I'm starting this blog a little late, so let me recap the past couple of months. In August I was matched with an amazing couple that lives in Rome. They flew to Denver to meet KC and I. From the start it just seemed "right". They were it. They were the couple I was searching for. Without going into too many details, the intended mother (IM) was forced to undergo an emergency hysterectomy after a botch job from a fertility doctor in Italy. It's a tragic story and one that makes my heart cry. She wanted nothing more than to just be a mother. And she picked me to bring her child into the world. I can't explain how honored I feel. I mean, I will be carrying her child for 9 months while she's across the world. No pressure. :)
Since the meeting, I have flown out to California (where our fertility clinic is) for a slew of medical testing. KC had to be tested as well . I was given my treatment plan and was explained the whole process. Amazing what technology can do these days. Think about it. They will be putting drugs into my body that are basically faking my body into believing that I am trying to become pregnant. At just the right time, they will then inject a 3-5 day old embryo (2 in my case) directly into my uterus. I wait a couple of days for the embryo(s) to attach and just like that, I'm prego. Amazing. Now, the first trimester can be a little tricky b/c my body will still try to treat the embryo as somewhat of a foreign object (b/c this baby has no genetic link to me whatsoever). The risk of miscarriage is higher with surrogacies for obvious reasons. This is where more drugs play in. I have several hormone medications that I will be taking until the end of the 1st trimester. After the 1st trimester, it's basically like any other pregnancy.
Now, I have already started taking an injectable medication called Lupron (this stops me from ovulating). I have to give myself a shot every night at the same time. Not a lot of fun, but necessary. Once I get my next menstrual cycle, then we will calculate the day of my transfer. Right now the tentative day to go back to Cali is November 6th. I will be out there for 10 days on a strict hormone treatment cycle. During my 10 day stay, we will calculate the exact day of the transfer. I could be pregnant in a month! Another question I've been asked a lot is the "carrying multiples" factor. I am only implanting 2 embryos, so yes there is a pretty good chance of twins in my case, but any more than that would be pretty rare. We'll just have to see! :)
