unexpected warm welcome

A few of you dear readers have been following along since before Charlotte was conceived. Some of you may have jumped in further along our journey, but read back to our early days of TTC. If you fall into either of those camps, you may recall the less-than-rosy picture I painted of the RE's office staff. Honestly, I never felt welcomed there and it always seemed that they didn't care one way or another about the results of our efforts.


Imagine my surprise, then, upon being greeted warmly by pretty much everyone in the office today! They all wanted to see pictures of Charlotte, but all I had was my "dumb" cell phone with one blurry and too-small photo as background. I never sent them a birth announcement, a Christmas card, or any pictures because it never occurred to me that they'd care. It started with the woman sitting at the front desk, the wonderful lady who coordinates all the insurance details who was the first to suggest I buy individual health insurance that would cover IVF. She remembered me! Then, the RE was all smiles and happiness- asking about Charlotte and how I was enjoying being a parent, commenting on my weight loss (and off-handedly dismissing any concerns I expressed about potentially diminished fertility as a result of waiting until Charlotte was a year old before starting anything- THANK YOU!).


The nurse who explained the next few steps to me claimed to remember me, congratulated me on Charlotte's existence, and coo'd over the cell-phone photo. The phlebotomist said she thought Charlotte could only be 4 or 5 months old by now, not almost a year already. Nothing but good vibes there today. What a welcome relief! I was expecting them not to remember me at all, or to recall only the negative interactions we'd had.


Then we got down to business..


First off, my body (I LOVE my body right now...) is cooperating perfectly. AF began yesterday. The RE wants me to complete the Clomid Challenge (to check ovarian reserve), so they were able to draw CD3 blood today, on CD2. I'll take clomid on CD5-9, then go back for another blood draw on CD10. Also on CD10, an office hysteroscopy to take a look at my uterus. Assuming all that goes well, we'll follow the same protocol as last time with lupron starting on CD22 of the next cycle (this one will be tainted by clomid). I need to schedule a mammogram before lupron starts because they won't cycle without mammography results that are less than 2 years old. My last mammo was in January 2009, when we first started working with the RE.

Since I like to have at least a basic idea of what will happen when, I made the calculations. I'm guessing that my body will return to old rhythms. So, the next CD1 will be around 4/8. Lupron would begin 4/29. Another CD1 on roughly 5/8. ER was on CD12 last time, which would put it on about 5/19, with ET on 5/22. This is for you, Charlotte!