Monday, March 30, 2009

Moving forward!

To my surprise the mom called me today and told me that it's a go! They both talked it over with their families and decided that despite my added risk, they still want me to be their surrogate :) WOW - now it is real - I am excited, nervous, anxious, a hundred things. I am thrilled that they think so much of me that they are willing to continue with me, but at the same time I am sad that I have to put their little babies in extra harms way because of my issue. I want to be a surrogate to help a couple, not add an additional hurdle to their quest to be parents. But I know (and they know too) that as long as mother nature cooperates, I will do everything I can to care for their baby as if it were my own. After all of this waiting these last couple of months, now it seems to be going so fast! The next step is to meet with an attorney and work out the contracts and after that is all done, I have to start on the medications to get myself ready for the transfer. So onto the contract phase....

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Evals.....

So the first step in getting evaluated to be a surrogate is getting a psychological test done with a psychologist at the fertility clinic. So, I expect to go in, answer a few questions, and find out I am indeed not crazy! Well, talking to her was fine. Then she hands me a booklet and Scantron sheet and asks me to go home and fill it out and mail it to her. OK - that's not too hard. WELL, almost 600 true/false questions later, I am beginning to question my sanity! And not just typical are you crazy questions - this odd test has ones like "Would you like to become a florist?", "Have you ever stalked somebody?", "Have you ever tried to kill somebody?", "Are you afraid of earthquakes?" - HUH?????? And of course I over-analyze every question. Well, I am not afraid of earthquakes here, but yeah, I guess I *would* be afraid if one ever happened - how do you answer that?? But I finished it up and sent it in and again...wait around.

About 3 weeks later I was informed that I passed (phew!) and then I was able to transfer all of my records to the fertility doctor and make my appointment for my medical evaluation. After waiting about 2 weeks for them to call me I finally get a call from the agency saying there is a problem. In my medical records it states that I have a septated uterus. I had been told this a few years ago and was going to have it further checked out when I found out I was pregnant with Leo, so I never did. And since I got pregnant 3 times total and had 2 full term normal pregnancies, I never though anything of it. WELL, the fertility doctor sees it as a big problem, and after going back and forth and waiting an additional week, they finally agreed to see me and check it out. A septum is just a piece of tissue on the wall of the uterus and the problem is that if the embryo implants on this area, it will die because there is no blood flow there. So, anyhow, they finally allowed me to make my appointment, which involves a saline sonogram, where they inject saline into your uterus and watch it on an ultrasound machine to see what is there. So you need to have it on a certain day of your cycle, and they needed me to start birth control pills first. So I was able to make the appointment for almost a month later.

The appointment wasn't bad at all. Brandon had to come with because we both were supposed to sign forms and get blood work done, so I had him come back to the room for the exam with me. I didn't know, however, that it would be a full exam - everything off and into a dreaded paper gown. I don't think he has recovered after seeing that exam - haha :) He sat in the corner the whole time with a magazine covering his face. My bad! At least now he knows what us girls have to go through!

The results of the appointment were that I didn't have an actual septum, but a "dimple" as the doctor called it. But the good news was that it was the best kind of problem to have, meaning that I could still go on to be a surrogate. The only thing is, the parents would have to agree to still go with me and realize that there was an additional 5-10% chance of miscarriage. And the doctor was very against me having it removed, because he believed that doing surgery would make the problem worse and affect my own fertility. So that was it - if they decided to still go with me and my risk, I would do it. If they decided against it, the whole thing was over for me. And OF COURSE this has happened on a Friday, so now I have to sit around all weekend and just await their decision. I'm so nervous!!!! But it's out of my hands now....