First
of all, it went by entirely too fast! Why
it is that time drags and drags when you’re waiting for something (like meeting
your egg donor in PERSON) and then when the time comes those days just go by in
the blink of an eye? Regardless of the
time going by too quickly, this trip what nothing short of AHHHmazing! We seriously
had such a great time with our donor, Amy and her family, travel went smooth,
our rental car was nice, the hotel was decent, I mean, EVERYTHING was
amazing.
Saturday
was spent traveling. 2 hours to the
airport in the car, 2 hours on the flight, 1 hour in line for the rental car,
and 2.5 hours in the car to Augusta. It
was exhausting to say the least, but we got to town around 7:00 and we were
determined to at least go out and find some local food. Amy gave us some suggestions and we did some
Googling and made our way downtown Augusta.
Such a cute area with some really neat looking bars, all of which had
over 1 hour of wait time to eat. This
girl was HANGRY by this point. It was
probably about 9:30 and I was seriously starved. We finally found a Mexican restaurant called
Nacho Mama’s where we ordered at the counter & sat down and finally were
able to enjoy chips and cheese, margaritas, and quesadillas. I felt much better, but we were both exhausted
so we called it a night.
Sunday
morning we got up and headed to Amy’s house to meet her and her family for the
first time! The suspense was killing me
and I was so ready to meet them finally in person! I didn’t feel nervous, just anxious and
excited to spend the day with them. Amy,
Allen, & their kids Stella and Maxwell are seriously the sweetest. They’re so down to earth and we have so much
in common with them. The guys got a long
great and we really had a great time getting to know each other even better in
person. Unfortunately the weather was
crappy, cold, and drizzly, but we made it all the way through the zoo and then
went to The Melting Pot for probably one of the best meals I’ve ever had. Amy talked this place up to me for a couple
months and we were really looking forward to trying it. It was everything she made it out to be &
more. After dinner we made the hour
drive home from Columbia. We were all
very full & tried so Joe and I headed back to the hotel and went to bed
early.
Monday
was our doctor’s appointment with Dr. Edouard Servy. I liked him a lot and he seemed to be as
baffled as we are about WHY I cannot get pregnant. He did a full exam on me and we reviewed all
of our history with him. We sat down in
his office where he suggested that we try a batch of my eggs along with a batch
of our donor eggs. It was nothing we had
considered before but I felt like I was up for it & we ended up doing an
ultrasound and having FDA bloodwork done in preparation for me to also do a
fresh cycle. Joe was able to have his
sample frozen which was what we were hoping for. Overall I liked the doctor. I have heard great things about their clinic
and was really happy with how polite the staff was. The IVF coordinator is so sweet as were the
other office ladies. He also said (like
Dr. Sherbahn) that I am borderline polycystic.
I also have a retroflexed (usually retroverted, or tilted back rather
than forward) uterus that really isn’t too much of a cause for concern, but he
said it could be causing my tubes to have trouble catching the egg when it’s
released. He said in the olden days they
would do surgery to fix this, but that’s a thing of the past now and not really
a cause of infertility. I’ve known about this since we started with
infertility treatment, but it’s nothing that I will ever have corrected.
After
our appointment we headed back downtown Augusta to check out the River Walk and
do a little exploring. We made a few
stops then headed over to Amy’s house for dinner. We decided to cook steaks on the grill &
have some drinks. It was very casual and
relaxing. Since we finally had met with
the doctor I was able to give her a little more insight into the timeline and
the process. She’s totally on board as
is her husband & we are so grateful that they are so determined to help
us. Amy will meet with the doctor on
April 1st and she’ll have her exam and blood work done. Once that’s all finished & the results
are back we will be able to get the legal documents drawn up and signed &
hopefully start the cycle sometime in April.
After
saying our goodbyes on Monday night we headed back to the hotel to get ready to
head home bright & early the next morning.
I was seriously on Cloud 9. I
never felt so certain about anything before.
I truly followed my heart from the beginning of this new chapter &
nothing has felt better. It’s an amazing
feeling to go with what your intuition is telling you and to have it work out
so wonderfully. I can tell Joe is
excited and feeling good about it too.
He told them how thankful he was to them for being such gracious hosts
to us and welcoming us into their home & for being so willing to do this
for us. I think we all agree that we are
a great fit for each other.
Joe
and I did talk more about using my eggs again and my gut is telling me not
to. In the moment I really thought that
was a good idea, but the more I thought about it, I realized it would be a lot
of time, money, and effort, put again into something that just isn’t in our
favor. I have had my heart set on donor
eggs for a few months now and I am totally content leaving it at that. I know that this doctor, seeing that I have
no clear diagnosis, probably thinks he can make this work for us, but after 3
fresh, 3 frozen, etc. etc. I am just not in the place to move forward with
another cycle of my own eggs, and I don’t think I ever will be. Not only do I just feel it in my bones, my
bank account is also telling me otherwise.
This clinic is able to offer discounted IVF cycles because they don’t
bill insurance so they can charge less.
I love the idea, but because of this, all the money for the cycle is due
up front & then I would have to turn the bill in to my insurance and hope
to recoup some cost. Between my cycle
and the donor cycle we’re talking $20,000 up front and that just isn’t possible
for us. I’d much rather spend my money
with our donor where I think there’s more of a guarantee of good quality eggs
& embryos.
Once
again I am beyond thankful to Amy and her family. We are so blessed to have crossed paths with
her and it seriously gives me chills just thinking about how this has unfolded
so far, truly amazing. I am so excited
to get started and am very hopeful our cycle will take place sometime in late
April or early May. Thank you to
everyone who has stuck around with us on this journey. We know that it’s been a long road and we
know we have so many people rooting for us and waiting for the day we get that
BFP. I really have a good feeling that
this new journey will finally bring us to that point and we will get to be
parents to a baby made with an abundance of love and generosity.
You can check out more weekend snaps on my Instagram.
You can check out more weekend snaps on my Instagram.
Woohoo!! Go with your gut lady!! That has been a bit part of the recent year with me. I always hesitate when I think something is "off." Before I would just push past that hesitation and it always bit me in the ass. Now, I slow down and see what happens, and it's typically always positive. Can't wait to see what happens in the coming months!!
ReplyDeleteWOOHOO!!! I am so excited for you guys and I am really glad you are following your intuition. I don't want to sound stupid or patronizing, but I have a REALLY good feeling about this. Seriously.
ReplyDeleteThis is all so very exciting! I would probably proceed exactly as you are planning if I were in your situation. is that a picture of you and your donor at the top of this blog post? You two look like twins!!!! That's amazing!
ReplyDeleteSo sweet girl! I love that it was just an overall GOOD weekend. So glad you are feeling at such peace about it all. I love that you got to spend time with Amy and her clearly amazing family.
ReplyDeletePS Nacho Mommas is DELISH!
Wishing you guys the best of luck! I really, really hope this works out and your fertility struggles are over. You deserve a break!!
ReplyDeleteLove this update!! So glad your meeting went well and they were everything you hoped!! Yay Ridley fam!!!
ReplyDeleteI got chills reading this-such an amazing turn in your story!
ReplyDeleteLove this! Elena, something in my heart tells me this is the start of many more blessings to come. This will unfold a whole new chapter in your life and before you know it unexpected things will come your way. Always praying for you girl! Have an awesome Easter weekend!
ReplyDeleteyayyy i am so happy that you're feeling so confident about this, and good for you for sticking with your gut intuition about using your own eggs. all my fingers and toes are crossed for you!
ReplyDeleteSo happy to read this!! Your donor is beautiful just like you!! Hope you all had a great Easter weekend!
ReplyDeleteAhh this post makes my heart happy! I'm glad you had a great trip and that you've been blessed to have met this wonderful donor! So excited for your journey to motherhood!
ReplyDeleteApril is nearly here!!! And what a wonderful trip. Amy and her family sound like such a special blessingway. I cannot for you to start receiving all sorts of good news and a baby!
ReplyDeleteWe are waiting for some test results, but will likely need to use donor sperm. One of the things I read that I found really helpful is that sometimes men ask the doctor to mix their sperm with the donor sperm, and that is generally an indication they aren't fully ready to move forward with donor sperm. I think how you are feeling is just an indication of how ready you are for this. This family sounds so special and I am so glad you have connected with one another!
ReplyDelete