More, I’d rather just have sex with my husband
“Accept that some days you’re the pigeon, and some days you’re the statue”
Unknown
IVF the good years – Part 3
(Play some good flashback montage music and then read part 1 and part 2 …)
Day 3 with Dr Nie
I’m back by 8am, lying on the stretcher bed, needles abound. To keep me warm she places aluminium foil on me, I’m now a lamb roast. I cannot get into Ira’s wise words and just end up staring at the ceiling. For two hours. During this time, I ponder the ways in which friends, friends of friends and colleagues have managed to get pregnant over the years, and here it is: shagging your husband, shagging someone else’s husband, getting drunk, having a one night stand, getting drunk and having a one-night stand, shagging your ex-husband and ending up with twins, having a holiday, having a cold but still taking one for the team and shagging your next door neighbour. And yes, we have tried all of the above.
Admittedly, to go through all this is much easier now we have the Golden Child, but it is still highly annoying as I lay here feeling like an infertile porcupine, wrapped in foil about to go home and become a human wok.
At the end of the session I go in to see Dr Nie and she asks me, ‘Do you have red wine at home?’ Finally, a doctor whom asks the right questions! ‘God yes,’ I say, hoping she is going to tell me to down a bottle before bed. But I know what’s coming, it’s the secret potion of grossness that’s she’s going to tell me to make and then drink before bed for the next 10 nights. Bingo! I asked her why I was going to drink the stuff and got the same reply that I get to all my questions; Good for baby, good for baby.
Recipe of secret ancient potion of grossness.
2 dl’s of red wine
Block of brown crystal stuff from Dr Nie, chopped up
Mix together for 24 hours.
Add 6 tablespoons of brown sugar and 2 dl of water.
Cook in a water bath for 2-3hours.
Being this infertile is a full-time job.
Day 3 – 6 with Dr Nie
So now I’m doing regular IVFucked drugs, 2 hours of acupuncture a day, ginger/moxa delight at night and then a night cap of the secret potion, which by the way tastes like old bone marrow.
Tonight I will also add to the mix Ovitrelle, which will cause ovulation. The 18 eggs sitting on my ovaries will be released and set free, ready for the IVF doctors to vacuum them up in 2 days time. Be free you bastards, be free!
Day 7 with Dr Nie
When she’d first told me to eat pigeon, I nearly died. I thought my Swedish had really hit rock bottom, she didn’t just tell me to eat pigeon did she? She drew a picture. I drew one back. It was true; she wanted me to eat one. Good for baby, good for baby. My husband called her later to confirm the news – yes, I was to eat pigeon once a week for the next month. And of course there were special cooking instructions that I couldn’t understand and a special shop to buy it at, the location of which I couldn’t understand. I cried on the bed for the longest time.
But that was 2 years ago and now I had a daughter that is 1/2 human, 1/2 pigeon, so who am I to argue. Again, I would buy the pigeon, I would cook the pigeon, I would eat the pigeon. The things you do. When you are fucking desperate. And the adoption cues are up to 5 years. “Remember, it’s a French delicacy” commented my husband. Sure, I thought, noting that it wasn’t him that was going to eat the feathered little thing but moi.
October, 2011
Our 4 cells of happiness
The results are in for the Infertile Olympics. 18 eggs sucked off my ovaries, 9 mature enough to use, 4 fertilised and 1 good enough to put back. One. Shit bum shit. After all of that, only one little bugger good enough to be put back into my pigeon pimped up womb. None for the freezer. None for next time.
Well, it better be the Golden Egg. The Swedish Husband thinks it is. And I do too. Now we have our daughter so it’s only money and my dignity that we lose.
36 hours later, me, the Golden Egg and the Blessed First Child are on a 30-hour flight to Sydney. My brother needs me and I’ve gotta find someone to sell me a pigeon.
November 2011.
“It worked!” I screamed down the phone to TSH all the way from Sydney. Well fuck me, the Golden Egg turned out to be Golden. I can’t believe it took only one round of IVF! Only one round! That’s basically the equivalent of a one-night stand for us. God bless God, God Bless IVF, God Bless Dr Nie, but mainly God Bless the pigeon.
[Photos courtesy of http://www.sxc.hu ]
loulouloves 
Did it taste like chicken?
Well I told myself it did!
Now that´s the olympics for you! A for the effort and two gold medals to bring home!
Pretty good medals!
God bless you all and we are expecting… news, eagerly 🙂
Thank you!
Careful…you’re making IVF & ‘unique’ Asian-Swedish doctors sound like fun & the ‘traditional’ method sound boring! You could have many a traditionalist becoming green-eyed…. 😉
Can’t take my hat off to you enough for your strength & perseverence. But i know you…
Yes, I agree the traditional method was a bit too boring, we do like to spice things up!
I love a good pigeon. My mother in law made me eat post partum. Good for mommy’s milk. Good for baby. YAY for 1/2 pigeon miracle 😉
Oh I hadn’t heard that. Yes, the miracles of pigeon!
What an amazing story well told. Best of luck with your next golden child!
So far so good Kiwi!
Wow… perhaps that was what I was doing wrong! Well, I did the red wine, but not the pigeon….
I tried quite a lot of red wine I must say. Quite a lot.
Hej, I just found your blog recently. We just started our first IVF 3 days ago in Malmö, I am over my crazy days (eating drinking everything , because it was told to help get pregnant), now we know that only IVF can help. But acupuncture I would like to try. Do you know by any chance a reliable expert in South Sweden? Congratulation to your second baby!! Cool blog 🙂
Oh, good luck with your cycle! That is exciting to get things going at least. Sorry to hear you have to take this road… We did 5 IVF’s in Malmö at MAS and I used an acupuncturist but I wouldn’t recommend her. I’ll ask a few friends down there and see if they know anyone. From experience I found it was better to find someone who is a fertility acupunturist, not just a general acupunturist… I’ll get back to you. My thoughts are with you!
Thank you for your help! Actually, we are doing it in Copenhagen, at the Copehagen Fertility Clinic, and I think they have a specialized acupuncturist. I was just hoping I get something here in Malmö too, since I dont want to travel that much. I appreciate any help 🙂
Still working on a contact, a friend of a friend knows someone however they are on holidays at the moment. Maybe you can ask someone at the Copie clinic if they know a place in Malmo? I agree, going over just for acupuncture would be a real pain… hopefully more news soon…
Hi, Got the contact of a good fertility acupunturist in Malmo: His nr is 0734045618 and his name is Mattias. Good luck!
Thanks a lot!!