The first IUI

Today was the first IUI. And it was a crazy day. But let's start with yesterday. Yesterday morning I had a positive on my OPK, so I called the doctor and made appointments for today and tomorrow. When I got home from work, I asked K how she was doing. She said nervous and I said, me, too. Her stomach was queasy and she had the shits (I know, too much information). So we decided to take it easy and try to relax. We went to our favorite restaurant and came home for a long walk with our dog. Then we meditated at our fertility altar and went to bed early. We decided this will be our pre-IUI ritual - though hopefully the ritual won't need to be invoked too many times.

Our IUI was an early morning appointment at 7:30 in DC (Georgetown). I had a 10am work meeting in DC (K St.), so we had this plan to drive to Bethesda, park the car and metro down to the doctor. Then K would metro to work and I would metro to K Street, find a coffee shop, read my novel, and relax until my meeting. Nice plan.

First we couldn't find the parking lot in Bethesda. This is crazy - we've parked there before. We just drove around and around the metro, but couldn't find the parking lot. I blame this on having gotten up so damn early. We ran out of time after all of the driving around and decided just to drive to Georgetown. Thank god for the GPS. We arrived at our appointment 20 minutes early and I peed twice while waiting - those damn nerves! We paid the $500 fee ($500!). The doctor called us in right on time, I stripped down and got into the stirrups. Doctor came back with the sperm and asked me to verify it. I said, what exactly am I verifying? I can't exactly identify it and I didn't memorize the order number. But the specimen did at least have my name on it, so I said, go ahead, shoot it up. She opened me up and squirted it in and it was over before we knew it. No pain at all, which was my biggest fear.

K said she wanted to peak to see what I looked like all opened up. Maybe tomorrow. K also said she wished she had a camera. What exactly was she planning to take a picture of? Doctor said to lie there for 5 minutes and then go about my normal life. She left and K pulled out the statue of the goddess we took our last name from and we held it while thinking good thoughts about sperm finding the egg - swim, sperm, swim! I think we actually laid there for 10 minutes. Then I got dressed and we left around 7:50am. 20 minutes for $500?!

So now the new plan - I still wanted to park in Bethesda. Parking in DC ain't cheap and we already paid $8 to park at the clinic. And I had 2 hours before my meeting was to start. K didn't want to leave me, so we decided to drive together and then both take the metro from Bethesda. K drove and wanted me to relax and lie the seat back.

So we're driving along, I'm lying down and can't see anything, and K says, look there's a dog in the road. A yellow lab with tags was wondering across Wisconsin Ave, a major DC road. We, feeling loving and generous after our procedure, pull over and chase the dog down. Her name was Carter and she was very friendly. K called the number on the tag and the number is disconnected. K calls the police. DC police have a reputation for being very slow and unresponsive. This is a very low priority situation. K needs to get to work, and I can't miss this important meeting. It's getting later and later. The police call back and say someone will be there within a half hour. Then they call back and say no one is coming, but tell us to take Carter to Friendship Animal Hospital which is very near by. Okay, we can do that. We load Carter into our car and drive her to the hospital and drop her off.

Now it is 9:15. There's no way for me to find somewhere to park my car and still make it to my 10am meeting. So I drive there right on time, and K walks to the metro and gets to work VERY late. Totally worth it.

I'm in my meeting until 1pm, out to lunch with colleagues, driving back to my office in Rockville (getting lost but again none of this could have been done without our fabulous GPS). I get to work around 2:50, check my messages and find that I was invited to an emergency meeting at 2:30, run to the meeting, and finally get back to my office at 3:30.

And I breathe, and suddenly remember that I had an IUI today. I kind of forgot after all of that. Wow! I could be pregnant. Thinking happy thoughts. Sperm meets egg, sperm penetrates egg, egg implants on uterus wall. I'm not really sure how long all of this takes. I'm going to go home soon and relax tonight. We have to do it all over again tomorrow.