So we had the meeting...

...and my brain is about to pop with the amount of info.

Professional, thorough, no nonsense place...clinical. No emotion - and no hard sells (surprisingly).

The reception fit-out alone packs an impressive punch albeit with a bitter taste of knowing where the money is going. Someone has to pay right?

Other couples nervously wait for their names to be called out by a nurse. You can't help but look at other couples desperate for kids and wonder how this journey will end for them.

Dave was already waiting in an oversized, comfy lounge when I arrived. I was quickly ushered to reception to provide my drivers license and Medicare card and then wait for our names to be called.

The feeling as we waited oddly reminded me of waiting at the GPs office with a positive home pregnancy test wrapped in plastic in my handbag. Pregnant and scared, but excited..and just as I did then, I held Dave's hand and squeezed gently, kissed him and smiled a nervous smile. Our journey's are always complicated or thrilling depending how you look at it...I honestly think god wouldn't give us these challenges if He thought we couldn't handle It. No matter the outcome, I wouldn't want to do this with anyone else.

A tall nurse came bounding out of a corridor and called us in. I stood up, a little to eager, to shake her hand and be told what to do next.

She took us down a zen-like corporate corridor, with mood lighting and soft green colour palette.. a number of consulting rooms lined either side.

At this moment, Dave decides to tell me this is where he had to go to do his sperm sample. I'm starting to wonder if the table where our our host is taking us is clean.
Before I get too concerned I notice a name plaque in the door.. Consulting rooms.. Phew..

We sit down at a round table which has a monitor and exchange small talk about the weather...she Introduces herself and welcomes us.( I'll be brutally honest here and say it was a well rehearsed speech).

What threw us was the request that a new finance employee join in our discussion for her training.

Another throw back to the maternity ward when I was in labour with Luca. All the student nurses who came in to "check it out"...

Stuff it. Let her watch - if it helps another couple so be it.

The nurse briefly talked about the medication and the procedures. How and when I have to call and get ultrasounds and tests and the come in for day surgery to extract the eggs and then come in again a few days later to hopefully put some back.

Then a finance lady came in to chat about costs _ $10k per cycle... Fark.
Thankfully only $4,400 is the out of pocket... Still... Sheesh!!

10 consent forms later and a blood and cystic vibrios genetics check... We're ready to roll..

Next stop... waiting for day 29 and then calling them again to book in a blood test.