I have had a few friends ask me about our "baby quest" over the last few days. There is not much to report except to say that we are relying on God and science. Tom and I (hopefully) completed our end of the creation process while we were in Villahermosa. Now we wait on our egg donor and gestational surrogates.
This from Wikipedia: "An egg retrieval procedure comprises both the egg donor's cycle and the recipient's cycle. Birth control pills are administered during the first few weeks of the egg donation process to synchronize the donor's cycle with the recipient's, followed by a series of injections which halt the normal functioning of the donor's ovaries. These injections may be self-administered on a daily basis for a period of one to three weeks. Next, follicle-stimulating hormones (FSH) are given to the donor to stimulate egg production and increases the number of mature eggs produced by the ovaries. Throughout the cycle the donor is monitored often by a physician using blood tests and ultrasound exams to determine the donor's reaction to the hormones and the progress of follicle growth.
Once the doctor decides the follicles are mature, he/she will establish the date and time for the egg retrieval procedure. Approximately 36 hours before retrieval, the donor must administer one last injection of HCG hormone to ensure that her eggs are ready to be harvested. The egg retrieval itself is a minimally invasive surgical procedure lasting 20-30 minutes, performed under sedation. A small ultrasound-guided needle is inserted through the vagina to aspirate the follicles in both ovaries, which extracts the eggs. After resting in a recovery room for an hour or two, the donor is released. Most donors resume regular activities by the next day."
Our egg donor will finish her contraceptives on Sunday, June 14. On the second day of her next menstruation she will visit our doctor and he will determine if she is ready to donate. When she finally donates, the doctor could retrieve between 8 - 40 eggs. 15 - 20 is average. The more the merrier.
This is also the time when endometrial stimulation will happen for the gestational surrogates. We hope that both of the surrogate's cycles will align with the donor's during the same month. It is possible that one surrogate may be ready and the other may need to wait another month.
So... we wait and pray.
In other news, we had a wonderful time in Villahermosa! It was great to meet the gestational surrogates and the people at the agency. The director, the interpreter, the driver, the doctor... everyone seems great.
