The average cost of obtaining a known egg donor is approximately $20,000 (anonymous donors are more expensive, due to the third party agency involved).

That's a small car.

Or college.

Or... you get the idea.

K and her husband and more than willing to pay that amount for the chance to get pregnant, but they just found out that they don't have to - Their health insurance has a plan to cover it.

The problem?

Open enrollment for that policy is in October, and the policy takes effect in January.

So, after all that waiting...

we wait. Until January 1st, 2012.

Hopefully we can begin to sync cycles before that so we're completely ready on 1/1/12, but until then...

{See you in a few months!}

And now... we wait. Again. {By R.}

Waiting is ok in this case, though.

I had my phone interview with the doctor last week. I expected a lot of "do you realize that X, Y, and Z can happen?" but instead heard a very detailed summary of what to expect in the next couple of months.

Because I know you're wondering... he basically said "You are going to give yourself a lot of shots in the stomach. These shots are very important. If you mess up the shots, we have to start all over at the beginning, which means more shots for you. So, if you have any questions about the shots - even at 2 am - call and ask so you don't mess it up."

No stress.

But first things first. I wait patiently while the doctors sync K's monthly cycle to mine, so that when I am ready to go in for the egg retrieval she is ready to accept the eggs. Well, not her. Her uterus. You guys knew what I meant, right?

This is the first time in my life that I have been looking forward to getting my period.

Crazy.

It's Official!

After a lot of waiting (3 months, to be exact), we finally have some news - This week, I was medically cleared to donate my eggs!

I offered my eggs in March, and to be honest, K and I have done a lot of waiting since then.

We waited for her to get her period (for blood testing).

Then we waited for her to get her period again.

During all of this waiting, we weren't told that *I* had to give blood during the third day of my period, too.

So, we waited for me to get my period. The third day of your period is a "magic day" to tell where your egg levels are, I guess. And yes, there's probably a fancier name for "egg levels," but you'll have to excuse me for not knowing it yet.

So far, we have learned that fertility clinics don't often work together. And if they do work together, they rarely do it from different states. It appears that we are the first out of state donor/recipient team to work with either of these clinics, and that means that there have been some bumps that are causing this process to go a little slower than usual.

So, K and I are learning as we go, and trying to keep each other grounded through the "HOW did they not tell us THAT?" phases. We're doing a good job, I think.

Next step? Synchronizing our cycles (I can't get synchronized swimmers out of my head) and going in for Day 3 labs again next month. From what we understand, the daily hormone injections will start around then and we're hoping for an August-September retrieval date!