So, I was just sitting around thinking about all of the MANY blessings that God has given me that I don't deserve, but am so thankful for. Yesterday morning, I had the privilege to attend the SC Governor's Prayer Breakfast with our company. We go to various prayer breakfasts every couple of weeks, so I figured that this one would be the same. To my surprise, the speaker was very interesting and Governor Nikki Haley gave a great, short but to the point speech-her main focus was on South Carolina being the best that it can be. For us to go back to our communities and do little things that will make a big difference. So, all day I was thinking where I could do something that matters. This morning when I was getting ready for work (rushing), a thought popped into my mind. I just started volunteering at Lexington and Baptist hospitals for multiple reasons. I figured it would be a good use of my time in the evenings, get me into the healthcare field, and for some reason I felt this tugging on my heart to do so. I ended up in two units that I have a lot of passion and interest in-Mother & Baby and High Risk OB. I am so excited about the opportunities that lie ahead for me there. This got me thinking. As I was wheeling babies into their mommy's rooms I noticed that there were soo many gifts and balloons and stuffed animals-all for baby. Most of the time when babies are born, the mommy delivers and is then forgotten about. There are not gifts for them. So, my new project....drumroll...mommy buckets! I am going to make some Palmetto Tree buckets with the cricut and fill them with goodies for mommies! Little things that will make them happy and comfortable at home, so they know that they are important too-fuzzy socks, lotion, chocolate, nail polish, magazines, etc. I will start to deliver them on the nights I am at the hospital and hopefully it can turn into a bigger project. I am so excited to start! I am also working on the final touches to my "admission packet" to Orangeburg Tech. I take the SAT Saturday and next week I will take the TEAS test to hopefully qualify me. I am nervous but excited to see where this might take me.
I have been thinking about all of the exciting things happening in my life and for some reason the song from Toy Story keeps playing in my mind...Strange things are happenin' to me. So here, enjoy! :)
Happy Thursday and Happy Birthday to my beautiful Nansy- the Queen B who taught me how to be a princess!! Love you Nana-Peasel
We've made it through another week! How is is fair that the week is 5 days long and the weekend is 2? Who made up that rule? We are excited to see today because we are going to visit some good friends this weekend!! Abigail, my old roommate from College of Charleston and Caleb, Chad, and Jonathan at Georgetown! I am so excited to get away for the weekend and have a good time. Miller is staying with Mom & Dad (her grandparents) and they are excited to have her. And to top it off, it's PAYDAY! Have a great weekend :)
Today has been one of those days! You know when nothing is going how you wanted and every little thing is wrong and makes it even worse. Bingo, that is today. But on the bright side, I am on my merry way to Lexington tonight and hopefully those little tiny newborns will make me smile! I love the hospital!
Since today has been so rotten, I figured I would write about something that I am very passionate about-egg donation! I have had a LOT of people ask me about the process recently so I figured that I would explain it and make it a little more clear for everyone. It's a little bit TMI for some, but it is interesting.
I am an egg donor. An egg donor is a woman who gives her eggs to a couple or individual who cannot achieve pregnancy with their own eggs. It has been a long process-I began the process in about September, so it has been about 7 months and I am finally "official and waiting". This is how it works. I had an initial visit with Southeastern Fertility where they explain everything to you-I'm not going to lie it would scare most people off, but it sounded cool to me so I decided to proceed. I had to fill out a loooong questionnaire that took about 2 hours. These questions create a profile of you in their database. You include baby and young pictures of you. I had a doctors appointment where they did a vaginal ultrasound of my ovaries and the follicles.
Every month, your body (if you're a girl!) produces 6-20 follicles and your body chooses one to become the egg. The rest die off and are flushed out. As you know, each woman is born with a certain amount of eggs, and when they're gone, they're gone. A common misconception is that they take eggs away from you-wrong! They never harvest eggs that you could use, instead the medicine you take turns all of the follicles into eggs instead of them dying off. So really, you are using what your body would consider waste to create usable eggs for someone! So, once they look at your ovaries and make sure you are good physically, they move on to mental and genetic evaluation. I went to see a psychotherapist (the appointment took a month to get!) to make sure I understood the process, and also a genetic counselor to look at my family history.
Finally, after you're cleared you play the waiting game.My profile is now active, so when potential parents are searching the database (it is private, only parents can see it) they can find me and hopefully pick me! My location, name, age, etc are not visible to them. The potential parents are from all over the world. The woman told me she has seen matches come from all of the continents!
Once I am picked by a couple, I will begin taking birth control to regulate my cycle with the woman's. I will do one week of injectable medication in my leg once a day to stop my own body from ovulating normally. The second week I will inject myself with another medication that makes my follicles turn into eggs. When they are nice and ripe, I could potentially have 6 fertile eggs waiting. (Sextuplets..yikes!) The night before retrieval, I take one final medication to get them ready to 'harvest.' I will have to see my Fertility Doctor just about every morning for a week to check my hormone levels.
The day they are ready, I will travel to Charleston for retrieval. They put me to sleep, take a loooong needle and insert it vaginally. They suck the little guys out and wake me up! The process takes about 45 minutes and only puts you out for a day or so. It is painful afterwards and I will be sore for a few weeks. After one cycle, my body should go back to normal. The entire process if confidential unless myself and the family decide differently. They will never be in the same facility as me, they will never see me, know my name or my location. I won't know theirs either. In fact, they don't even tell me how many eggs matured, whether the in-vitro fertilization worked for the other couple or if she even became pregnant. I think it is so cool that measly little me can give a couple the best gift that they will ever receive. I also think that God puts it on certain people's hearts to do this type of thing. Some people are really freaked out by the whole thing, and I happen to think it is beautiful and so perfect. I am so excited to be a part of it.
So, now that I have completely wigged you out, feel free to ask me any questions you have about it! I am not so patiently waiting to be matched with someone so that I can finish this journey!
