To the hospital
After they have left I talk to Denny and he agrees that a visit to the doctor is a good idea. We don’t have to start fertility treatments immediately, but it would be nice to know whether there is any point to ‘trying’ naturally. We decide to make a good start straight away and make an appointment in a large university hospital in the ‘Randstad’ (the area around Amsterdam/ Rotterdam/ The Hague etc), where Denny had his vasectomy reversed. We’re keeping the future in mind: if IVF should be necessary, we’re already in the right place.
On the day of the appointment (11 June 2013) we’re both quite nervous. Denny perhaps more so than myself. It feels so unreal to have to look for the department called ‘Reproductive Health’ and even more so to step inside. I don’t want to be here at all. I really want to run away screaming, but I don’t. We register with the assistant and take our places in the busy waiting room. All these people can’t have children? I look at each of them and wonder what the problem could be. Is it him? Is it her? Both of them? Some couples look so young, others are older, or one of them seems much older than the other. Are they also looking around wondering things like this?
On a little screen in the waiting room various bits of information come past and I point out to Denny that there’s something about smoking. It’s better if neither partner smokes, it says. It doesn’t make an impression on him, but I still really want him to stop smoking! Before I can continue with my plea, he gets called up. He first has to give them a sperm sample before we have an appointment to discuss the quality of the sperm. Everyone watches him go. Do they all know what he has to go and do? How bizarre. I offered to go with him, but he refuses to even consider the idea. Shortly afterwards another man is called up. Does he also have to go and “spurt fluid in a jar”? What a strange thought – haha! I look for a magazine and lean back to read it. I can imagine that having to perform under pressure into a little jar is not easy.
I haven’t even started reading the first article and suddenly Denny is standing in front of me again!
Hahahaha! Speedy Gonzales!! Is it ok for me to say I’m quite proud of him? Secretly, of course… 😉 And now, on to the conversation with the doctor…