February

We moved house as our landlord kicked us out for his own personal gain. This was an incredibly stressful time in itself.

A week after moving in to our new flat a huge box arrived (with cooler packs – amazing), just as Dr Samit & Anjani had explained, with the IVF drugs to encourage my ovaries to produce eggs. I started self-injecting. This was fine, but I have a new found respect for diabetics who have to self inject every day for their entire lives to stay alive.

I had a few queries about the medication and hence emailed Dr Samit and immediately he replied explaining and answering my worries and queries. He explained everything fully and made everything clear. I was relieved to be able to contact him so easily and for him to direct me so openly.
I self injected for 2 weeks. During this time we organised our flights to Hyderabad to then meet KIC and have my eggs harvested. Timing was critical as I had to make sure KIC could see me the day after my last injection at home.

We also arranged for Dominic’s mum to come out to us and look after Orlando whilst we were away in India. She was absolutely amazing, dropped everything, and found a flight to Hong Kong without a moment of hesitation.

I was SO stressed out emotionally and physically that I lost the ability to cook and served up 2 evening meals that were uncooked and raw – to my embarrassment. I love to cook and it was distressing to see what was happening to me. My mother in law and Dominic were incredibly worried about me.

Never the less we did our hand over to Dominic’s Mum and we got on the flight heading to Hyderabad. It was very nerve wracking, terrifying and exciting all at the same time. We took a deep breath; we were really doing it….

We arrived at Hyderabad airport and as Anjani has explained there would be a hotel car waiting for us. The hotel had our room booking and again, as Anjani had explained there was a local mobile phone waiting for us too. This was a brilliant idea as it had all the KIC staff’s telephone numbers in it and was an immediate source of comfort.

KIC had everything in hand. Efficiency at its very best; we were more than impressed.

We had arrived late, so Anjani said he would have the KIC car pick us up the following morning to meet himself, Dr Samit and Dr Kiran. The car arrived bang on time to pick us up; we couldn’t have asked for more and again were blown away by this amazing efficiency.

We got to the clinic and it was great to finally see it. We were shown to a special waiting room and Anjnai introduced himself.  He was charming and it was a pleasure to meet him. He told us Dr Samit would meet us separately in a consulting room. We then met Dr Samit and he happily answered all our questions about the egg harvest , the surrogacy journey and explained to us in more detail about how we would move forward. It was a pleasure to meet him and he immediately put our minds to rest. He answered all of our questions no matter how big or small there were. It was lovely to finally put faces to the names we had been talking to.

I also met Dr Kiran and all the other doctors and nurses who were more than helpful. They again helped put my nerves to one side.

Fortunately we did not have to go to the clinic every day so we had much time to ourselves to explore Hyderabad. It is a very interesting city with fascinating sites to visit. We used tuk tuks for our ‘out-and-about’ adventures to really get ourselves orientated with the city. We explored everywhere, from the old city walls to the high tech ‘silcon valley’ area. The city is an amazing mix of old and new which is wonderful to see. You could spend every day visiting stunning palaces, tombs, forts and of course the wonderful markets. I got quite carried away on one of the most colourful streets I think I have ever seen; they sold bangles – every single shop! It was divine!

We enjoy Indian cuisine so were very keen to explore all the restaurants we could. One evening Anjani took us to a restaurant overlooking the Lake, The Water Front’. This was very kind of him to give us his precious time, but it was also a chance for him to get to know and understand us as a family in a relaxed environment away from the clinic which was lovely.

The food in every restaurant we went to was delicious and I for one would never get bored of the biriani, dal and roti! It makes my mouth water just thinking about all the flavours and blending of spices! I am a keen cook. Perhaps when we are back I should enroll on a cooking course to learn the true art of curry making?

One thing about returning to India as an adult, I was last there 25 years ago, was that I kept on coming across things that I remembered as a child; in particular Limca and roti! It was a treat to find them again.

Finally came the day of my egg harvest after much careful monitoring. Dr Kiran left nothing to chance. 2 days prior to this, I had the final injection which had to be administered late one evening. One of the lovely nurses came to our hotel room to administer the final injection as it was in my back and I couldn’t reach the area plus Dominic was a little nervous to do it himself! We could hardly believe the KIC staff were so kind as to come to our hotel and help us in this way.

The following morning I walked into the operating room. Before I knew it I was knocked out and awake again with Dominic at my side. It had been quick and simple; I knew I was in safe hands. Then it was Dominic’s turn to hand in his contribution!

The medical team looked after me very well and wouldn’t let me leave until they were certain I wasn’t queasy and could walk and talk properly again. There was no pressure for us to leave the recovering room in the clinic; only when I was ready and they were happy with me did they let that happen. At all times the staff were checking on me.

We said our thank yous and good byes, hoping we would see the KIC team very soon.
Before we left Hyderabad Dr Samit called to tell us the number of eggs they had harvested and it was a good harvest, which was a huge relief. The following morning, with me feeling rather sore, bruised and swollen from the harvesting, we jumped on a flight home and left the KIC team to look after the next steps.