been a long time, but eggs are never far from my mind

It has been a crazy summer, one filled with a lot of ups and downs: we got another dog (a sweet Labrador-cross from the local shelter), my mother suffered a mild stroke, more tragedies with missing airplanes and more unrest (Iran and China), Michael Jackson died... well, the last bit shouldn't even be on the same line as the others but he's still an icon who has played an influential role in my childhood. I will miss him.

As for the egg donation with T, it's all coming along nicely. Tickets are booked and arrangements made for the short trip in London. I am strangely excited to meet T - it will be such an honour to meet this wonderful woman who trusts me enough to have my eggs fertilized with her husband's sperm and then put into her womb. Sometimes when I look at this from another angle, it's just so mind-boggling. The wonders of science indeed.

I feel very positive about this particular donation to T, like I said in my previous post, partly because this is an open donation. T has been very open with this right from the very beginning, telling me all about herself and her family. I found it refreshing and somehow knowing that she is so open about this, gives me a sense of security that there will not be any drama later on in the child's life. Because the child will grow up knowing about me and my gift for T, she will not get a nasty shock when she suddenly finds out and starts her search for all the answers.

Less than two weeks before my trip to London. Ohh I am getting quite excited!

confirmation from all fronts

Dr C has been away the last week or two so T didn't get a confirmation that she will do the first half of the egg donation procedure with me till yesterday evening. Now that she has confirmed in writing, we are all set to go!

I will be arriving London on 30 July with all appointments fixed on 31 July, Friday. There will first be a session with the counsellor at 11am, followed by the appointment with the doctor at 1pm. The latter will also include the whole she-bang of tests - transvaginal ultrasound, blood tests (for Rubella, Hep B&C, HIV, etc). So it's back to being prodded and poked again. How fun.

The procedure will then begin once my period arrives in August which means it's back to Dr C's for a few days, and the final trip to London for the second half of the treatment. The egg retrieval will be done in London and I will then fly back home to Hong Kong about two days after. Hopefully there will be no agonizing aftermath. While the memory of the awful cramps and heartburn from the first egg donation has almost receded to the dark corners of my brain, it is still painful enough for me to want to avoid it as much as possible.

Otherwise, I am very much looking forward to meeting T. This is a new experience for me as it will be an open egg donation: I will meet T and her family and I believe we will keep in touch for many years to come. T is also open to me meeting her child(ren) from my donated egg(s) so it's all pretty exciting. I have a lot of thoughts on this but it will take a longer blog post so I shall save this for another day.