Image by Treacle Tart via Flickr
Like Garth Brooks, I have friends in low places. Or at least one friend.
Don’t get me wrong, my friend Kristy exemplifies class and style, it’s just today she was literally in a low place.
Low meaning that she was sandwiched between a pair of stirrups below my waistline. She was there holding a wand while looking up at a video monitor to assess the size and pattern of my endometrium.
Kristy and I met and instantly became friends almost three years ago at a pre-natal exercise class. Everyone who meets Kristy instantly becomes her friend. She is a sweet social butterfly who never met a person she didn’t like and you’d be hard pressed to find someone who didn’t like her. Our kids were born only a month apart. We quickly formed a small play date group that gets together to drink a beer and let the kids run wild.
I love our little clan and Kristy is the glue that holds us all together.
Before I met Kristy my local monitoring was done by a hometown infertility specialist who partners with more remote clinics. She was nice enough and always willing to come in on weekends, but I never connected with her. So for baby number two I switched to Kristy for monitoring at the local hospital.
Trans-vaginal ultrasounds take a friendship to a whole new level. Moments like that shared among friends connect you for life. I remember how nervous I was the first time I went to see her. I am sure she was the quintessential professional, but I felt a little strange.
Fast forward a handful of scans and we gossip and carry on as she inspects my innards like we are knocking back brews on my deck in July.
Switching to her was a great decision and not only because she is a friend. Kristy is excellent at what she does. You may not realize it, but follicle monitoring is tough stuff. Its difficult for the tech to count all those tiny circles across the surface of our imperfectly round ovaries. Kristy is a whiz at this, arguably as good as techs at clinics that do it all day long and able to carry on a conversation at the same time (I’ve seen more than a few who can’t).
As good as she is, the best part is the friendship and that hit home today. After I left the appointment the obsessing began and we had the following text exchange:
Me: You are sure you saw three layers, right? They weren’t as obvious to me this time and we won’t check again before transfer.
Kristy: Yes, three layers and measuring 9mm
Me: Is it okay if I use your name in the blog? You might want to read tomorrow.
Kristy: I always read your blogs, your writing is funny and informative. Even though we don’t have infertility in common its good because it lets me know how you’re feeling and how my patients are feeling.
See what I mean? Sweet, right? I regularly freak out and text after appointments and she is always there to talk me down. You can’t get that from a stranger. She lies about my writing being funny and informative. She loves her patients and wants to understand how they are feeling. (Side note- this his smart on her part because Kristy can get pregnant by merely thinking about having a baby. A mutual friend and I are throwing her a small “sprinkle” for baby number 2 on Sunday.)
All of this is great, but here is where she did me in, where she sealed her fate and got stuck with me as a friend forever. As I am leaving she says to me:
Oh! I forgot to tell you, I wore my orange underwear for you today.
If you have read Orange Panties and Green Toes you know why that makes her the best friend and sonographer ever.
Thanks Kristy, it worked. Everything looks good and we are go for launch. Unfortunatley they increased my estrogen but that’s on the lab and not ultrasound. I guess we need to talk the phlebotomist into wearing orange panties too.
Now please just let me drink out of your glass on Sunday…
Laughter Through Tears 