I never knew.

Huh, so. You never know what is going on beneath the surface of someone's life, do you?

A little backstory.

My local RE has 3 clinics, the main one and two satellite clinics. One of the satellite clinics is more local to me than the main office, so I try to go there whenever possible. Unfortunately, up until about 6 months ago, they shared office space with a perinatologist, so there were always pregnant bellies walking past - and being that it was a peri, not an OB, there weren't the happiest faces on top of the bellies. Anyhoo. The ultrasound tech there, Franny, was the loveliest loveliest person. A genius with the u/s wand - could find follicles hidden where noone else could, without hurting me. I loved having her do my u/s's. Until she too got visibly pregnant. And then it was just damn hard, seeing the pregnant bellies in the waiting room and then hers. I mean, she never ever said anything about it, and would sometimes smile ruefully at me, so she wasn't in your face about the belly, but it was hard to ignore. I was all "god damn, I can't even go to the infertility clinic without the damn fertiles rubbing their damn big bellies in my face." Eventually she went on maternity leave, I saw her bring in the baby once, and then didn't really see her again. I guess she left.

Cut to today.

I went to have the blood work done to ship to Big New Clinic to make the decision on the whole surge situation. The chatty nurse, Karen, was saying "oh, so you did decide to keep cycling, then?" I told her about being booted out by Dr. M, and not being ready to give up on my eggs. She asked what the blood tests today were for, and if I was cycling right now, and how the traveling was. So I started to explain about the coculture thing, assuming she wouldn't know what it was as it's kind of rare. "Oh, yes, coculture," she says. "That's what Franny did - you remember Franny, right?" "Huh?" I said, "Franny did IVF? I didn't know that". So then I get the full explanation. Franny did 7, count 'em, 7 IVFs for unexplained infertility, and adopted a daughter, before doing one final last ditch cycle at Big New Clinic. Yup, Dr. M. recommended his own staff member go to Big New Clinic. She did coculture. She too didn't want to give up on her own eggs without one last ditch attempt at the best place possible. Her 8th IVF worked, and resulted in the birth of her son.

Wow. I never knew. I assumed she was a fertile. It just goes to show that you never really know what's going on.

Anyway, update on the surge later. Yesterday's tests were negative, although a tad darker than previous days. We'll see. I'm expecting to be bumped but perhaps that's just the pessimism talking.