Today we went to the pool and cooked like chicken on the grille in the heat. It seems that every day here is a "dog day" of summer.
Then we went shopping! Shopping in India is sooo different than anywhere else. You walk into a store and the people circle around you. One guy will introduce himself and ask what you are looking for. If you are not sure, he will start showing you this and that. If you say you want something in pink, he will start showing you everything in pink. He will have two people running around to get things in pink, while all the time explaining to you how beautiful the pink is on the pink thing he is currently showing you. If you say you want something more of a mauve, and he doesn't have it, well then he'll just dye it mauve and deliver it to your hotel room in an hour. What's that? You don't like the fringe on the pink thing either? Well then, he'll dye it mauve, cut off the fringe and hem it, THEN he will deliver it to your hotel room--in an hour. It was amazing!
Bob looked at shirts. There must have been two hundred shirts paraded in front of him. I turned around and there were two guys refolding all the shirts they had paraded out in front of Bob. Bob ended up buying two shirts from all the shirts marched out in front of him. It was incredible!
At first, we felt funny. Kind of guilty that we weren't interested in what so many people were trying to sell us. After a while, it became more comfortable, and you realized that this is how it is in India. This is just regular old customer service.
I have heard that there are shops in Mumbai that will send trunks of goods to your hotel room so that you can shop without leaving your room! Can you imagine? I would feel just like Scarlett O'Hara on her honeymoon with Rhett!
We bought jewelry, clothing and had raw silk dyed. We bought cashmere and wood carvings! We bought sari's and children's punjab suits!
I love, love, love shopping in India!
PS The rule of thumb for shopping in India is that anyplace air conditioned you cannot bargain, non-air conditioned you should barter, starting at 25% the initial price asked and usually will end up half off.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Friday, April 4, 2008
It's Only My Opinion...
Okay, we drove back to Mumbai yesterday. The ride was better--less traffic, but still long.
As we drove towards Mumbai, you could see the cloud of smog hanging over the city. Everything seems gray and dingy compared to Pune. The crowds of people on the streets, the traffic, the beggars knocking at your windows at every stop--Mumbai is much worse than we had prepared ourselves for.
If we are blessed enough to come back here for a baby, we will stay in Mumbai as little as possible. We will take the baby to Goa or Pune while we wait for the passport to process. We find the city overwhelming and depressing. If we had not gone to Pune and stayed only in Mumbai, our overall opinion of India would have been vastly different.
The smells here are incredible. Every place you go you will find yourself greeted with a new, strong scent. Sometimes bad and sometimes incredibly good, but always distinct. Bob made me laugh so hard yesterday when we got into a cab and spoke in code to me... "Youstink-Um." Body odor is par for the course here. Lavendar, too.
We are staying a beautiful hotel, The Maratha. I will post pictures soon. The hotel has a decor that feels like the old Bristish India--ornate and over-the-top. Bob's best friend booked us here for five days using his reward points. Thanks, Tommy! The breakfast buffet so luxurious...today I had a croissant, a salad, an omelet with salmon roe and steamed asparagus. (Bob was horrified at my omelet combination.)
Well, anyhoo, lets get down to business. Yesterday we went to the clinic for monitoring. It looks like I have a good number of follicles, so we are continuing on our stimming and returning on Monday morning for our next monitoring. I am hoping that they will trigger on Monday night and perform retrieval on Wednesday morning, but we will know more after Monday's appointment. Dr. Kaushal is very warm. Bob asked how many surrogacies the clinic has performed and was told that last year they did 15, 2006 they did 10 and in 2005 they did two or three. Dr. Kaushal also told us that they are opening a low-cost sister clinic which will make fertility treatments available to people that couldn't normally afford it. I was impressed by that.
A few words about the clinic. Things are very basic there; little things, like disposable paper over the tables, are missing. I feel very comfortable with the cleanliness overall. It is a well-run operation. While we were in Pune, I dropped a vial of Follistim and it shattered (Ugh!), so we had to buy more at the clinic. I bought two vials of Gonal-F (450 UI) for $550. It was the same stuff that you get in the U.S.
Well, we are off to the pool and to take some pictures!
As we drove towards Mumbai, you could see the cloud of smog hanging over the city. Everything seems gray and dingy compared to Pune. The crowds of people on the streets, the traffic, the beggars knocking at your windows at every stop--Mumbai is much worse than we had prepared ourselves for.
If we are blessed enough to come back here for a baby, we will stay in Mumbai as little as possible. We will take the baby to Goa or Pune while we wait for the passport to process. We find the city overwhelming and depressing. If we had not gone to Pune and stayed only in Mumbai, our overall opinion of India would have been vastly different.
The smells here are incredible. Every place you go you will find yourself greeted with a new, strong scent. Sometimes bad and sometimes incredibly good, but always distinct. Bob made me laugh so hard yesterday when we got into a cab and spoke in code to me... "Youstink-Um." Body odor is par for the course here. Lavendar, too.
We are staying a beautiful hotel, The Maratha. I will post pictures soon. The hotel has a decor that feels like the old Bristish India--ornate and over-the-top. Bob's best friend booked us here for five days using his reward points. Thanks, Tommy! The breakfast buffet so luxurious...today I had a croissant, a salad, an omelet with salmon roe and steamed asparagus. (Bob was horrified at my omelet combination.)
Well, anyhoo, lets get down to business. Yesterday we went to the clinic for monitoring. It looks like I have a good number of follicles, so we are continuing on our stimming and returning on Monday morning for our next monitoring. I am hoping that they will trigger on Monday night and perform retrieval on Wednesday morning, but we will know more after Monday's appointment. Dr. Kaushal is very warm. Bob asked how many surrogacies the clinic has performed and was told that last year they did 15, 2006 they did 10 and in 2005 they did two or three. Dr. Kaushal also told us that they are opening a low-cost sister clinic which will make fertility treatments available to people that couldn't normally afford it. I was impressed by that.
A few words about the clinic. Things are very basic there; little things, like disposable paper over the tables, are missing. I feel very comfortable with the cleanliness overall. It is a well-run operation. While we were in Pune, I dropped a vial of Follistim and it shattered (Ugh!), so we had to buy more at the clinic. I bought two vials of Gonal-F (450 UI) for $550. It was the same stuff that you get in the U.S.
Well, we are off to the pool and to take some pictures!
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Pune
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!
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!
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!!
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