Information night

Back in December Tim and I attended a mandatory information session at the clinic. This evening was hosted for couples approved for the Feb-March invitro session.

I have always said the world is small and that we are all somehow connected, but I think Winnipeg is extremely small…….

As Tim and I found our seats in the last row, we said hello to the couple taking a seat beside us. One big happy invitro family!

Another couple walks into our row and as they pass the first couple sitting down, the man exchanges a civil hello with the woman sitting down. Both couples are seated now and the man says to his wife, “honey, this is Rachel…….” Pointing to the other couple

Now we women NEVER forget a name and so the wife says,

“As in Rachel, the one you dated in high school Rachel?”

I kid you not; these long lost loves from high school were meeting up once again in a fertility clinic of all places!

The irony provided some much needed excitement for Tim and I as we smirked at eachother………..deep down thankful none of our “exes” were in the room

We were given a tour of the rooms where the “egg retrieval” and “implantation” would take place, as well as the room where the “male sample” is given. Seriously?? Are people really interested in knowing these things?

Me, being an auditor, I was more concerned with the control over the storage of the eggs being fertilized as well as the longer term storage of any additional eggs I will hopefully produce. How are the tubes labeled? Is there an alarm system on the unit? What if the power fails, is there a backup or a disaster recovery plan in place to remove and transport those eggs to a secondary facility???

Rest assured the clinic would get a clean audit opinion from me, they have everything covered….and then some.

I tried very hard to pay attention to all of the medical information they were throwing our way. I was more interested though in the 15 other couples we would be going through this process with. We were all going to have ultrasounds and blood work done, passing each other in the waiting room every few days. As the statistics of success were being discussed, I realized that half of us would be pregnant by the end of this, and half of us would not. To boot, 6 of us had a great chance of carrying multiple babies.

Which one would I be???