Needles

January 29

Things are starting to happen quickly now. In the almost two years since we first talked about the possibility of surrogacy, a lot did happen, yet the real starting point, the part where we needed to inject ourselves with hormones, seemed ever so far away. In the meantime, Andrés and I went to Europe, Sheona got pregnant and travelled to Italy for her film course, we went to Chile, Sheona gave birth, Andrés has kidney surgery, the contract was drafted and mulled over for way too long, we went to Chile once again, we finally all signed the agreement and now Keaton is about to celebrate his first birthday. And that’s just off the top of my head... it seemed like forever until we’d actually start the medical part of the process, but in the last week or two, things have started to speed up and now I feel I need to write more often in order to keep track of it all.

About two weeks ago, I started getting calls from the IVF nurse, who was calculating our dates and preparing our list of meds. Then came Sheona’s teaching session, to which I too went. That was kinda weird... Sheona had complained about being treated like a mere means to an end in this process, and I kind of got a taste of how she felt on that day. Maybe it was an off day for everyone, but there was an odd vibe in the room when I walked in, and the nurse who gave the session was awkward, she was completely unable to empathize with the particular circumstances of our case. You could tell it just made her totally uncomfortable with there being more than just a couple, with there being a party of three or more making a baby together. How common it is to encounter people who don’t understand what we are doing, and it is usually people who have never lived through infertility issues. It is such an emotionally charged process that the least you would expect from the clinic that is taking you through it is staff that is not only “OK” with it, but that treats you warmly, that never expresses discomfort, because during medically vulnerable times weird vibes tend to linger longer than usual. Well, enough about that. I’m sure I’ll be discussing emotions a lot over the next (hopefully) nine to ten months, and beyond.

In any event, Sheona learned all about administering her Suprefact daily shot, which she started on January 25. She also learned all about the dreaded progesterone shot, which appears to be the painful one, since it is in oil and therefore thick, and also intramuscular, which requires a much longer needle and cannot compare to the simplicity of the subcutaneous Suprefact needle.

On January 24th, it was my turn to go in for my teaching session. Then, on the 25th, I was at the clinic bright and early to get my bloodwork done and an ultrasound to see if I had ovulated and was therefore ready to start the Lupron (pretty much the same as Suprefact, but a whole lot more expensive). That afternoon I got the OK, and Sheona came over for dinner and a movie, so we captured our first injection on camera.

This first needle we are giving ourselves will shut down our cycles and effectively synchronize us. We will be “rebooted” on February 8 to produce eggs on my side, and to prepare the uterus to receive embryos on Sheona’s side. We are supposed to get our periods as usual before that time. So, like I said, things are definitely happening quickly now.