Wanted! A Few Good Vials

In early 2009, which in post-baby time feels like two decades ago, Allison and I spent months reading about, comparing, and choosing the donor we would use when trying to get pregnant.  Knowing that we'd likely each carry one child, we decided to buy enough samples so that we could use the same donor for each of us.  Then the kids could be biologically related.

We decided on our donor and purchased eight samples to get us started on my IUI attempts.  Our donor was new to the program, and donors typically have to agree to a one-year commitment, so we knew we'd have plenty of time to top up our samples once we saw how quickly (or slowly) the attempts went.

Round about attempt number 4 (out of 5) we were poking around on the web and noticed that our donor number wasn't populating anymore.  Our donor is from the US and deposits at a US bank, but we actually buy the samples through a Canadian lab that works with the US lab.  After speaking to the lab in the US, my heart sank a bit when they told me that not only did our donor quit the program, he also had a vasectomy.  

Calls to both labs indicated that they were also sold out of our guy's samples. I asked each facility to check stock that had been purchased and stored.  In Canada we struck out, but in the US, there were three samples that someone else was storing.  I asked to be put on a waiting list in case the samples were sold back to the bank.

The other day I came home to an email saying that they had three samples of our donor available again for purchase.

Score!

But, there's a caveat.  When samples are released to Canada, they have to undergo additional testing.  Because of the Canadian release requirements, I suspect we'll have to pay more to have the samples tested, but we'll likely lose one (if not two) of them to the process.

Right now I'm waiting to hear back from my contact at the US facility.  I'm excited at the possibilty of being able to get more samples, but I'm trying not to get too happy for fear that we won't be able to buy them.  I'll be bummed knowing there are some perfectly good samples just out of our reach.

Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Vial photo used in image is courtesy of Kriss Szkurlatowski.