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A Wee Bit Nervous

I made the trek yesterday morning from Pasadena to Santa Monica for my 8:15 AM medical evaluation for the egg donor program. Bear in mind that google maps will show that it is 30 miles from my house, wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for Los Angeles traffic. I'm not a fan of driving in said traffic, so I took the train and the bus. This is a very un-LA thing to do, but it works out for those of us who don't like to drive. I am also not much of a morning person, so having to option to put in my headphones and space out until I reach my destination is a great thing.

After arriving for this very thourough medical vetting, I meet with two (TWO!) doctors. Mind you, both are very friendly and answer all of my questions and reservations with quite readily. Then, one of these very friendly doctors rattles off somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-12 blood tests that need to be conducted. This amounts to 12 vials of blood needed to be removed. I'm not a fan of blood tests (who is?), and this particular set ended up requiring the nurse to go into both of my arms to retrieve the necessary amount. I didn't pass out, but I came pretty close. All of this was followed by the standard woman exam, those are always wierd, and I'll spare you the details. Suffice it to say, I have faith in the doctors and that I can handle this process, but I am a bit more nervous about what may come out of the test results than I was the day before the appointment. Too many what if's floating around in my head. I have no real reason to be, but the prospects of something not being quite right with me genetically became very real and worrying while there was a needle in my arm. I'm trying to take comfort from the fact that if there is, at least I will know before the Man and I begin the process to add bipeds to our household.

One sort of funny thing came out of the trip: to qualify as an anonymous egg donor, you have to answer a set of questions formulated by the FDA that is also used to qualify blood donors. I've never given blood before, I'm okay giving my eggs but can't donate blood, go figure. The doctors were very pleased with all of my answers until "Have you had any sexual contact with anyone who has lived in any African country after 1977?" Yes, the Man was born in the States, but lived his first nine years in Egypt while his parents (American Mother, Egyptian Father) were doing work with agencies like the World Health Organization in Cairo. If the recipients of my eggs do not wishi to meet me, this could keep me from being a donor. Pretty laughable, the Man was nine when they moved back, he's lived the rest of his life here, and has been tested numerous times as any responsible human should be, and is perfectly clean and healthy. Should be pretty interesting to see how that aspect of this adventure shakes out, it may very well mean that I end up knowing who is receiving the eggs.