#Surrogacy Screening San Diego Trip & Other Updates #5 Journey

A little update on our journey first (from notes this month)-

January will definitely be a productive month. (predicted in early January)

It is strange to think I have not met these lovely people in real life yet and probably won't until March for the big baby making day! But that's ok! I feel like we are getting to know each other and I feel absolutely confident that we are a great match and team.

It will be extremely powerful when we do meet.

And now the fun stuff:

I went to San Diego over the weekend for my medical screening with the clinic we will be using. (New clinic for me and my IPs and no matter how many times you do this, most clinics like to do a medical screening of their own to make sure you are indeed medically fit to be a surrogate. This usually involves an ultrasound of the uterus and blood work, mainly checking for STD's and anything else that might hinder the journey)

We decided that it would be an overnight visit, because flying in and out same day and making it on time to the clinic in CALIFORNIA traffic was too stressful. For personal reasons and so that the clinic could also do blood work on John, my husband came with me. 

San Diego, here we come.

I got some reading in. Of course it's about surrogacy!! Great story, written by a surrogate and her IM. I am not finished, but I could totally relate to how Heidi came about being interested in surrogacy and her IM's story is similar to my current IM's story. I was getting all emotional on the plane.
When we first got to San Diego, it was really cool. We lived there when John was in the Navy. He spent 8 of his 10 years in San Diego. It had been about 6 years since we had been back. The airport had changed a good amount since then. My husband isn't a huge fan of California or San Diego itself, but he was taking it all in, and seemed excited to be back. 

He doesn't look his happiest- but he was in awe.
At the car rental, we both had the same "what if" thought of him doing a few more years in the Navy and living there again.

And then we got on the freeway. ( I should have video'd that)

Our first stop, we both agreed, was to Brown Bag Deli in Point Loma. 

They have the BEST sandwiches and we had both been craving them since we knew we were going to be in San Diego. We chatted with the owner and she was touched that we would drive from the airport to there first thing.

So, we grabbed our sandwiches to go and asked Siri to help us get to the hotel. I'm helping navigate and we're approaching our destination in about 400 feet. 

OOPS, I blinked and there it was. But by the time I saw it, we were forced on the freeway. The fun thing about the freeway in San Diego is that at some points it is not a simple get off the next exit and turn around. Sometimes you have to take a few freeways to get back to the one you were on going the other way. We were told to take a certain street, but that couldn't be right- it was a military base. There's no way and our hotel was on the other side of the road. So round and round we go. (And we are reminded what we didn't like about living in SD, and had I been alone, this would have caused MAJOR ANXIETY)

About an hour later, we get to our hotel. Yay! Let's check in. There's a friendly guy at the front desk, only he says, "Sorry, we don't do check ins until 3:00 and it's 2:30. We don't have a clean room available yet. (But you don't know what we just went through to get here!)

Okay, well, we'll sit in the California sun on the beautiful patio and eat our delicious sandwiches. (which was nice and yummy) And then we checked in. 

We decided to take a little nap before picking up pizza and taking it to meet a Navy Wife friend. She married John's Navy buddy who was our roommate at one point. He was married to someone else when we knew him and we have come to know (and LOVE) the new wife on Facebook. I was so excited to meet her in person and give her hugs, especially because her husband is on deployment right now. She was awesome!! I love it when people are even cooler in real life, and she was.

Sunday morning, I wanted to get some pics by the palm tree on the patio at the hotel. 

I had to specify I wanted the WHOLE PALM TREE in the picture. Thanks, John! LOL

Then we headed out to a little Surrogate Luncheon. I got to meet a surrogate I knew online and 2 surrogates I had met before when I lived in San Diego. (My first surrogacy was when I lived there in 2005-2006 and one of the friends I got to see again had come to see me and the surrobaby in the hospital and she even got to hold her before I did) 

Sunday evening we went to eat Mexican food in Old Town, which is where our hotel was anyway. Great food, and great atmosphere.

Virgin Mango Rita (Get it? Rita?)

Monday, January 27th was the medical screening appointment. (we flew back home later that afternoon)

Because Lovely Rita wasn't able to be there, she asked me to take pictures of everything! Easy for me to do. 
 :-)

Outside the clinic with my book

Before the ultrasound- P.S. (TMI) They ended up needing to inflate a balloon to help see everything and to keep the liquid (saline solution) from pooling out, which I guess can happen after having a few kids. That was an experience I don't remember having before. But everything looked great. I was told I have an awesome and smooth uterus!! (No polyps and quiet ovaries like they should be/active birth control is doing it's job)

 I left a copy of my book for the clinic. They were excited to add it to their library. 

The beginning of many needles & blood draws.

Hubby's get screened too!

The lady (I know her name, just not telling you) at the front desk liked my surrogacy shirt. 

Monday, after the appointment, I wanted to go somewhere to do a video update while I was still in San Diego. Balboa Park is a favorite spot of ours, so we went there.

VLOG TIME

I'm aware that sometimes I am a little shy in my videos and quiet. Working on it. If you notice I was louder in the car and the bells ringing at Balboa Park made me talk louder and then I stayed louder. I kind of have a little social anxiety and don't want people to hear me (while I'm filming), and yet I have a blog and do videos. Ha ha!

I  seem to miss so many details when I Vlog, even when I take notes. Hmmm. 

So, here's a few add ons-

Lady Madonna found my blog and that's how this team even got started in the first place. How cool is that? 

I have been on active birth control for a month and the clinic wants me to start taking Prenatal Vitamins.

We needed to get something to eat before heading to the airport. My absolute favorite place to go in San Diego is Benihana, but we were running out of time. This was called Fuji I believe, and was just as good. I just forgot to take a picture of the rest of my food which is similar to what I would have gotten at Benihana. (steak & shrimp & veggies cooked in garlic butter, Hibachi style)

Back at the airport. John has always liked this statue.

I think things will be pretty quick from here on out. So exciting!! I found out that Lovely Rita should be making their final changes to the contract today before passing it on to me. I will hopefully receive it Friday (tomorrow) or Monday.

I went to take the (I'm not pscyho exam) yesterday, January 29th.
(surrogates have to pass medical & psychological screenings) The actual visit is a LONG blog post in itself, with a few miscommunication errors, but I'm pretty sure I passed, because after a few questions, the lady went from frowning (I felt like I was on trial at first) to smiling like she was confident I knew what I was doing.

WOW, holy long blog post! Thanks for stopping by and a big thank you if you made it all the way through.

Next Step/Stop: San Diego #5 journey

I get anxiety when I fly. Nothing major, nothing that keeps me from flying, but it happens every time. And it's starting to kick in right about now.

Leaving tomorrow morning for Sunny San Diego for my medical screening for my latest surrogacy journey. The only thing that would make this trip better would be meeting my IPs. But I get to meet the staff at the clinic (6th clinic for me) and some Surro friends I know online and a special Surro I knew when I lived in San Diego and a sailor's wife. AND I get to take my sweet husband with me. Can't complain about all that.

I will meet these awesome people soon enough, probably in March if that's when the transfer will be.

Are you all ready to follow our journey?

Back from LA in a day Medical Screening (surrogacy #4 journal entry) #surrogacy

I flew in and out to L.A. Monday (10/22/2012) and blogged all about my lovely experience at the airport. (http://mormonsurrogate.blogspot.com/2012/10/at-airport.html)

This is what happened once I was on the plane and the rest of the day journal entry style (I actually wrote it in a notebook on the plane):

10/22/12

I am headed back to Salt Lake City from my day trip to Los Angeles. 

I sat by a lovely lady on my way to LA. She was friendly, in fact I had a middle seat and she offered up her window seat. She asked what I was doing in LA, anything fun? I told her "Yeah, I'm a surrogate and I'm on my way to lunch and a medical appointment with my Intended Parents" She thought that was so neat. You never know how a stranger is going to react when you tell them you are a surrogate. It was so nice that she was so sweet, positive and supportive.

She kept asking questions, which I thought was great. She wasn't intrusive about it at all. She just asked every now and then in a curious, respectful way.  She asked if I was okay talking to people about it and I said, "Well, yes, I actually have a blog and wrote a book about it." She was impressed and asked me the name of my blog and then asked some questions about my book. I realized I had a copy with me (I was taking a copy to the fertility doctor) so I pulled it out to show her.

I beamed with pride as she flipped through and read each and every page. She even laughed appropriately at a few parts. She thought I did a good job. I was very happy that she liked it.

I love sitting by friendly people on the airplane. She was a joy to sit by and she had a lovely southern accent.

The Intended Father/IF (I need to come up with a nickname for him) picked me up at the curb when we landed. We chatted comfortably. We both drive the same kind of SUV and I thought that was cool. We were on our way to meet Amazing Grace (Intended Mom) for lunch. Amazing Grace had asked me earlier if I had any cravings for lunch. I couldn't think of any at the time, plus she had mentioned lunch by the beach so I figured whatever they had in mind would be lovely.

Sometime before I landed, I decided sushi sounded good, knowing that they both like sushi. IF mentioned that IM was wondering what I was in the mood for. He said they were thinking of a place with an ocean view. I told him, actually sushi sounds good, but whatever you have planned is fine, it's not every day I get an ocean view.

The place they had in mind ended up not working out, so we were on our way to sushi. We got there a few minutes before IM.

IM came in and I could see in her face how genuinely excited she was to see me and to be taking this next step. (I believe she was glowing) The restaurant was lovely. It was all good, even the ice water with a slice of lemon. I ordered a Bento Box with a California Roll and Shrimp & Vegetable Tempura. It was so nice to enjoy spending time with them and chatting and eating yummy food. IF had to go back to work, so he said his goodbyes.

It was 2:00. Time for me to empty my bladder and then fill it back up with 16 ounces of water so I had a full bladder for the sonogram.

IM was sweet enough to bring me a bottle of water. She showed me around her town and even pointed out their adorable home. Then we headed to our appointment.

I had to fill out some paperwork in the waiting room and IM and I sat and chatted. I needed to write down when my last period was and I couldn't quite remember which day. I had been so organized, I wrote it down on my calendar when I started, but hey my calendar was at home on my wall. I knew I could figure out the day from one of the e-mails I sent IM, but there was a lot to sort through. (we're awesome like that)
IM and I each had our phones out sifting through e-mails and IM came to the rescue finding the exact date. Hooray! After about 15 minutes or so the Dr. called us back.We went to his office where I got to meet him for the first time. (He was an older, friendly gentleman)

He asked if I had been a surrogate before and I told him about my previous experiences. I then handed him a copy of my book. He was impressed when he realized that I had written it. IM assured him that it was a good book. At some point and time he must have read it, because he told Amazing Grace how wonderful it was.

There was a little mix up with our appointment and what exactly we were doing that day. In fact I was told to leave a urine sample which confused us because I was told to empty my bladder and then fill it back up for the ultrasound. IM and I were both a bit stressed by this, since I needed to catch a plane back home soon and I was there to get as much done as possible. The Dr. was cool and said, "Let's just do it all today."

I was taken back into an exam room and told I would be fully undressing. I got to wear a very flattering paper vest that opened in front and a paper sheet. The nurse (?) came in and asked if it was okay for Amazing Grace to come in. Of course! I mean, come on, we're in this together and soon enough I'll be birthing her babies and be all sorts of exposed. If I remember correctly all my previous IM's were in the exam room with me for the medical screening/ uterus sonogram. I was only embarrassed that I did not look my best. All my flaws were exposed.

The Dr. did an ultrasound/sonogram of my uterus and ovaries. I asked him if it helped to know that I have a tilted uterus. (most doctors say, "I can see that." This Dr. said it actually looked pretty straight. Hmmm, that's interesting. He said everything looked good. He then performed a trial transfer and inserted some saline through a catheter into my uterus. He made a comment that I should be a surrogate!  Ha ha. I replied, "Sounds good!".

I finally got to empty my bladder and leave a urine sample. No problem there. I was later told it was for a drug test. (Oh crap! Just kidding!) All understandable, they need to weed out the crack whores  heads. They also took my blood to test for STD's. My blood pressure was checked and was a little on the high side. But the nurse figured it was from her stressing me out. (I guess over the mix up) No big deal.

IM and I had some paperwork to look over and sign. So exciting. We talked to the Dr. about protocols and the embryo transfer. Since it will be a frozen transfer, I may get to skip shots and take suppositories instead. I don't really have a preference. Sure, it would be nice not to have to do the shots, but it's kind of part of the whole experience. (although it can be a real pain sometimes and you run out of spots to stick yourself)

I will start prenatal vitamins soon and then birth control once I start my period (after all the other steps are done, legal- contracts and validation and psychological evaluation)

The Dr. told Amazing Grace more than once that she had found a great surrogate. She agreed and was happy to hear that from a medical standpoint. He also told her that he would help spread the word about my book. I felt so loved! That meant the world to me. (sometimes I am hesitant to put myself out there for fear of rejection. Here I had written a book about something that was within his expertise, something he knew and understood  far more than I did, and yet he thought I did a good job! I am glad I felt comfortable sharing it with him)

Because of the mix up, the appointment took a little longer than expected. It was now about 4:40 PM and my flight back home was 5:55 from LAX. I wasn't sure how traffic would be or how crowded the airport would be. I know it's a BIG airport! Amazing Grace got me there by 5:02. I had a chance of making it. I was already checked in, had no bags and had my boarding pass. I just had to make it through security.

I walked into the airport and checked the screen for my gate. Then had to figure out where that gate was. I asked for help and was told it was in Terminal 6. I was in Terminal 5.
:(

I walked as fast as my short little legs could go. Security was a little slow and then because I have the best of luck, my gate was the furthest gate back. Boarding time was 5:30, I made it by 5:35. Luckily they were super slow boarding. (and yet once we got on, the flight attendant told everyone to hurry up so we could leave on time)

When I got home I gave my husband a hug and said, "Thank you for being so supportive of me so I can do all this cool stuff!"

I'm so lucky and blessed to have this opportunity in my life right now with these awesome people! I am beyond grateful for the relationship we have and for how smoothly everything has gone.