Like the commercial, but way better

HSG this morning - crampy and very painful at the time. Better now that I’ve been curled up with my cherrystone pillow for a while.

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When we first started house hunting, we were SO excited about the whole process. We shared the minute details of our early house visits with our various parental units. When we made our first offer, we called them to discuss it before actually submitting the offer. Same for the second offer. By the third offer (the house we now own), we had come to the conclusion that it was easier to just keep it to ourselves until there was some news to share.

I think we’ve reached that point with our fertility treatments. Not that we gave our families detailed accounts before, but now that we’re doing an IUI, I’m really not inspired to share with them at all. I think partially this has to do with the weirdness of imagining our parents contemplating the mechanics of the IUI. Not that it wasn’t weird to think that they might be aware that we were having timed sex, but this is a whole new set of imagery. Even telling my mom that I was having an HSG (which I did before this new realization sank in) was weird - I have a close relationship with my mom, and I still found it awkward to explain. So forget talking about the IUI. No, I think we’ll just keep it to ourselves until we have some news one way or the other.

The problem with this new isolationist strategy is that I have no one to talk to. I mean, I have you wonderful people, but I couldn’t exactly call you on the phone to vent about the stupid clinic and their stupid bureaucracy while I drove back to campus. And J wasn’t reachable, and so I had to vent to myself, which is supremely unsatisfying.

So...

I think we need an infertile hotline - not an information service or an official resource like Resolve or whomever, but a lifeline for the blogworld-infertile-types to be able to call and reach someone who will understand what they’re venting about going through. And maybe do a little Googling on their behalf. This would be great for times we weren’t near the computer (as few and far between as those might be). It would be like that commercial where the woman calls the hotline to find out if something is funny, only way way better.

Possible services:
- Basic information searches: Need to know if what your doctor is telling you is what your favorite blogger’s doctor said about a similar situation - right now? We can check. Need to know the ranges for a particular test while you’re still at the lab? We have that information.
- Venting: Driving away from a frustrating medical visit? Call and vent. Just had a run-in with a pregnant SIL/co-worker/crack whore? We’ll share your seething.
- And more: Out of town and away from a computer? The Infertile hotline could help you maintain your sanity until you can get back to the blogs. The hotline could keep you informed of any major announcements, and can convey your messages to the blogworld.

I’m sure we’ll find many other uses for the hotline.

And I’d totally take a regular shift. It would be the first job to actually make use of my finely honed googling and blog-obsessing skills.