Egg Donation

I am an egg donor, and here you'll find details of my donation cycles. Go to the beginning of the blog for day-by-day details of each cycle. Questions or Comments? Email eggdonor@gmail.com.

Tuesday, October 19, 2004

A gift

I didn't mention it up here, but I received a gift from my recipient family after the last cycle. The evening after the retrieval I got a call from the clinic saying that the family, who had come in later in the day had dropped off an REI gift card for me.

"There could be a gazillion dollars on there, for all I know," said the clinic employee who takes care of us donors (we'll call her Donor Mom).

This was kind of weird. Our clinic does have a money back policy, where recipients only pay if they get pregnant from my eggs, but there is still a non-refundable $9,500 donor cost for each cycle. And I get $5000 of that. So this family is shelling out $27,500 total, with almost $10,000 of it going to paying me and giving me the medications I need. But they thought, "Hey, I know we gave her $5K, but how about a gift card, too?!"

So they did. It turned out not to be for a gazillion dollars, but rather $50.


I was really touched by this present from my egg family. It made me feel like they were really appreciative of what I was doing, and that they knew it wasn't something I did just for the money. I think about the families all the time when I'm in the clinic. They go through so much, and I sometimes am just consumed with how much I'm hoping for them. I felt like this was a little sign that they know I care.

I used the card to buy a Swiss army knife and surfing watch on clearance.





I told Donor Mom I was glad the amount wasn't more. I would have felt tremendously guilty while my husband and I trekked around Thailand on our REI adventure vacation, decked out in high-tech waterproof gear as we awaited our REI sponsored climbing safari on Kiliminjaro.

2 Comments:

At 11:08 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just found your blog and had to comment. I think it's really nice that the donor family gave you the gift card, but I think it's equally nice that you think so much about the families who are going through the donation/IVF process.

I think women like you are heroes! Thanks for what you do!

 
At 1:44 PM , Anonymous Alison said...

I also just found your blog. I am pregnant for the first time as a result of someone like you having been so unselfish, and t means so much to read your side of it.

 

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