"WE HAVE SPERM!" Texts

We left the house at 5:45am on Wednesday, March 30th to head to Hubby's specialist for MESA surgery, which is more than an hour away.  My Mom went with us to be moral support as well.  I think we were all anxious to find out if, in fact, Hubby had sperm and we were a "go" for IVF.  I drove us all up to the surgery center and Hubby checked in with the front desk.  Then we waited.  His surgery was supposed to begin at 8:00am, but it was already 7:30am and they hadn't even called him back to get ready.  They finally called him back and a little while later they called us back for the pre-surgery visit.  The nurses, anesthetist, and even Dr. Mr. Clean stopped by to check on us and finally it was time for him to go into surgery.  I kissed him goodbye said a prayer, and very nervously went back to the waiting room. 

It was after 9am and Mom and I were starving, but didn't want to eat in front of Hubby because he also was hungry but wasn't allowed to eat.  I got some directions to a nearby McDonald's and went to get breakfast for Mom and me.  I felt funny leaving the surgery center, but knew Mom was there in case someone was needed.  I hurried back and we both devoured the food.  I tried to watch some TV and answer some texts.  Soon, the little old lady at the front desk received a phone call and summoned me to the phone.  I was a little confused because everyone I knew had my cell phone number.  I got on the phone and the person on the other end identified herself as Dr. Mr. Clean's nurse back in the surgery room.  Holy crap!  Is something wrong?  She informed me that Dr. Mr. Clean wanted me to know as soon as he found them, that Hubby has lots of healthy sperm for IVF.  I just about kissed the woman at the front desk.  I thanked her for the good news and hung up.  I explained the phone call to my Mom and then cried.

I immediately texted several of our close friends, "WE HAVE SPERM!"  Now, I know, that under normal circumstances, people shouldn't normally text this to anyone.  This is not something that normal people share.  However, given that this was the million dollar question - actually is was the $20,000 question, but you know what I mean - and I had to give our friends the good news I had just received.  I wished I could tell Hubby.  It seemed unfair that I knew before he did.  About 2.5 hours after his surgery, Dr. Mr. Clean called us back to a meeting room.  He said that surgery went extremely well and that he did find lots of healthy sperm.  He said that he looked and Hubby's vas deferens, at some point in development, just quit forming.  I told him that it is a miracle that he performs.  He said that it's actually funny that this procedure was actually first used on award-winning race horses to continue winning breeding lines and someone in the 1990's got the idea that we should try it on human beings. 

We went back into the waiting room to wait on Hubby to wake up in recovery.  Pretty soon, the nurse came out and said she could only take me back because of space.  I immediately told Hubby the good news and he said that his Doc had already told him.  I kissed him and he said he was so relieved - that it was all worth it.  The nurse went through many instructions on caring for Hubby for the next week and we were eventually told we could go home.

Mom helped me get Hubby in the car and he almost immediately fell back to sleep.  Since my Doc's office was only about a mile away, I went ahead and drove Mom past there so she could see where the next part of this chaos would happen.  After the hour-long drive home, I helped Hubby into the house and began playing nurse.  And let me tell you, nurses are saints.  I don't think I could ever do that for a living.  Between getting him fresh ice for his ice pack, force-feeding him crackers so he could take his meds every four hours, helping him get to the bathroom, and getting up every 4 hours (day and night) to get him his medicine, there was little rest going on for me.