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Monday, 17 February 2014

This Weekend at the Duckpond

We have mostly been...

 
 
Attending - the fertility clinic on Friday morning for my final scan before the minor operation of egg collection on Monday. Apart from the fact that the whole procedure makes you sound a little bit like a chicken farm, it's relatively simple and by the time you read this, I should be at home resting and recovering (and probably catching up on some blog reading).
Out of interest, would anyone be interested in a blog post about what it's like to have IVF?
(I know it's quite a niche subject so I won't be offended if you all say 'no') :-)


 
Visiting - Andrew's dad in hospital. He's down to just one chest drain and his stomach feeding pipe and at the end of last week, the doctor said he's now allowed one glass of milk a day!


 
Enjoying - a Valentine's day tea date at Penfold's Kitchen in Bristol. It's a little cafe just opposite the hospital and we've walked past it every evening on our way to the ward and never actually been in because it's always been closed. On Friday we were there during the day though so we popped in and had a delicous hot chocolate and lemon polenta cake.

Penfold's Kitchen - Lemon Polenta Cake and Hot Chocolate
 


 
Sharing - a breakfast with Andrew, his mum and his sister at Wetherspoons. Andrew's sister, Judith came up from Cornwall and met us all in Street before taking his mum off to Bristol to visit the hospital while me and Andrew had a mosey around the charity shops. Me and Andrew were also treated to a slap-up roast dinner at Toby Carvery on Friday night by Andrew's mum (I think she wanted to thank us for looking after her the last month).

Wetherspoons Breakfast
 


 
Driving - to see how the floods are getting on in Somerset. After we'd had a browse around the shops and visited the library we took a drive to the same place we visited back in January. We then drove on to Dunball Wharf (which is where the big pipes from the Netherlands are pumping out gazillions of litres of water every hour) but you couldn't get anywhere close to see anything.

Flooding in Somerset

Dunball Wharf

Flood drainage pipes
 


 
Sorting - out the masses of drug paraphernalia I've got left from all the IVF drugs. Apart from the sharps box (which has to go back to the clinic), everything else can be recycled or binned. It seems very surreal to think that I've actually taken all these things and we're now at the stage where the embryologists can do their science-y bit!

IVF Drug Papaphernalia
This is what the drugs from a long protocol IVF cycle look like - 10 Provera tablets, 12 Gonal-F injections, 1 Ovitrelle injection trigger shot and 272 Suprecur sniffs!
 
 
 
What did you get up to at the weekend?

6 comments:

  1. I think you're so brave to be doing ivf and especially to share it on your blog! I think a post would be helpful for so many people going through the same :) It looks like you're going to make a great Mum, Good Luck! :D xx

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    1. Aww thank you so much Laura, that means a lot to both me and Andrew xxx
      I might put a blog post together over the next couple of months, I took quite a lot of pictures of everything so I could try and explain it all so I'll see how it goes. xxx

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  2. Hope egg collection went well. It does rather sound like you'd need a bonnet and wicker basket! I'm glad to hear that Andrew's dad is doing so well! Also, I've been by that cafe so many times and never gone inside--I'll have to pop in next time!

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    1. Thanks Angela! You definitely need to try that cafe sometime, they had a rather delicious looking chocolate cake as well which I almost had instead of the lemon - oh, well, perhaps that'll be an excuse to go back again! :-) xx

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  3. I hope you're cosy at home and recovering well :) That cake and hot chocolate looks delicious! Glad to hear Andrew's Dad is at least starting to be allowed more interesting fluids- does hot chocolate count as milk? :p xxx

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    1. Haha, unfortunately not! He's been in there almost 5 weeks now so he's well past the point of caring what he's given to drink. He even had a barium meal scan a couple of weeks ago which he said was like nectar! :-) xxx

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