Vacation

Hi folks - didn't want you to think I'd given up so quickly... I'm actually going to be on vacation for about a week. If they've got wireless at our destination, I'll definitely sneak in a post.

My plan when I return is to take on the taboo. Personally, when I got elbow-deep into this ridiculous baby chase, I wanted to know the unseemly details, the lurid intracacies of kids-by-science.

This is an embarrassing process for both the man and the woman. It's FAR more invasive for women, but that's not to say there aren't plain weird moments for the guy. And, well... this was the whole idea of the blog - to present the guy point of view.

Now I know most of the ladies out there are going to let out a collective "GIVE ME A BREAK" as I whine about this, but the process of "collecting a sample of semen" is truly bizarre. And nothing can really prepare you for the walk of shame - the trip down the hallway with a cup in your hand as everyone looks at you knowing you're headed back there to smack your junk.

Maybe it's a gross subject, maybe it's funny, perhaps it's titillating. Regardless, I'm pretty sure none of you had to conduct such improper behavior a few paces away from your mother-in-law...and frankly, that was just part of what made my first experience in this ridiculous collection room so painfully memorable.

So in the meantime, feel free to comment on whether or not you think it's appropriate material, or if you'd rather I skip to more important topics involved in the IVF process. If anyone else wants to share oddball details of their collection room experience - go for it. The more we can laugh about it, the more normal it might seem.

See you in a few...

A warm welcome

Thanks to everyone for the encouragement and for those of you with similarly themed blogs for adding me to your links. It's good to see some comments in here and I love that some of you have shared links to other horror stories on par with mine.

I wanted to post a bit of clarification as it related to my situation. You'll notice I tend to post in the past-tense. My wife and I have actually been undergoing IVF for the last year and I'm posting in a way that is a bit of "catch up," if you will. It's an effort to share our story for anyone who might find it useful, supportive, funny, what have you. And frankly, it seemed preferable to just saying, "we've been undergoing IVF for a year, it sucks, and...DISCUSS..."

My hope is to ultimately get caught up to where we presently are in a short time, and make the comments more real-time, as I suppose a more traditional weblog would be. In the meantime, I'll just continue to tell the story...