Well, I have been spending my time trying to figure out how to post pictures on this blog. The best I could do was add the link to click on. We also need to start taking more pictures. We spend most of our time open-mouthed and too enthralled with all that's happening around us to get out the camera.
We spent the last three days in Pune, visiting Bob's office here in India. I honestly have to say that these are the nicest people in the world. We had arrived on Tuesday, hot, tired and cranky after a four-hour nail-biting ride from Mumbai. Mumbai is a HUGE city. Our hotel was located at the southern-most area, so our driver, Kishor, had to take us all the way north through the city before we could even get on the Pune highway. The driving here is hands down the craziest I have ever seen in my life. I spent the entire ride in the back seat in the fetal position. Bob kept making those little gasping noises. All I could say to him was, "Don't look. Just don't look." Kishor was chatting away to us from the front seat.
When we arrived at Bob's company, they greeted us with a traditional greeting which included a 'good-luck' dot on the head and a beautiful garland. They took us out to dinner and we had the nicest time. Bob has spent a lot of time there over the past couple of days, trying to absorb as much information as possible. I spent yesterday at the hotel spa and the afternoon sleeping.
Today, Kishor took us shopping at M.G. Road in Pune. I bought saris and salwar kameez' for me and some of my special girls back home. I love the beautiful fabrics and bright colors.
Tomorrow morning we are being picked up at 8am and driven back to Mumbai (Lord love us). I have to see Dr. Kaushal for monitoring.
Well, that's pretty much the update! We are adjusting to India, it seems!
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Monday, March 31, 2008
Holy $#@&!
What a day!
When we landed last night around 9:30pm, we breezed through customs, picked up our bags and were greeted immediately by our hotel driver. We were whisked into our car, handed cool refreshing towels and bottles of water and before you knew it, we were in a beautiful hotel room overlooking a gorgeous view of the ocean. I cannot say enough nice things about the hotel. It was the Hilton, but has been taken over and renamed the Trident (as of tomorrow). We were lucky enough to be able to use our Hilton reward points and stay here two nights. So, when we were finally settled around midnight last night, we took some ambien and went back to sleep around midnight.
I woke up around 5:00am this morning and fiddled around packing, writing emails, etc. We had breakfast, bought a sim (sp?) card for a cell phone and started our day.
Today consisted of two things: consult for Lasik and our meeting/baseline ultrasound at Rotunda with Dr. Kaushal.
We hired a car for the day for $20. Our driver was very friendly and informative. He took us anywhere we wanted and waited for us for as long as we needed. He was great!
It took us about 45 minutes to get to the eye hospital; then we spent about two hours having drops and tests done. We ran out of time and will return tomorrow morning for a final test before we head out to Pune. It looks like we will be having Lasik next Monday for $900 for both eyes.
Well, on to the important stuff: our meeting with Dr. Kaushal! It is surreal to be sitting in a clinic surrounded by women in saris. At the door, you remove your shoes and put on flip flops. I didn't realize, but Bob brought me over and showed me.
Dr. Kaushal sat with us and discussed all of our questions. Roughly, here are some of the things with discussed. First of all,we will not meet the surrogate, because it is better for us and for her. The surrogates concern is that we will not return for the baby; our concern is that she will leave with the baby; the doctors concern is for her safety and health and that no one tries to take advantage of each other and obeys the contracts. Dr. Kaushal sees no problems, but all of the issuses were discussed. Dr. Kaushal will do her best to "schedule delivery" either through induction or through c-section, so that we can be there when the baby is born. If the baby surprises us, the baby remains at the hospital until we pick him/her/them up. She said that in her experiences, Americans travel home within three weeks with the baby. The US Embassy is excellent (the UK can take a bit longer).
They will do a two-day transfer of all embryos. We were surprised to hear this. We produce between 4 and eight embryos; this will increase our odds and give us the best chances, especially considering the two-day transfer. Dr. Kaushal will not do ICSI; she felt it was unnecessary. We've had three clinics in the past, two of which recommended ICSI and one didn't. We were okay with not doing ICSI this time around.
The surrogate is encouraged to live in surrogate housing, but is ultimately given the choice. These are women with families of their own, and leaving for an extended period is sometimes just not feasible. Our surrogate has not yet decided about whether she will stay in housing part of the time (when she is showing) or the whole time.
I started stimming tonight and am scheduled to return to the clinic on Friday for monitoring. If we were staying locally, truth be told, I would have come in on Thursday. I was started on a pretty high dosage of follistim, but then again it's been a year since my last cycle and now I am 35.
The clinic here, like everything in India, is more laid-back. They don't monitor as much as in the US. Keep in mind that this is my sixth time stimulating, so I have a pretty proven track record for being a good, healthy stimulator. I don't know if they would have monitored more closely if it was my first time around.
When we landed last night around 9:30pm, we breezed through customs, picked up our bags and were greeted immediately by our hotel driver. We were whisked into our car, handed cool refreshing towels and bottles of water and before you knew it, we were in a beautiful hotel room overlooking a gorgeous view of the ocean. I cannot say enough nice things about the hotel. It was the Hilton, but has been taken over and renamed the Trident (as of tomorrow). We were lucky enough to be able to use our Hilton reward points and stay here two nights. So, when we were finally settled around midnight last night, we took some ambien and went back to sleep around midnight.
I woke up around 5:00am this morning and fiddled around packing, writing emails, etc. We had breakfast, bought a sim (sp?) card for a cell phone and started our day.
Today consisted of two things: consult for Lasik and our meeting/baseline ultrasound at Rotunda with Dr. Kaushal.
We hired a car for the day for $20. Our driver was very friendly and informative. He took us anywhere we wanted and waited for us for as long as we needed. He was great!
It took us about 45 minutes to get to the eye hospital; then we spent about two hours having drops and tests done. We ran out of time and will return tomorrow morning for a final test before we head out to Pune. It looks like we will be having Lasik next Monday for $900 for both eyes.
Well, on to the important stuff: our meeting with Dr. Kaushal! It is surreal to be sitting in a clinic surrounded by women in saris. At the door, you remove your shoes and put on flip flops. I didn't realize, but Bob brought me over and showed me.
Dr. Kaushal sat with us and discussed all of our questions. Roughly, here are some of the things with discussed. First of all,we will not meet the surrogate, because it is better for us and for her. The surrogates concern is that we will not return for the baby; our concern is that she will leave with the baby; the doctors concern is for her safety and health and that no one tries to take advantage of each other and obeys the contracts. Dr. Kaushal sees no problems, but all of the issuses were discussed. Dr. Kaushal will do her best to "schedule delivery" either through induction or through c-section, so that we can be there when the baby is born. If the baby surprises us, the baby remains at the hospital until we pick him/her/them up. She said that in her experiences, Americans travel home within three weeks with the baby. The US Embassy is excellent (the UK can take a bit longer).
They will do a two-day transfer of all embryos. We were surprised to hear this. We produce between 4 and eight embryos; this will increase our odds and give us the best chances, especially considering the two-day transfer. Dr. Kaushal will not do ICSI; she felt it was unnecessary. We've had three clinics in the past, two of which recommended ICSI and one didn't. We were okay with not doing ICSI this time around.
The surrogate is encouraged to live in surrogate housing, but is ultimately given the choice. These are women with families of their own, and leaving for an extended period is sometimes just not feasible. Our surrogate has not yet decided about whether she will stay in housing part of the time (when she is showing) or the whole time.
I started stimming tonight and am scheduled to return to the clinic on Friday for monitoring. If we were staying locally, truth be told, I would have come in on Thursday. I was started on a pretty high dosage of follistim, but then again it's been a year since my last cycle and now I am 35.
The clinic here, like everything in India, is more laid-back. They don't monitor as much as in the US. Keep in mind that this is my sixth time stimulating, so I have a pretty proven track record for being a good, healthy stimulator. I don't know if they would have monitored more closely if it was my first time around.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
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.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
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.
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.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
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!!
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!!
Monday, March 10, 2008
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.
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.
Friday, March 7, 2008
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.
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.
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