Tuesday, April 28, 2009

60 Days Of Abstinence

It's kind of ridiculous how much of our liquid IVF requires.

This morning I dropped off my husbands latest donation-this time for his urea plasma-giving the lab the final round of liquid necessary to complete our pre-IVF testing. I walked into the lab awkwardly displaying the partially filled plastic cup between my hands while trying to keep the sample warm.

Of course when I got there, I couldn't just do a quick drop-and-go. I had to sit in the waiting room clenching the cup between my thighs to keep it warm until they called my name. And when they did, I gathered my specimen and walked it up to the counter, casually setting it down in front of the phlebotomist while pretending like I wasn't really embarrassed to be toting around my husbands business. Then I sat there awkwardly with it between the two of us as I filled out yet another piece of paperwork, wondering if our previously warm sperm was dying on the cold Formica counter top.

Luckily it was just a one pager this time-mostly asking about time of retrieval, traveling temperature and length of abstinence-so I was out the door and back to work in relatively no time. But before I could fully enjoy the fact that my husband and I will finally be able to keep our blood, urine and sperm to ourselves for a while, I received a phone call from the lab.

I marked our latest abstinence period before this sample to be a length of 60 days on that darn paperwork.

What I meant to say was 60 hours.

So since I had obviously incorrectly marked the paperwork, the lab had to call and double check the information. I suppose it would be pretty crazy for them not to find something wrong with a patient that was trying to conceive yet remained abstinent for two full months. Hhhmm...Maybe we should give having relations more often a try before we jump into something as serious as IVF?

Hmph. If only it were that easy!

"Through humor, you can soften some of the worst blows that life delivers. And once you find laughter, no matter how painful your situation might be, you can survive it."
-Bill Cosby

8 comments:

Lisa said...

LOL at 60 days!!! Thank god for him that it was hours, not days.

Robin said...

Dropping those samples off is pretty stressful! You just wanted to get done and hopefully go before the swimmers got too cold. I feel for you! I bet hubby didn't like the thought of 60 days!

BHRMAMA said...

LOL!!!!

Kelli said...

I always hated toting around that little brown bag! Glad you get to keep your bodily fluid to yourself for a while - love those silver linings!

WantWait&Pray said...

Hahahah! That's a cute story. Honestly, I feel that dropping off the "specimen" or having my husband go in to give his, is one of the most awkward things we've experienced so far on this IF journey. Not sure why...but it just is.

Courtney said...

Good luck with your cycle coming up! I just finished birth control and have finally gotten to stims. It did feel completely weird to be having both birth control and prenatal pills in the same swallow.

JackieMac said...

I gave you an award - you have to go to my blog to get it.

Hoping for our own Peanut said...

60 hours sounds MUCH better than 60 days. good thing they called. :)