The first consultation at CARE, Nottingham - November 2008

On 3rd November 2008 we had our first consultation at CARE in Nottingham. It took several hours to get through all of the tests that were required of us, Hep B, Hep C, Chlamydia, HIV, height and weight measurements and a semen analysis, and there was a bit of waiting in between.

Our consultant was lovely - and I thought she was even lovelier when she gave us a 35% to 50% chance of success! She said that if were were coming for regular IVF, she would say we would have a 50% chance, but as statistically, 25% of any embryos we create will be affected with cystic fibrosis, our chances fell a bit to 35%. However, if we got to the stage where there are healthy embryos to transfer back into me, we would be back at 50%.

The following week I had to come back for an internal ultrasound scan (commonly known as the 'fanny cam' to IVFers!) to check the number of follicles on my ovaries and to check the shape of my uterus. I was relieved to hear that all looked fine and that I had 13 follicles developing for that month. Those 13 follicles, when under the influence of the stimulating drugs in an IVF cycle, might be expected to produce a similar number of eggs. A good number.

I also picked up some cheek swab kits from CARE. In order to develop the test for Cystic Fibrosis that they will use on our embryos, they need to collect the DNA from me and H and our parents. It was a bit odd standing with H's parents in our kitchen twirling a pipe cleaner inside their cheeks to collect the cells. I felt like a nurse!

We sent the cheek swab samples back to CARE for them to send off to the lab in the US, thus beginning a three month wait for our test to be developed. But as far as I was concerned, the prospect of this wait was better than the previous waiting around whilst entrenched in all the bureaucracy. At least this time we were waiting knowing that things were progressing.