Wands at the Ready!

Hello everyone! It's time for another update! Today was very exciting for Jessica and myself. If you couldn't tell by the picture, today was our first appointment with our doctor!

We have some other things to catch up on as well, I will go in order of events, so as to not confuse myself!

Jessica showed you a few pictures of our apartment that we moved in to on Tuesday of this week. It has been great so far, minus a few small annoyances. The worst part about it is that there is one entry way for the 8 apartments in this building. It is a sort of winding staircase, all built out of stone, because this building is as old as dirt, but has had modern day upgrades. The door that leads you in/out of this staircase is made entirely out of metal, as is the door frame. There is no way to close this door softly, because it will not latch shut. So every time someone leaves or enters the building, there is this jarring, metal-on-metal clanging sound that echoes throughout the stone stairways. Imagine the sound of a cell door slamming shut in the gallows and that's what we hear, minus the screams of tortured souls. And due to the nature of night life in Barcelona, this goes on from 8:00pm until about 1:00am every...single...night. Apart from that though the apartment has been great!

Since moving in on Tuesday, we have spent a good deal of time exploring this new neighborhood, Sants. It is much more lively than El Prat de Llobregat where our hotel was located, but thankfully is not very touristy. It has been so much fun to experience Barcelona in this sense, to experience a more localized view of the town. We have also paid another 2 visits or so to the Gothic Quarter, and got to experience the open air market, Mercat de la Boqueria. This place was incredible. So many sights, smells, and sounds. If I had to compare it to anything, I would say it reminded me of the market in Seattle, just with more pigs heads and whole rabbits in the cases. Can someone refer Jessica to EMDR?

But now for the exciting part! Today (Friday) was our first appointment with our doctor!! Jess and I got up early to catch a bus from Sants up to Sarria, which is where the clinic is located. As this was our first experience with the bus in Barcelona, we left a little early, just in case we got lost. Up to this point, all of our transport has been by train or taxi. We grabbed some coffee and pastries down the road from the clinic, and then made our way up to BCN IVF to meet our doctor.

Today's appointment was focused on measuring Jessica's follicle count, as well as the size of her follicles. We were met by a nurse who guided us into an exam room and provided Jessica with a sheet to cover herself with for the ultrasound, which was more of a formality than for privacy, because they essentially handed her a sheer piece of tissue paper. (I don't know how many men are reading this blog, so if you don't know what goes down in an ultrasound, ask your wife/girlfriend or google). For now we will breeze through to the good part.

The doctor arrived with a medical student, and the same tissue-paper dispensing nurse to conduct the ultrasound. This was a scenario we had been in several times before during our IUI procedures, as they would take follicle measurements as well. The doctor reported that things were progressing as normal, but that the follicles were not quite ready yet and that we would be returning on Tuesday for another ultrasound. Until that point, Jessica will continue to give herself nightly injections of Gonal-F, and will also start a new medication on Sunday, Orgalutron, which will essentially tell her body to push pause on ovulation.

Going into today, neither of us really had any idea what to expect apart from the familiarity of the ultrasound. Prior to the appointment there was this feeling of excitement, as we were getting ready to take another step in the journey to parenthood. It was also exciting because this is what we traveled so far to do, and while exploring the city has been an amazing experience, it is nice to be able to move forward in this process as well.

Poke Count

Arm: 0

Stomach: 4

Ultrasounds: 1

On a side note, during our walk through Sarria, we passed an additional 4 fertility clinics! Apparently Barcelona is the place to come for this sort of procedure!

Well, I think that's everything I have for today. I am still working on the photos from our explorations last week, but those will be up soon. We look forward to updating everyone as things progress!

Until next time!

-Cole