Pump Up The Volume

Well Kelsey is on Day Two of the fertility meds to pump up her hormones and get her to, as our embryologist appropriately put it, “makes lots of eggs!” She gave us a bit of a scare yesterday when she thought that she didn’t have enough of the Lupron to last for two weeks, but apparently there was some math translation that needed to take place, milligrams to milliliters or something like that. Not sure if it was an India to U.S. prescription thing or not, but I guess it was just another foreign territory to cover. Being 2,500 miles away during her pre-trip prep has made it challenging, but Kelsey is managing VERY WELL. If I had my way I’d like to be there to translate since it’s confusing, as she is receiving instructions via Mumbai, Los Angeles and Honolulu, but we are doing pretty good so far. Last night her first shots were administered by a friend who takes insulin, so I was very happy to hear she had an injection veteran there to help out. When we all meet in Newark next week Thursday I think I’m going to have to give her a shot since our travel time is about 35 hours. Hopefully she can guide me as she'll have a week under her belt. And anyone who has traveled with fertility medications before, please let me know what your experience has been going through airport security. As you know, the Lupron and Gonal-F have to be refrigerated so I’m not sure exactly how to do this without causing a panic with TSA. I’ve sent an email to the airlines to inquire. I’ll let you know what I hear.

While Kelsey “pumps up” her ovaries, Bill and I are using this last weekend to do the same to our list of "things to do" before we leave Wednesday. In the midst of a wedding and two dinner parties, it will be a crazy weekend. Bill keeps agreeing to all these get-togethers and I keep looking at him like he's a masochist! We actually booked a day trip to the Taj Mahal and are using the infamous Parashar with Your Man In India for our car transfers and general needs. He’s been very responsive to my emails and it will be nice to meet him next week. We understand that the trip to the Taj will be a journey, but we can’t go all this way and not see something so amazing. It’s a two-hour flight from Mumbai to Delhi, and then a 3 hour+ car ride to Agra, where we will spend about five hours at the Taj Mahal and then turn around and drive back to the Delhi airport. I’m hoping all goes smoothly and we make our 9 pm return flight, my career as a travel agent is riding on this one! I also made a connection with a friend of a friend who lives in Pune, about 100km outside Mumbai. He’s going to suggest some sights to see, restaurants, etc. He, like many, warned us about the shock value of the city, the poverty, the contrasts and contradictions. I think no matter how well we prepare it will never be enough. I’m guessing with everything we are about to embark upon, you just have to experience it.

Ok, so yesterday I had another one of those overwhelming moments that caught me by surprise. Kelsey texted me that “George had arrived with his bags”. George being her period, I was happy to know that the birth control was doing such a fine job and the fertility meds would begin soon so we could really start our engines on this baby race. Soon after I also heard from the genetics counselor that Kelsey's Cystic Fibrosis testing came back very good (though we didn’t have a doubt that it wouldn’t, we mostly did this to be more definite). When I sent her the results her reply was, “I know, yay! I really am the perfect donor.” I chuckled and thought “how cute”. And then I cried. This was a vision, I might add. It was the classic shot people have in their minds of a 6’4” grown man crying at work – kinda goofy-looking and a bit pathetic. I sat there, hunched over at my desk, tears literally falling on my iPhone, trying to go unnoticed in my cubicle. While I have never been one who is embarrassed to cry, I can honestly say I was startled by how quickly my tears came. My reply to her was as heartfelt as a text could get – I thanked her, as we had been doing for months. I told her how much it meant to us, which was also starting to sound like a broken record. And finally, something I hadn’t fully realized before because it was literally happening before my eyes, I told her how happy I was that we had become so much closer because of this. With all the gifts that she was giving us, this was the most unexpected. I am so thankful.