If It Weren't For the Constant Harrassment.....

The plan for today was to visit Old Delhi.  On the way there we passed through some of the posh areas of South Delhi that we thought were only a myth.  The streets were remarkably clean, the avenues were lined with trees and flowering bushes.  The residences all had tall, ornate fences and gates between them and the street.  So, THIS is how the other half lives in India.

We started the day at the Red Fort.  It is located in the center of Delhi and was built in 1648 as the fortified palace of the Mughal Emperer.  It has an area of over 250 acres that is enclosed by 1 1/2 miles of defensive walls.  We were struck by how ornate many of the buildings were with inlaid marble and carvings similar to the Taj Mahal.  Inside the complex were a large network of fountains and water channels.  Sadly the water channels and fountains are not operational at the moment and some of the original art and grandeur of the complex has been lost to looters over the years.

We were again asked to pose for several photographs.  While cute and first, it is starting to wear on us.  We joked that we should turn the tables a little bit and start telling people there's a charge to pose with us.

I kept saying Mughal like Muggle which made Mark laugh and make Harry Potter jokes.

 

 

 

After the Red Fort I was hoping that we would explore Chandi Chowk and the temples there and maybe even the spice market since they were literally right across the street from the Red Fort.  Unfortunately, once we stepped outside of the Red Fort grounds we were mobbed.  People shoving fans, and other merchandise in our faces.  Helicopter (aka cycle taxis) drivers all had "great rates" and were happy to show us the best spots for shopping.  It was overwhelming to say the least.  Mark was adamant that we abort the mission and move on to the next place.  I was sad about this but he was probably right that this was the best move.  It's really a shame.  The constant harassment is stopping us from seeing many of the sights of Delhi.

 

The India Gate was on the way back to the hotel so we decided that would be a nice stop.  It really was.  The Gate is surrounded by large water features with fountains and Fountains.  There were some children swimming in one of the water features.  I was truly jealous as it was 97 degrees today and we were pretty hot and disgusting by this point.

 

The Gate used to be called the All India War Memorial as it is a monument to the over 80,000 Indian soldiers who were killed in World War I.  The soldiers names are carved into the stone.  Inside of the arch is a structure that holds the four eternal flames which is India's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  Truly a beautiful and meaningful monument.

 

 

 

 

 

Outside of the India Gate we ran into a gentleman who had a king cobra in a basket.  I could not believe that we actually ran into a man with a king cobra in a basket in India.  No, he did not have a turban and a play a recorder to make the snake dance (that would have been awesome by the way).  I of course had to get a picture (against Mark's warning of course).  He motioned that we could get a picture WITH the snake.  I am sure it was defanged but still - there was no way either of us was getting near that thing.

He (of course) wanted some money from us for the "show".  Mark gave him some, mainly to get him to stop following us.  Thankfully the taxi was pretty close.  I hope the snake got some dinner out of this.
 
Monkey Watch - only one monkey spotted today.

Baby Watch - no news on the eggs/embryos or transfer.  Supposedly we will hear something tomorrow.  The suspense is KILLING me!!!!!!!!

Today We Were Celebrities

Since I was a good girl (aka Mark keeping me in the hotel against my wishes even though it was for my own good) and rested in the hotel the past few days I was given the OK to get out and do some sightseeing today.  Since it was 99 degrees today (I wish I was embellishing) and I am still a little tired and bloated.  As if sticking yourself in the belly 15-40 times, enduring multiple ultrasounds and blood draws, and having your emotions all over the place due to your hormones going crazy - you also get bloated, very bloated from IVF, and the bloat can last up to 10 days post-retrieval.  At least this time it is looking more like Thanksgiving dinner and less like I'm 4 months pregnant so I am hoping that I will not get OHSS this time.

The restaurant in our hotel is on the second floor.  Since the buildings are so close together, for appearances the building next door to the hotel has a decorative screen.  While eating breakfast this morning I saw something moving on the top of the screen.  For a second I thought it was a cat, but then I realized it was much larger.  It was a MONKEY.  I knew there were temple monkeys and that in the bazaars you may see them with street performers, but I was not expecting to see them just roaming around on their own.  In addition to random cows, packs of stray dogs, feral cats, and snakes , Delhi also has a monkey problem.  There is an estimated 30,000 monkeys (mostly rhesus monkeys) roaming the streets of Delhi. http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/india/140704/delhi-unruly-monkeys-steal-stuff-terrorize-kill

While we were out today I kept an extra watchful eye out for monkeys but saw none.

We first visited the Qutab Minar complex.  The Qutab Minar is a 73 m-high tower of victory, built in 1193 by Qutab-ud-din Aibak (the first sultan of Delhi) immediately after the defeat of Delhi's last Hindu kingdom.  It is quite beautiful.  The minar is made of red and buff sandstone and marble and  covered with intricate carvings and verses from the Qur'an.  It is surrounded by several other tombs and monuments that were added by subsequent rules.  While there we were asked to join a few photographs - a couple of school groups and a nice gentleman.  We felt like celebrities.

 

 

 

We had some time to kill before lunch so were headed to Deer Park.  I wanted to go there since it was noted in the guide book as having a deer enclosure there (hence the name).  This was definitely more of a local spot vs. tourist spot as the signs were all in Hindi only vs. Hindi and English as we've seen most everywhere else.  We still managed to find the spotted deer, peacocks, yet another monument and the rabbit/guinea pig enclosure.  I thought that was an odd combo - rabbits and guinea pigs - but they seemed to get along fine.

 

 

 



 

We then headed off to The Garden of Five Senses and Magique restaurant for lunch.  Our taxi driver could NOT find this place.  We drove around and around.  Which, since we were hot and the taxi had air conditioning we weren't that worried about.  We finally found The Garden of Five Senses (Yay!).  We found out why we couldn't find Magique - apparently it's closed.  After walking around the gardens for about an hour we ate at FIO which was EXCELLENT.  Great food and cocktails :)

 

There was a random camel at the Garden.  We don't think this was for camel rides - it looked like one of the gentleman at the snack bar's ride.

 

No news on the eggs/embryos.  The transfer should be tomorrow.

 



 

It's For My Own Good

 

Well, then I am a boring person because I am BORED.  Yet another day of hanging out in the hotel room.  The internet is spotty, so it is hard to do much work beyond answering emails.  We cannot do large downloads so streaming movies via Netflix or Apple TV is out of the question.  So, we are pretty much stuck watching TV.

 

Indian TV is very interesting.  Luckily we have found a couple of movie channels that show primarily American movies with subtitles.  Unluckily all of the channels seem to have commercials - even HBO.  We keep seeing commercials that show people living in large houses/apartments with lawns and high dollar appliances.  We wonder who these people are and where these people live since we haven't seen very much of that so far on the trip.

 

Another interesting thing is the jewelry commercials - particularly those hawking wedding/ engagement rings.  One in particular talks about how they found their day of love despite being having an arranged marriage.  Another talks about a promise that grows and should not be broken.  Mark is insistent that this is another commercial about arranged marriages.  I guest that this would be the norm.  Mr. Joy thought that arranged marriages were as common as higher than 70% of marriages and was surprised to hear that so many of us in the US had "love marriages".  The divorce rate in India is just over 1% vs. almost 50% in the US - maybe they are on to something.

 

While I find the nuances of Indian commercials interesting, I am longing to get out of the hotel soon.  I am doing OK after the retrieval - but still a little sore and a little tired yet.  Mark is right.  I need my rest to make sure that I make a full recovery.  I am also keeping a watchful eye out for any symptoms of OHSS since I had a mild case after my last cycle.  I hope that is not case with a couple less eggs this time - but I also don't know what my E2 levels were so there is always a chance again.

 

 

 

 

 



The Pick Up

Today was my egg retrieval, or "pick up" as they call it here.  We weren't scheduled to go to the clinic until noon, and I was allowed nothing to eat and little to drink before so I tried to sleep in as late as possible.  I was trying not to be nervous, but I was nervous.  I was about to undergo a medical procedure in a 3rd world country.  I think that I had every right to be nervous.

The walk to the clinic was very slow.  I am feeling pretty uncomfortable by this point and every step makes my swollen ovaries bounce.  Bouncing ovaries don't feel very good.

The clinic is not very busy when I get there.  Myself and two other woman got called back for our procedures.  On the day of my last retrieval there may have been several procedures that day - I will never know as I was in my own room pre and post procedure.  Here, however, space is much more limited, so there was only one pre and post procedure room so I was painfully aware that there were several procedures going on at the clinic today.

We were all given gowns and asked to step into the adjoining restroom one by one to change.  We all got to sit on one of the two recovery beds and await our procedure.  As we sat there in uncomfortable silence I was observing the other two women.

The one I think may have been a surrogate.  She had on a plain salwar kameez and seemed very shy.  She was there for her transfer.  The other woman was there for her pick up and I think that she was a fellow patient.  She obviously had some money - she had on western clothing, painted and manicured nails and a lot of jewelry.  She was looking at me with such contempt and distaste it was hard not to notice.  I get it I guess - me being a horrible American and all.

It was my turn for my procedure and I went back to the procedure room.  It thankfully looked pretty close to the one back home - just smaller.  The lab was in the next room which also thankfully resembled the one back home.  This made me feel a little better, if only for a short while.  Unfortunately the clinic has a small staff and had a lot of clients to take care of today, so I had to wait in the procedure room for a while before things got started.  The nurse spoke very little English.  She could tell I was very nervous and was trying to tell me to relax.  But, I wasn't relaxing.  Oh no, I was getting more and more nervous the longer I waited.

At long last, people began to start filing into the procedure room to prep me for the retrieval.  The anesthesiologist was a middle-aged man and was very nice.  Unfortunately I have very small veins and they only had the normal adult-sized needles which was making the whole IV process very difficult.  They finally got a vein to pop and thankfully didn't hesitate.  It hurt.  It kept hurting.  The liquid coming in the IV was burning my arm.  I couldn't help myself - I started crying.  Thankfully the anesthesia was started soon after that and I drifted off to sleep.

I was awoken by the anesthesiologist who kindly told me that the procedure was over and asked how I was doing.  I was OK.  I little groggy, but OK.  Thankfully my hand wasn't hurting as much from the IV.  I was waking up fine and wishing that I would brought something to read back with me.  Unfortunately with only two beds I had to start making my way over to the other bed soon.  I wasn't feeling too bad and was anxious to see Mark and get back to the hotel to rest so I was happy to comply.  I was sitting up fine and wasn't nauseous at all so I was allowed to change into my clothes and go up front to meet Mark.

The doctor saw us and went over the results.  She seemed very happy.  There were 8 eggs retrieved - all mature.  She said that the quality looked fine.  This was better than expected.  We were given discharge instructions and a few medicines to take over the next couple of days - antibiotics and mild painkillers.  The transfer will be on Tuesday.  We will be kept up to date on how things progress over the next few days.  For now the focus is for me to rest and recover from the procedure.

Wow.  8 eggs.  Decent Quality.  This all may work out after all.............

 

We Found All of the Other Tourists

 

I begged Mark to get out of the hotel for a little bit today.  He agreed only to lunch.  We decided on Lodi, The Garden Restaurant based on Mr. Joy's recommendation.  He has gone on and on about how his last assignment, an Australian couple, took him to this restaurant for lunch.  The bill was $70 USD (for three people including drinks).  Not wanting to be bested by Australians, we offered for him to join us.  He declined since today is Dussehra, a Hindi religious holiday, and he has the day off.  I fell less bad about him coming with us to the Taj Mahal on Sunday since he got two extra days off this week.

 



The restaurant was very nice.  It had a cute outdoor seating area complete with hanging lanterns, seating cabanas, misters and fans.  Definitely A LOT different from the little spots that we see on the way to the clinic.

One of the first things we noticed was the clientele - they were ALL tourists.  I guess this from their dress (shorts, tank tops), accessories (cameras, cell phones, flashy jewelry), and (I hate saying this) race.  Nearly all of the clientele in the restaurant appeared to be non-Indian.  The prices really weren't that bad - higher than we have paid at our hotel, but not by much.  Our bill was a little over 2,000 INR for two vs. 1,000 INR at our hotel (I did get a virgin juice cocktail and we expected the prices to be a bit higher).  The food was pretty good, but honestly, not twice as good as the hotel.

 

I was happy with Marks' restaurant choice because I had a secret plan.  The Lodi restaurant is right by the Lodi Gardens which is very close to two other monuments that I would like to visit.  I thought that I could easily weedle Mark into a little sight seeing today.  Well, that didn't happen.  Midway through lunch I started not feeling very well.  I assumed that something that I ate for breakfast was not agreeing with me.  So, I agreed to just go back to the hotel where I started feeling much better after lying down for a little bit.  Mark was right, I shouldn't be pushing myself right now.  I hate it when Mark's right.
 

Gandhi Jayanti

Today is Gandhi Jayanti, which is a national holiday celebrated in India to mark the occasion of the birthday of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the "Father of the Nation".   This is only one of three national holidays in India that is celebrated in every state and that most things are closed on.  So, not much going on in India today for a non-Indian.

The clinic was open for a short time today and only for a few of us that required visits for shots.  I was the lucky recipient of a shot in the belly and one in the butt.  The butt shot is still pretty sore by the way.  At 2 am this morning I get to shuffle out of bed and take my trigger shot.  Should be a good time.

It was fine that there wasn't much to do today since I am not really supposed to be doing much anyway per the clinic.  Despite only having six follicles my ovaries feel noticeably swollen and I am feeling tired and uncomfortable.  I knew that this was coming.  Luckily it is only for a few days.  I haven't been getting updates on my E2 levels, but I suspect that they are lower than my last cycle.  I don't feel nearly as emotional as I did the last cycle.

I was glad that Mark suggested a visit to the spa today since most things would be closed.  I had a facial and Mark had a massage.  I was complaining a bit about being cooped up, but honestly it's probably for the best.

In two days the retrieval will be over.........

Things Are Moving Along

This is what I took home from the clinic today.  Two boxes of Ovitrelle on top of an ice pack wrapped in newspaper.  Really.  I have watched similar packages going home with other ladies over the past few days, but somehow it wasn't real until it happened to me.  I do give them credit for the ice pack and trying the keep the medicines cold to remain effective.

Today was for the most part pretty boring and slow.  For some reason or another, Mark and I both woke up I the middle of the night and both had a lot of trouble getting back to sleep, making us both lacking some sleep today.  We tried to sleep in a bit and get down the restaurant with just enough time to get our breakfast.

Our appointment today wasn't until 1:30 so we had some time to kill before heading off to the clinic.  I was catching up on US and local news - the hotel only has HindustanTimes and Yahoo is Yahoo India - so I have been a little out of touch on news back home.  We decided that it is probably easier to just walk the few blocks to the clinic rather than trying to negotiate with one of the tuk-tuk drivers, so we headed out a little after 1:00 to make sure we had enough time to get there.  Mark and I feel a lot more comfortable with the walk at this point and the streets seemed a little less busy.

We arrived and the clinic did not look that busy today.  Looks can be deceiving.

The doctor called us back and let us know that the ultrasound machine was down at the moment and that we would have a 5 minute wait.  5 minutes in India = an hour and a half.  As we were waiting a LOT of people were shuffling in and out.  I figured out that there were two ladies having their retrievals today - one of the husbands was worried sick, the other was asking about the nearest place to get a beer.  Also, a VERY pregnant woman waddled in.  I think she was scheduled to give birth today.

We were called back and the doctor was chatting with Mark as I was getting ready for my ultrasound.  During my ultrasound, the doctor and the nurse once again commented on my "tiny" uterus.  My first ultrasound the nurse looked VERY concerned.  The doctor then seemed to be explaining something to her and I heard "unicornuate".  I am pretty sure that this was the first time the nurse has seen a unicornuate uterus "in person"  I guess that since only less than 1% of woman have this particular uterine abnormality it is to be expected.  It also makes me feel a little better about the whole GC situation since my uterus is "tiny".

The doctors consulted and started throwing around a lot of drug names and doses.  This was new.  Things must be happening.

The doctor told Mark that my eggs were "ready" and I was going to start some additional medications.  In addition to my Gonal F, I was given Ovurelix to prevent me from ovulating.   Tomorrow I come in for Gonal F, Ovurelix and they will also add Menopur - the Menopur will hopefully boost my egg quality.  Then, at 2 am on Friday morning I get to give myself the two shot of Ovitrelle to trigger my eggs to mature and be ready for my retrieval on Saturday.

Saturday?  That is a day faster than my last two cycles and a good three days faster than the average woman.  I am a fast-stimmer.  I worry a bit as this may be part of the poor egg quality issue, but I guess it is what it is.

A Saturday retrieval does give us more free days with which to do some sight-seeing so I guess that will be good.  Hopefully with less eggs I won't develop OHSS like I did the last time.  I also made sure to bring plenty of protein powder and Pedialyte powder to help ward off OHSS.  The bad thing is that now I am officially cooped up in my hotel room for the most part until after the retrieval on Saturday.  This sucks.  I admit that I am starting to feel a bit uncomfortable and may not be up for much anyway, but I still hate being cooped up.  Mark keeps reminding me that this is the whole reason while we are here and that the most important thing is my health and safety.

He has also agreed to massages and/or facials tomorrow and lunch at a nice restaurant (outside of the hotel) on Friday in order to placate me.  I am trying also for the zoo.......