that I could pretty much get by and my friend gave me the stuff I was missing (thanks Karen!) I will take the medications that need to be refrigerated on the plane with me and pack the room temperature drugs, plus all my own needles, alcohol wipes, etc. in my suitcase. We are also taking the anti-malarial pills, Ambian for Bob on the plane, and Xanex for me on the plane. (I am really afraid of flying, so I drug myself to get on the plane.) I laugh and tell Bob that between all the inoculations, fertility drugs and everything else, we should be glowing green by the time we get back.

We went to the bank last week and requested $1,000 US in rupees. We asked for $500 in large bills, but asked for the remainder to be broken down into smaller currency. Well, since the exchange rate is 39 rupees to the dollar, Bob picked up a stack of rupees the size of a brick from the bank yesterday.

One has to ask oneself, between the money and the drugs, will we make it through customs?

We are so excited about this trip and the hope of a pregnancy! Saturday can't come quickly enough for us now. I love how much support we have received for this adventure. I was afraid that sharing this with people would bring a lot of negative commentary, but everyone has been so open and supportive. Our families have been so helpful and supportive with everything, from watching our dog, to getting us to the airport, to discussing bringing home a healthy baby. In some ways, this "pregnancy" feels like a more shared event. This isn't between Bob and I; it's everyone pitching in to bring home a baby and the end result is such a beautiful thing.

I thought when I left for this trip that I might feel a sense of loss at giving up the pregnancy, but all of the love, support and sharing has made it feel more like everyone rallying around us to bring home a baby.

Back in the Saddle

Well, Aruba was fantastic. We were able to "stick a pin" in our India trip and just focus on relaxing with friends.

Before we left for Aruba, we went in for inoculations. They turned out to be very expensive (around $800--just for me). I suggest that you go at least two months in advance (these shots are good for life) and try to go to your regular physician. I think this travel clinic we chose might have been overpriced.

We were given a prescription for Doxycycline as an anti-malarial drug. There are three you can choose from, and we went with the cheapest. All have slight differences as far as how long and often you have to take them. One had a side effect of "nervousness" (yeah, like we need another helping of that right now).

We have finally figured out what we are going to do for hotel rooms. I have all these Hilton points that I had planned to use for this trip, but it turns out that the Hilton Mumbai is being sold as of April 1st, so I can only stay on my points for two of the total 16 nights. We are staying at a hotel called the Executive Enclave for five nights. The Enclave is located very close to the clinic and is recommended by the clinic and a friend. We are planning on going to Pune for three nights (Bob's company has an office there that he'd like to visit). And finally, a friend of ours has graciously offered us their Starwood points for one of the weeks, so we are going to stay at the Maratha (ooh-la-la) for the week of retrieval. (I am really happy about this. When it comes to cycling, I am pretty consistently easy, but retrievals are always painful for me. To be staying somewhere comfortable is really important.)

I also found out that Rotunda offers free wireless internet, so we can bring our laptop to our appointments and email home while we wait!

Well, we are off to take photos for our visas!!

India, Here We Come

Well, we got an email from Dr. Kaushal today that gave us our travel dates. We are in shock.

We have to be in Mumbai on March 30th. I start Lupron on March 24th. The estimated retrieval is going to be around April 11.

We thought it would be later in April, or even May. We are thrilled and excited and absolutely terrified. When Bob saw the email and called me he said something like, "Holy crap. We have to hurry up and do our taxes." I had to laugh, because I could tell he was feeling the same confusion that I was feeling. We have a million things going through our heads right now...silly stuff, like who will take care of Maisy? What do I pack? And important stuff...what about the visa applications? What about payment, money, hotel....arggg! Panic!

I was able to book our airfare and hotel reservations. I filled out the visa applications online and printed them out. We will have to take the application to the office in New York in person.

I made an appointment to have all of our shots on Wednesday because we need to have them two weeks prior to travel in order for them to be effective. Bob and I had planned a trip to Aruba with a group of friends and are leaving on Thursday and will return next Tuesday. The fact that we need to get our shots before we leave for Aruba and we need our passports for Aruba has made the visas and the shots a little more urgent, but not impossible.

So when we return next Tuesday we have a week and a half to get ourselves together for our trip to India.

This is happening so fast!!! I know what I have to do and have been preparing mentally for this, but I thought I would have more lead time to complete everything. I think, overall, that I am glad that this is happening so quickly. While it's speeding along, you aren't left with a lot of time to worry.

I am going to post the costs sometime in the next week. Everything from travel costs to actual IVF/Surrogate fees. It adds up quickly.

Wow!

We are matched! We received our surrogate's profile via email at 7:00am this morning. She is a 22 year old married mother of two little girls and in perfect health. I cried when I opened the email and saw her picture. She is the answer to our prayers.

Today I started birth control pills for the syncing of cycles. Honestly, I am not sure where the surrogate is in her cycle and/or if they started her on drugs. I was told that we will be given travel dates soon! I emailed the clinic to find out if the surrogate will be staying in the clinic's housing or will be living elsewhere.

It became real for us today. It is thrilling and scary and sad in a way. Today I saw the woman who will carry my pregnancy. Wow.

I am so excited!

Well, it's been a while since I posted. Things at work and in our personal lives have been a little hectic.

I consult for a company that is laying off the department in which I work. I have been consulting with them for about two and half years because it allowed me to take the time off that I needed for all of my IVF treatments. I was supposed to have a job through the end of June, but they decided to make final cuts the end of March instead. The beauty of it is that they are going to pay me through June. This allows me to take as much time as I need in India with no pressure to get back. Bob works from home for a UK company that has offices India, so he has a lot of flexability as well. He can work with a laptop or go into the office there if he needs to. It feels a bit like the stars are in alignment to make this trip totally stress free.

We completed all of our testing a week and a half ago. I have been instructed to begin birth control pills with the onset of my next period in order to coordinate my cycle with a surrogate. My next period should begin sometime around March 10th. I believe that we should recieve information of surrogates in the couple of weeks. If our cycles are able to be synched quickly, we may be able to do our cycle in April. If not, we are looking at May.

We are so excited! I guess I need to start working on making appointments for shots and travel visas...

Doctor, Meet Doctor

Well, I just sent an email to my doctor in India and my doctor in the U.S. so that they can coordinate all tests, results from tests and monitoring.

Bob and I sat down with Dr. Morgan, an RE with whom we had gone through two cycles of IVF. We had prepared ourselves for negative attitude when it came to our choice for surrogacy, but were pleasantly surprised at how supportive and open Dr. Morgan was to our decision. He was very up front about how the process would work. He explained that our doctors in Mumbai will be our 'primary' doctors and Dr. Morgan will act on their requests. This concerns us a bit because communication between us and India has not had a quick turn around. Ultimately, you have to remember that you are dealing with a country with poor infrastructure and communications can be delayed and have breakdowns at any point. The idea of relying on daily requests from India in order to conduct monitoring is concerning.

Then we met with Dr. Morgan's billing person. She explained that each monitoring session during the stimulation portion of our cycle would cost between roughly $540-$750, depending on how much blood work is requested.

When Bob and I did the math and added in the communication concerns, we realized quickly that it definitely made more sense to conduct the whole cycle in India.

So, we have decided that we will remain in the US until we begin the stimulation portion of the IVF cycle. We will do our preliminary testing with Dr. Morgan and have our baseline ultrasound here.

I have begun to look at travel arrangements. Delta now offers a flight from JFK in New York directly to Mumbai. The flight is fifteen hours. (When I think about possibly making that flight home with an infant, I get this feeling that's a mixture of hope and panic! It makes my heart got all fluttery!)

It's likely that we will stay at the Hilton because we have a ton of reward points with them. We are looking at a hotel called the Ascot as a second choice.

I think we will look at executive suites or short term apartment rentals while we are in India for the IVF cycle, so that if we come back for a baby, we will have options for a place to stay with a kitchen and a separate bedroom. We could end up being there for as long as a month with an infant, so every little bit of advance planning will help.