Since my last note, my lovely wife's insides have been scanned and subsequently harvested. The slight mishap with the injections fortunately didn't have any serious consequences.
When scanned, she was found to have 5 follicles. Two days later we were at the hospital again, this time for the collection. It was at this point that we had to make a decision. To enable us to continue with the egg-share programme that we had originally started on, my lovely wife needed to produce 8 eggs. Each follicle "can" produce more than one egg, so there was a chance that that could be the outcome. However, we needed to prepare contingency plans. Less than eight eggs leaves you with two choices. You can either donate all of the eggs to the other couple, or keep all of the eggs for yourself. If you produce three eggs or less, you have to keep the eggs for yourself. "We" produced 5 eggs.
We had a good chat about what was the right thing to do. We evaluated everything, including the offer of a free cycle of IVF if we donated the eggs. Something else also borne in mind was the fact that another couple, who are unable to produce any eggs, have been waiting for this day for months, if not years. All things considered, and consider we did - we opted to donate them all.
I can honestly say, hand on heart that the last time I felt so proud of my wife was the 8th of May 2007, the day she gave birth to Luke. My heart feels like it is swollen. The last 40 odd days haven't been easy, not only the physical aspect of having to inject every day, nor even the lack of sleep involved in having to wake up at a certain time to inject, but emotionally, it's been really difficult. After all that, to agree to donate them all is an absolutely incredible gesture. I will never ever forget this week.
Given what happened regarding the IVF, one of the first things we did when we had the time together was to go and book a holiday. We are going to Fuerteventura in four weeks and one day. I am very much looking forward to having a nice, relaxing week away, and I'm sure my lovely wife is, too.
Tonight sees our return to Derby, to visit friends there. This is our first return since my flagrant drunken display back in July. Not only that, but the couple that we spent most of the night with, Dawn and Glen are going to be there too, tonight. We are all staying over and I'm sure it'll be a lovely evening. Who knows - I might actually be able to resist the urge to expose myself!
Tomorrow is my mother in law's birthday. It's going to be a tough one for her. I've spoken about the "firsts", following the tragic death of my father in law, and this is another one of them. It will be a relaxed day, hopefully a busy one, so as to give her less time to reflect. The important thing is to get through the day. Fingers crossed.
Then, back home on Sunday. I'm going to strip the wallpaper from the Dining Room when we get home. Maybe. I need to discuss that with my wife first. I've just planned it forward and I'm not sure when we can buy some new paper. Hmmm. Do we even want paper? Would it not be nicer to paint it? Decisions decisions....
Speak soon, reader
