Cycle II Appointment III

Most of my treatment payments are made with my credit card but, for retrieval, the payment needs to be made in cash. The first retrieval cost was $2925.00 and this cycle retrieval cost is $1575.00.  When I take the cash over, I like to use Mario, Dr Garza's driver, so that I avoid walking down the street in a loaded fashion.

While I  sat on the bench next to the motel's front door this morning, waiting for Mario to arrive, I read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society recommended by my aunt AM.  Although I haven't finished it yet, I can already add my own recommendation. It's a good, gentle, but fun read.

Anywho, as I was sitting there, a young man came out of the motel and asked me for a cigarette. Not receiving a favorable answer didn't stop him from sitting down next to me and asking more questions. I answered briefly, but kindly, each time going back to my book between answers. To each of my answers, the man responded with a "Cool...cool..."  In fact, even when he asked about my Thanksgiving and I said I spent it sitting in a hotel room, "Cool... Cool..." was the response I got.  After a bit he got in a taxi and drove away. On one hand he made me feel young - on the other, ancient!  Soon after this man's departure, Mario came and I headed to the office with several other patients.

At Dr Garza's, there was a cute little boy, probably just under one, sitting in the chair next to me with his mom. He had the brightest red hair I've ever seen occur naturally and what a sweet smile! We looked at the chair's armrest together, noticing that the leather was torn, and the stuffing coming out a bit. Later on, when he expressed discontent, he let me talk him through it and stopped crying as he looked at me shyly.

When my sonogram turn came, Dr Garza saw four to five follicles again and some of them were already at 16 mm. He told me that my retrieval might be on Monday, much earlier than I expected, but I need to go back tomorrow to find out for sure. He upped my meds to increase follicle size and added a medication that prevents ovulation.

Other things happened but we must move on. I caught the medical van back to the border and J was waiting for me on the other side. We wandered around downtown for a bit and then went to Russo's to celebrate our anniversary. Four years now everyone... four years!  At Russo's I broke my anti-inflammatory diet by eating a cucumber/tomato/olive/basil/feta salad and baked ziti. J had some of my salad and a pizza. It was all very tasty - afterwards we came back to the motel and slept it off. We call this being in a food coma. That is all.