We both went in on Friday morning to sign all the paperwork. Something I forgot to mention in the previous post as part of the "So much news!" was that I told my supervisor about fertility treatment - whaaaaat! I know. Big news for me. I was emotional because I realized it was the end of my compartmentalization between work and home. I had to do it though, because if retrieval would have been on Friday I would have missed a big day at work. She could not have been more lovely about it. If it had to happen, I'm glad it was with this supervisor. So back to Friday, we both went in to the clinic to sign all the paperwork we didn't want to sign on Saturday. I needed to be back at work by 9:30 AM but the doc needed to go over a specific page with us and she was tied up until 9:00 AM. I made it, but it was a close call.
We got to the hotel on Friday evening around 6:30 PM. Because of Shabbat, I reserved two nights at the hotel and figured we'll just stay the second night, may as well. Since the door was activated by an electronic key, we were basically holed up in the room since if we left we'd either need to leave one person behind or have hotel staff help by opening the door for us. It sounds ridiculous when I say it out loud, but I don't make the rules!
I brought light meals and we had a lovely dinner. I took the antibiotic they had prescribed right around dinner time because I was told it would mess with my stomach less if I took it with food. It was better than last time, but I still had an unhappy tummy. It had been a long day and I was out by 9:30 PM. We got up early on Saturday morning and got ready to walk next door to the clinic. We got there by 9:15 AM, right at our appointment time. Our nurses were great and there were no issues getting vitals or the IV in. Since everything was already signed and done the day before, there was nothing to do but wait for my turn.
We waited in those hospital cubicles, separated by curtains. There were two other people having treatment, with the times staggered depending on when they triggered. We could, of course, hear everything. One patient got the most awful news. She was told that they were unable to get any of the follicles for some reason. The doctor was reassuring her that it wasn't her fault and there was nothing she could have done differently, but that didn't help the sobs coming from this poor woman. She had to go through two weeks of stims, and will have to go through the full recovery of the retrieval but without anything to show for it. I felt so, so bad for her.
When it was my turn, I was taken to the Operating Room and they took my glasses away. I leaned back and was told to take a deep breath... next thing I know I was back in recovery and it was 30 min later. The nurses took great care of me and my husband was there keeping me comfortable and entertained. My eyelids felt like they weighed 1000 lbs each, even though I felt clear headed. The doc came in to tell me the news that they were able to retrieve 27 eggs. It's such an impressive number, but I can't help buy worry about how many are actually mature? How many will fertilize? How many will make it to blast? It's obviously better to start with more, but I know that in the end it really doesn't matter how many you start with but rather what you end up with.
Our hotel stay left much to be desired. I mentioned some of this to the hotel staff when we checked out but not all of it because I didn't want to seem like I was just complaining to get something back (discount, points, etc.) - these were all legit complaints. So here is the full list: For starters, there was noise the entire time. Not just regular noise like plumbing and people walking in the hallway. There were doors slamming all night long. People yelling in the hallways at all hours. We could hear the TV playing next door and the guy peeing upstairs. During the day time, after the procedure, I was trying to nap in the afternoon while housekeeping crew was on our floor. They were shouting at each other for 45 minutes to the point where I got out of bed and asked them very politely if they could keep it down, to which the response was that she spoke no English. Beside all that, there was a loose metal sheet on the pavement right outside our window and traffic kept running over it at all hours. In addition, we had a small fridge in our room that kept ticking and shuttering loudly every time it cycled on. I am sensitive to noise in general, but this was completely over the top.
Beside for the noise, the room felt shabby. The mattresses weren't young. They were soft and were ripped at the seams. The door to the bathroom was warped and swollen to the point that it didn't shut all the way. It had patches of flaked plaster on it. There was an updated TV in the room, but no one had bothered to move the painting behind the TV when it was upgraded to a larger side, so it just looked neglected and out of place. There was also a stale smell in the air without the option to open a window.
The things that bothered me most was the two things I asked for when checking in that was totally within their control. When we checked in and got to our room, I saw there was only one chair near the desk. We were planning to eat our meals in the room, so I called the front desk and requested a second chair - any chair would do, I said even a basic folding chair was fine. Not only did they not bring us a chair at all, but they didn't even bother to let us know that one wasn't coming. They basically completely ignored this request. It wasn't like I was asking for the moon. They have a conference hall with folding chairs on the floor right beneath us, they could have found a spare chair.
The second request was for a specific wake up call. We needed to be at the clinic by 9:15 AM. I knew I would wake up in time but I couldn't just leave it to chance and miss the appointment so I asked for a wake up call at 8:00 AM for them to call, let it ring twice, and hang up. They asked if I want a second courtesy call (snoozer?) and I said specifically that I do not want any calls other than the original one because I will not be answering the phone. Of course I'm up by 6:00 AM this morning and there was no reason for the call at all. As expected the wake up call comes at 8:00 AM and rings for 5 times. A few too many, I think, but ok. Five minutes later they call again. At 8:10 AM they call a third time and I'm starting to get really annoyed. We're not answering the phone because it's shabbat, and either this is a persistent employee or an automated system. When it rings again at 8:15 AM and then again at 8:18 AM I've had enough and make my way down the stairs to the front desk. I tell the lady there that we asked for only one ring but that the phone hasn't stopped since 8:00 AM. She asked if we tried unplugging the phone. That's not the point, lady!!! Tell your people to stop calling! I go back to the room and it's finally quiet..... until 8:45 AM at which point the phone rings again. The message button lights up and the ringing stops. After shabbat I checked our messages and it was from a lady in Guest Services saying she doesn't want us to be late to whereever we are.
The mistake was the miscommunication from the person at the front who took the message to give us a wakeup call without letting them know the specific instructions, but there was also an error on the employee's part that she didn't bother checking with anyone before calling 6 times! It's not even like this was a Motel 8 where these things were to be expected. This was a four start Sheraton hotel in a ritzy neighborhood for several hundred dollars a night. It was unacceptable and we decided to check out early. Even though we had the room until tomorrow at noon, we checked out as soon as Shabbat was over and hauled ass out of there. I am not ungrateful that it was there when we needed it. But for the amount of money we spent on the accommodations you'd think they'd put in a little extra effort.
Staying in hotels really makes me appreciate my house more. It's also the reason I prefer to use HomeAway when traveling. The conditions are always so much better than hotels.
I brought light meals and we had a lovely dinner. I took the antibiotic they had prescribed right around dinner time because I was told it would mess with my stomach less if I took it with food. It was better than last time, but I still had an unhappy tummy. It had been a long day and I was out by 9:30 PM. We got up early on Saturday morning and got ready to walk next door to the clinic. We got there by 9:15 AM, right at our appointment time. Our nurses were great and there were no issues getting vitals or the IV in. Since everything was already signed and done the day before, there was nothing to do but wait for my turn.
We waited in those hospital cubicles, separated by curtains. There were two other people having treatment, with the times staggered depending on when they triggered. We could, of course, hear everything. One patient got the most awful news. She was told that they were unable to get any of the follicles for some reason. The doctor was reassuring her that it wasn't her fault and there was nothing she could have done differently, but that didn't help the sobs coming from this poor woman. She had to go through two weeks of stims, and will have to go through the full recovery of the retrieval but without anything to show for it. I felt so, so bad for her.
When it was my turn, I was taken to the Operating Room and they took my glasses away. I leaned back and was told to take a deep breath... next thing I know I was back in recovery and it was 30 min later. The nurses took great care of me and my husband was there keeping me comfortable and entertained. My eyelids felt like they weighed 1000 lbs each, even though I felt clear headed. The doc came in to tell me the news that they were able to retrieve 27 eggs. It's such an impressive number, but I can't help buy worry about how many are actually mature? How many will fertilize? How many will make it to blast? It's obviously better to start with more, but I know that in the end it really doesn't matter how many you start with but rather what you end up with.
Our hotel stay left much to be desired. I mentioned some of this to the hotel staff when we checked out but not all of it because I didn't want to seem like I was just complaining to get something back (discount, points, etc.) - these were all legit complaints. So here is the full list: For starters, there was noise the entire time. Not just regular noise like plumbing and people walking in the hallway. There were doors slamming all night long. People yelling in the hallways at all hours. We could hear the TV playing next door and the guy peeing upstairs. During the day time, after the procedure, I was trying to nap in the afternoon while housekeeping crew was on our floor. They were shouting at each other for 45 minutes to the point where I got out of bed and asked them very politely if they could keep it down, to which the response was that she spoke no English. Beside all that, there was a loose metal sheet on the pavement right outside our window and traffic kept running over it at all hours. In addition, we had a small fridge in our room that kept ticking and shuttering loudly every time it cycled on. I am sensitive to noise in general, but this was completely over the top.
Beside for the noise, the room felt shabby. The mattresses weren't young. They were soft and were ripped at the seams. The door to the bathroom was warped and swollen to the point that it didn't shut all the way. It had patches of flaked plaster on it. There was an updated TV in the room, but no one had bothered to move the painting behind the TV when it was upgraded to a larger side, so it just looked neglected and out of place. There was also a stale smell in the air without the option to open a window.
The things that bothered me most was the two things I asked for when checking in that was totally within their control. When we checked in and got to our room, I saw there was only one chair near the desk. We were planning to eat our meals in the room, so I called the front desk and requested a second chair - any chair would do, I said even a basic folding chair was fine. Not only did they not bring us a chair at all, but they didn't even bother to let us know that one wasn't coming. They basically completely ignored this request. It wasn't like I was asking for the moon. They have a conference hall with folding chairs on the floor right beneath us, they could have found a spare chair.
The second request was for a specific wake up call. We needed to be at the clinic by 9:15 AM. I knew I would wake up in time but I couldn't just leave it to chance and miss the appointment so I asked for a wake up call at 8:00 AM for them to call, let it ring twice, and hang up. They asked if I want a second courtesy call (snoozer?) and I said specifically that I do not want any calls other than the original one because I will not be answering the phone. Of course I'm up by 6:00 AM this morning and there was no reason for the call at all. As expected the wake up call comes at 8:00 AM and rings for 5 times. A few too many, I think, but ok. Five minutes later they call again. At 8:10 AM they call a third time and I'm starting to get really annoyed. We're not answering the phone because it's shabbat, and either this is a persistent employee or an automated system. When it rings again at 8:15 AM and then again at 8:18 AM I've had enough and make my way down the stairs to the front desk. I tell the lady there that we asked for only one ring but that the phone hasn't stopped since 8:00 AM. She asked if we tried unplugging the phone. That's not the point, lady!!! Tell your people to stop calling! I go back to the room and it's finally quiet..... until 8:45 AM at which point the phone rings again. The message button lights up and the ringing stops. After shabbat I checked our messages and it was from a lady in Guest Services saying she doesn't want us to be late to whereever we are.
The mistake was the miscommunication from the person at the front who took the message to give us a wakeup call without letting them know the specific instructions, but there was also an error on the employee's part that she didn't bother checking with anyone before calling 6 times! It's not even like this was a Motel 8 where these things were to be expected. This was a four start Sheraton hotel in a ritzy neighborhood for several hundred dollars a night. It was unacceptable and we decided to check out early. Even though we had the room until tomorrow at noon, we checked out as soon as Shabbat was over and hauled ass out of there. I am not ungrateful that it was there when we needed it. But for the amount of money we spent on the accommodations you'd think they'd put in a little extra effort.
Staying in hotels really makes me appreciate my house more. It's also the reason I prefer to use HomeAway when traveling. The conditions are always so much better than hotels.
So that was our stay. The clinic was great about the whole shabbat thing and really made us as comfortable as possible. We even had a nurse escort us back to our room so we didn't have to worry about electronic doors or eruv. Now we wait to hear about fertilization progress over the next few days.
27 is a great number! I'll keep thinking good thoughts... Glad the procedure went well :)
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