Whew, What A Day (Looong Post)

Ok then, where do I begin? Last night we had a wonderful time out with friends. One of Trina's old highschool buddies is in town for a work conference. He's quite the character. I've never gotten so many "second looks" before. Then of course, I've never hung out downtown with a red headed, bearded man in a kilt either... We took him to my very favorite restaurant where we met up with my bestest friend, her wife and their daughter. We had good food and good conversation. After dinner we played some pool and I got thoroughly beaten down by both my wife and her friend. A good time was had by all. I finally hit my pillow around 2am. It was a great "last night" of freedom. This morning my alarm was very loud and went off very early...

When I think back to this morning it feels like another day all together. Was it really a short 15hours ago that I woke up, turned off the alarm and stumbled o the shower? While the hot water was nudging me awake, Trina got up, took her temp, peed on a stick and inserted it into the proper place in the monitor. A few minutes later she came into the bathroom to tell me that today was the day. I was estatic and I'd be lying if I didn't admit that part of the elation came from knowing I didn't have to go to work. I was exhausted. I finished my leisurley shower and called work, they were very excited. I'm lucky to work with a good group of folks who love me. Trina and I crawled back in bed to snuggle while we waited for the doctor's office to open. We were so excited to make that call, nothing could bring us down. Well nothing except the nurse telling us that our doc was on vacation this week. What!?! She said she'd have to see if any of the other doctor's could fit us in and she'd call us back. Trina cried. I held her and told her everything happens for a reason. Either we'd inseminate this cycle or not, it'd all work out. When the phone rang a few minutes later, I was definitely NOT expecting the nurse to tell us they could fit us in if we come right now. OH SHIT! We jumped out of bed and hap hazardly threw on clothes and brushed our teeth.

It's an hour drive to the doctor's office without traffic. Luckily I got us there in one peice and without another speeding ticket. We even had time to grab a bite at the cafe after telling the lab to start preparing our lil swimmers for the big day. After breakfast, we went upstairs to check in. We were sent to see a woman in the back. After a few phone calls she turned to us and said "This isn't covered by your insurance." We told her we already knew that. "Well that means you have to pay up front." We told her we knew that too. Then she said "Well, I don't normally deal with infertility so I have to go find out how much it'll be." and walked off in a huff. When she came back, she gave us a figure that was about twice what I had expected. When Trina asked her why it was so high, she glared and kurtly replied "Because your insurance doesn't cover infertility treatments." I'm not sure why that rude little woman kept saying we were infertile. We're both fertile as all get out as far as we know. I could tell my wife was about to jump on this woman like a ninja monkey so I handed over my credit card and put my hand on her forearm. You know, just in case. As we walked off I told Trina we'd work it out later. The pager the lab had given us was vibrating and beeping impatiently. Our swimmers were ready downstairs and this insignificant woman wasn't ruining MY day, dammit.

After we picked up our "specimen", we went back upstairs and were ushered into a room immediately. We met both the doctor and nurse that would be doing the procedure. They both seemed very nice. I was SO relieved. I held Trina's hand while they went to work. Apparently Trina's cervix was tightly closed and didn't want the catheder to enter her uterus. He had to try 3 times and ended up using a torture device he called a "grasper" to pull on her cervix while the catheder pushed it's way in. I could tell Trina was in alot of pain. I hated it for her. When all was said and done, the doctor told her to take it easy for 24hrs. He explained that she'd have pain and bleeding due to the rough entry. With that said, he left us to "rest" for 30min before leaving.
On the way home we swung by our favorite used bookstore to pick up some reading material, rented some movies and picked up some take-out. As the doc predicted, Trina's had some really gnarly cramping and some bleeding. We've spent the entire day on the couch watching movies. She's cried at least once an hour and I've done my best to console her. I feel pretty useless at this point. All I can do is rub her belly when the pain gets bad. She can't take a hot bath and Motrin is off limits. Apparently it can mess with ovulation, a little bit of info I didn't know until today. They said she could have a dose of Tylenol if the pain was too much, but Trina's not much for taking meds. She's a strong woman. She's going to be a great mom. :)

And now, for your viewing pleasure...

One pager to tell us when breakfast was ready and one to tell us when the swimmers were ready. :)


That's our swim team! Hard to believe that TINY amount of fluid will give us the child we want so badly.

The famed
"turkey
baster".




Tools of the trade. The grasper is that long menacing guy on the bottom right.




I was more than a little shocked to see what looked like chunks of my wife in this bucket. No wonder she's in pain.

Whew, all done. Not even the grasper can keep my baby down.