First IUI

I left that last post at 12:45 in the morning, so I think everyone was thinking that the first IUI is scheduled for Friday, but it actually took place today.

I was half-right about the procedure starting later than 8:30. They had me wait until 8:45 and then brought me into the exam room and had me wait another five minutes.  So, they started before 9:00, but not much!  It was okay though - it went really quickly so everything worked out.

Mark went to work very early this morning in order to get through a lot of his work before rounds started at 7:30. He left work and went to the clinic at 7:00 am to give his sample. Then, he dashed back to work in time to start rounds with his team.

After he left the clinic, the lab took his sperm sample and put it through a wash.  They put the sperm in a container that I imagine as a cylinder.  The container has a few filters in it along with some kind of liquid.  The sperm are inserted in the bottom and they have to try to swim to the top, through all of the filters.  Sperm with no tails don't make it. Sperm with large heads don't make it.  Slow, lazy sperm don't make it. They started with 23 million sperm and after the wash they had 7.5 million left.  Those 7.5 million were put into a little syringe.

I showed up just before 9:00. I was shown into a regular exam room, just like you would go to for an annual exam.  The procedure was done by a physician's assistant who came into the room and explained everything before she began. She showed me the syringe and it appeared to be connected to a catheter that I couldn't see because it was still wrapped in a bag - from what I could tell it was pretty long, but very thin.

The procedure started out just like an annual exam, with the speculum. She checked my cervix to make sure it was all healthy and ready for ovulation. After she determined it was, she inserted the catheter. I could tell when she had inserted it, I could sort of feel it moving up inside me. She then injected the sperm using the syringe/catheter.  Around this time she told me the sperm were going in, but I couldn't tell a difference from just the catheter.  I started feeling a little crampy, but nothing terrible.  Then she just pulled it out and the procedure was over. The whole thing probably took less than five minutes once she started.

At this point, she told me to just lay there for 15 minutes and give the little guys a running start.  So, I grabbed my iPhone and looked up my horoscope.  It was this:

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). You just got home, so you're not anticipating another trip. But you might have to adjust your activity forecast when an interesting invitation arrives. When have you ever turned down a new adventure?