A re-cap

Well, we made it back to Boston with only a slight delay last night in Denver.  Somehow I'm more exhausted today than I was yesterday.  The past thirty six hours have been a complete whirlwind...

I'd mentioned that our ODWU at CCRM was coming up soon, but chose not to reveal the exact date here on my blog.  We flew out to Denver on Sunday morning, arriving around noon.  We picked up our rental car, drove straight to downtown Denver and enjoyed lunch outside at a restaurant on 16th street mall.  After walking around for a little bit, we decided to head to the hotel (Element) to take a little nap.  We were exhausted from getting home late from the wedding we'd attended the night before and from having to wake up bright and early for our flight on Sunday.  I think the two hour time difference did us in as well!

After our naps, we decided to drive up to CCRM to make sure we knew where we were headed the next morning.  Our hotel was only about a mile and a half down the road from CCRM, which was perfect!  I got a couple of quick pictures of the facility and then we ended up finding a trail nearby to walk/hike.  On our way back to the hotel, we stumbled across a great fro-yo place (Yogurtini) and indulged in some dessert for dinner.  We hit the hay early, knowing that our alarm was set for 5:00 the next morning.

We arrived at CCRM on Monday morning at 6:45 - I was definitely anxious to get the day started knowing full well that it would be a long one!  On our schedule was about seven hours of meetings, consults, blood draws, a "check" for Nick and then an ultrasound, Doppler sonogram and a hysteroscopy for me.  Phew!  My ultrasound, Doppler and hysteroscopy (hysteroscopy done by Dr. S himself) all went well.  The Doppler showed great blood flow to my uterus and the ultrasound showed about eight antral follicles, which isn't a ton, but I guess is a good number for me, someone who is a poor responder.  The hysteroscopy went well (though, it left me with some cramping on and off for the remainder of the day yesterday and a prescription that I have yet to fill (I can't seem to drag myself off of the couch today!) for an antibiotic) and Dr S told me that my uterus looks good.

The two most important consults that we had were, one with our assigned nurse and the other with Dr. S.  We talked to Dr. S about wanting to find out what the underlying problem is - either a genetic issue (we will definitely do CCS genetic testing on our embryos, if we get that far) or a uterine issue (which I'm hoping the BETA 3 test will give us an answer to later this month).  I'd be lying if I said that the "D" word didn't come up (donor eggs) - - it did.  But, we explained that if there's a chance for us to have a baby with my own eggs, then we want to take it - - we are not ready to give up just yet, hence why we traveled half way across the country to CCRM in the first place (and that said, if the problem ends up being a uterine one - - then whether we use my eggs or someone else's, the result would be the same, right?).

We left CCRM with about eight hours to spare before our flight home, so we hit a local Starbucks and I had my first decaf coffee in eight days (it was heavenly, but today I'm back to my no-caffeine (not even decaf) diet).

We had dinner and then headed for the airport, knowing that a crazy Spring snow storm was making its way toward Denver.  We were over tired and became slap happy while we waited (and waited, and waited) for our flight home - - see:

(Nick's definitely going to kill me for posting those!)



After our very long day, I was left feeling O-V-E-R-W-H-E-L-M-E-D!  I still don't think I've fully processed my thoughts on the day, but here's what I do know:  I am glad we went.  I feel a sense of renewed hope today that maybe, just maybe, CCRM is exactly the change we've needed all along.  There is still a lot to do and a lot to figure out with regard to the logistics of actually cycling in Colorado, but I know I'll figure it out.  A huge step in this process has been completed and now we wait for our results... and read all of the information that we got while we were there (and remember to not look at our bank account after emptying our pockets and savings account in a matter of just one day!).