First Day of IVF

I wake up at 09:00 and video call Jeremiah. He's heading to bed on his side of the world. He reassures me that the first appointment with the IVF clinic will go well. I wish him goodnight, and get ready for my day.

New Life Clinic gave me a direct contact for a taxi service that works with the clinic. My taxi arrives at the VRBO, and I head down, hopping into the car. The driver, Apostolos, introduces himself to me, and takes me to the appointment. New Life is located in Kalamaria Municipality of Thessaloniki on the second floor of their building. I take the elevator up as the stairs are blocked off, and find myself face to face with a locked door. I push a doorbell, hear a buzz, and open the door to lay my eyes upon the clinic for the first time.

The receptionist is very kind and directs me to the waiting room after I check in. There is one other couple in the waiting area. Thaleia, my international coordinator and fertility nurse, comes and says hello and takes me into another room for a blood draw. The tourniquet is barely tight, she feels my arm for just a few seconds, informs me that she found a vein and tells me I just have deep veins, and sticks me with the needle. The needle is about 1.5 inches long and the whole thing gets plunged into my arm, but it doesn't hurt at all. The gage is very small. She gets the vein on the first try, draws blood, and is done all in maybe two minutes.. It is the best blood draw I have ever had in my life.

Thaleia leads me back out to the waiting room, a small, round bandaid on my left inner elbow from the blood draw, and I sit down. There's now another couple in the waiting area.

It's not long before Thaleia comes back to get me and takes me into an office. There's a dividing wall behind the desk where there's an ultrasound machine. I'm asked to strip down my bottom half and place white fabric over my hips and lay down. I do, and soon after a doctor and Thaleia come back to do my first scan, which is a vaginal ultrasound. I'm told I have ten follicles in each ovary, giving me twenty total. Thaleia tells me that the number will most likely go up in my next scan, as the follicles are so small on day one of the cycle that it's easy to miss some, but twenty is a very good number to start at. I clean up, get redressed, and sit at the desk in the office area.

Thaleia has the kindest eyes, and I like her almost immediately. She explains to me that I will be starting follicle stimulation this evening. She walks me through on how to inject the stimulant, has me watch an instructional video, and schedules me for my next appointment which will be on Wednesday, four days from now. She calls a pharmacy to get the stimulant ready. She gives me the address, and a piece of paper with the prescription written on it, which I need to turn in at the pharmacy. Well, this is certainly different than how it works in the United States, and I don't mind one bit.

Thessaloniki

I go to the front desk and pay for the blood tests, and then head outside to head to the pharmacy. I have several hours until the pharmacy closes, and I decide to walk there. It's only 3.3 kilometers away, or about two miles. I stop and take photographs of flowers, birds, a variety of things, and then stop at a store. It's called Πλαίσιο Καλαμαριάς (Plasios Kalamarias). It has electronics, toys, and other things. I don't buy anything, but I do take a picture of a board game that looks interesting called Canvas.

I continue my walk, stopping to get a coffee at Vergidis Bakery. I get a freddo cappuccino, learning the word "freddo" for cold, to take away. During our exchange, I taught the man who works there the English word for cinnamon as he did not know it, and he teaches me how to say thank you (Σας ευχαριστώ, or "Sas efharistó").

I continue my walk with my coffee in my hand, and make it to Angel Pharmacy. I pay for my medications, and am informed that the medication needs to be refrigerated. The pharmacist gives me an insulated bag with an ice pack at no extra cost. I leave the pharmacy and go to a nearby bus stop. I wait for about thirty minutes and then decide to go try another bus stop. I wait at this other bus stop for over an hour. Maybe the buses don't run as often on Saturday?

The Bus

I had done research previously on the bus system, and my bus finally arrives. I board Bus 3K, and it's so full that I have to stand in front of the doors, moving out of the way each time they open to let people on and off. I end up being on the correct bus, but on the wrong side of its route, so it goes all the way out to a main hub called Makedonia, which is the opposite end of where I need to be. The ice pack is still cold, so I stay on the bus. A ton of people get off at Makedonia, and I snag a seat. I watch out the window as the bus makes its way back down the other side of its route, smiling with amusement as we pass businesses with what I think are funny English names. Places like "Pizza Fan" and "Sport Panic". The bus makes its way back down to the other main hub, IKEA. Yes, like the store, because IKEA the store is located right next to the bus stop.

I exit bus 3K and go to the platform to get on bus 72 which will take me back to Peraia. It takes about forty minutes for bus 72 to show up, and about twenty minutes to get from IKEA to my Peraia bus stop.

VRBO Time

I put the medication, Gonal-f, in the fridge. It's a single tube that has multiple doses in it, and you attach a needle to the end of it like a pen cap. There's a little turn dial on it that tells you how many doses you have left in the pen.

I go shower, and settle on the couch. The Crown is playing on the Television, and I play Tears of the Kingdom on my Nintendo Switch. I call Jeremiah when it's time for him to wake up, and it's also time for me to take my medication for the first time. I lift my shirt. I'm supposed to inject the medication into my belly. I've never done anything like this before, and it is nerve-wracking trying to hype yourself up to stab yourself, no matter how small the needle is.

I look at the needle and it's very short. I sanitize a spot on my belly, and grab an area of my it, lightly pinching it as instructed, and poke the needle in. It's not bad at all, actually. I push the button at the bottom of the pen and it injects the medication in. I watch the number drop by one on the dosage counter. I also have to start taking injectable blood thinners since I'm taking hormones. I have to take blood thinners because I had deep vein thrombosis in 2021. The blood thinner needle feels much longer than the stimulant, but I'm so proud of myself for how well I handled the Gonal-f, that I'm like "I can do this". I decide to poke the blood thinners into my thigh since the hormone medications are being poked into my belly. I sanitize a spot on my thigh and push the needle in. Oh, my gosh, it hurts. It burns as it enters my system, and I sit down on the couch clutching my leg. Jeremy, concerned, starts talking to me more animatedly to distract me from the pain.

Hormone medication? Totally manageable. Blood thinners? Not so much. Goodness.

Jeremy has to start getting ready for work, so we say our goodbyes. I go lay in bed, playing Tears of the Kingdom until I fall asleep around 02:00.