Offtopic - Word Cloud

I made this word cloud from this blog. I think it's pretty cool:



I like that "wtf" is one of the bigger words on there :)

You can make one, too.

Thinking about writing a book

I've received a lot of requests to do interviews based on this blog. Some are for documentaries, some for articles, and some for radio/tv. I've also had a lot of great feedback about the blog, and it's made me consider writing a book.

I've written a couple books, but they were textbooks so it's different.

My hesitation is that I'm not really sure what the point would be. Should I approach this as a memoir type thing? If so, I don't know if it would work because there isn't really a conflict or a climax, or even a good ending. I could write about the life conflicts and the path from starting to this break I'm taking, but I'm not convinced that it's compelling. Would I write it as an informational book? If so, I hesitate because I'm not a medical doctor and it's not like there is a large lay-audience who are egg donors (as opposed to, say, infertile couples doing IVF).

What do you all think? Do you think there is even an audience for this sort of thing?

Things to Enjoy

There are some things I really enjoy about the donation process, aside from the whole gratification of helping people and such.

I really like the retrieval. I usually don't go to bed before 4am, but I love getting up all early when it's dark out and driving to the clinic on the Beltway with no traffic. I love stopping at the drugstore before I get to the clinic to buy a card for my recipients and to browse around when no one is there and nothing else is open. I love getting TO the clinic when the first staff members are arriving - it makes them seem so much more human.

Those little footies with the treads on them are surprisingly warm, too. The blanket they put on me in the operating room is nice and warm. I feel very secure strapped in. I adore the anesthetic. I love that feeling of drifting off to sleep with nothing on my mind, and waking up from it. I love the ginger ale that they give me when I'm in recovery.

I love sleeping on the drive home, druggedly making my way up to collapse in bed, and sleeping until 2 in the afternoon. I adore the big sandwich I always make for myself when I get up because I'm starving and it's so good.

I realize this all makes me very odd indeed. "Oh sure," says the Egg Donor, "I love elective surgery."

However, I am currently enjoying the lack of shots, my normal sized ovaries, the 2 days periods thanks to my fabulous new birth control (Mircett - I highly recommend it), and no migraines during my week off the b/c (also thanks to the special estrogen pills you take on the off week with Mircett). I am REALLY enjoying the intense running and traveling I can do without any restrictions on my schedule.

But I do - I miss the retrievals. We'll see how things work out toward the summer to do another one.

My Doctor did IVF

Quite unfortunately, I developed yet another UTI last week. I bopped over to an urgent care clinic to get some antibiotics for it, and a week later I wasn't sure that I was totally over it. I haven't seen a regular GP doctor for years since I spent so much time at the fertility clinic. I was lucky enough to find one affiliated with Johns Hopkins who is close and was able to fit me in quickly.

I had been hoping for a female doctor, but the guy I got was great. He was really funny, didn't talk down to me, and generally did all the other nice things doctors do. When I was giving him my history and I mentioned the cycles, he was quite interested. I started explaining that I was taking a break because I'd done six or seven in a row, and started to tell him the process of each one. I know doctors are educated medical people, but I've been to many who don't understand what you do as an egg donor. He stopped me, though, and said "I know. We went through infertility." At first I was mortified, thinking that he thought I was talking down to him about something he learned in his second year of med school. However, he clarified that he and his wife had gone through infertility treatments, though they didn't use donor eggs.

We had a nice chat about the process. His wife, by the way, is a machine. I think he said she produced like 28 eggs during her IVF! I guess they can stimulate you more if you're getting your own eggs, since you're taking the risk for yourself. Anyway, I thought it was quite cool to have someone to talk to who had gone through the process and who could speak intelligently about it medically (not just "I had a kid that way").

This doctor is a keeper. I hope I don't have to actually go in for anything, but when that inevitably comes about, I won't mind so much.