In which P & K get lost in the snow and begin the treatment

DAY 2


Breakfast was quite exceptional. The selection was as follows....long table laden with every kind of pastry, from the standard croissant to some lovely cakes. The main table had every kind of cold meat, fish and smoked salmon. The final table had a myriad of hot dishes - tomatoes with oregano cheese, bacon, porridge, hash browns, baked curds, scrambled eggs etc etc. There was the biggest selection of cereals and milks, not to mention yoghurt, fresh fruit, melons etc..I had smoked salmon and sour cream to start – it was delicious – and we ate as much as possible..well, we’d paid for it. Smuggled some bottled drinks out with us.

We decided to tackle the metpo! We had some very good advice from the guys on fertility friends, so we left with confidence.

The walk from the Hotel Milan to the tube is about 15 mins. It would depend on the weather. Today was cold with a lot of compacted snow - the pavements all had moments of extreme danger. The tube station is an amazing place with more of those strange little shop units (like metal sheds) packing the walls. A small window allows the seller to transact. These are a good place to buy – everything is very cheap – but you need to point at what you want – we didn’t find one seller who spoke English. The weather was very cold and plenty of very large stray dogs were lying along the underground walkway to the tube. I later learned that these animals are fed by the locals and have a fairly happy life. The main entrance to the station is not that clear, but we just followed everyone else. We then had to buy our tickets. We were really worried about this as we stood in the very aggressive looking queue. But we followed advice given to us and held up a piece of paper with 2 x 10 on it and the old lady at the till understood and gave us our tickets. K had no idea what money she wanted and handed money over. She exclaimed and tutted and gave us our change with a big sigh. The tickets only worked out about 50p a journey! Obviously gave her far too much!

And here is our station in Cyrillic - it says Domodedovskaya. You really really do need to know how to read the language to get anywhere with ease and to do anything at all. If you look at the word you can see the D, that's quite similar and the B=V, the C=S and the backward R=ya. Start learning now!


Then we had to tackle the barriers - now you have to be careful here. You just show your ticket to the yellow circle and wait for it to go green before going through. It bleeps to say ok. If you get it wrong a strong metal barrier crashes across you and will make sure your man can’t give his sample for a year or two. It got me twice and I can tell you it hurts. Each time you swipe it removes a trip from your ticket – very clever, but easily messed up if you don’t know what you’re doing. If in doubt, watch the others going through first.

Journey to AV took some time, but we got there early anyway. Got lost and panicked a bit, but an old lady offered help. She was very sweet, spoke no English, but understood the words Altra Vita. I communicated with a unique English/Russian (mostly Da). But we followed her through the snow and found the place. It’s at the end of a driveway and is modern and very clean. There is a big gate outside and you have to press the buzzer to get in. I was filled with panic at this, but they heard an English voice (I said Olga very loudly) and they let us in. There is a small porch and the guard indicated to 2 bins of shoe covers. So we guessed we had to put the clean ones over our muddy boots!

Got inside and someone indicated to the cloakroom (to the left of the door) and we put our coats on the hangers there. Waited for about 10 mins, then saw another translator. Taken through the magic door (!) to a room that looked like a lab. There was a woman at a desk and a very Russian looking male nurse. The woman indicated to me that she wanted me to sit in this really weird chair. Had definite feeling they could wire me up at that point! Our interpreter came in (Irina) and told us we had to have all the usual blood tests again. I showed her our hard come by last minute and cost a fortune blood test results, but she wasn’t interested. They had to be done again. This made me cross, but no one spoke good enough English to argue with. This was one of many little money earners that AV seems to have up it’s sleeve. I had my blood taken and a large crude bandage placed on it, then Kat the same.

Taken back to waiting room. Waited for about 10 minutes and when called, taken to another room with a large screen partition. We then sat at 2 desks with 2 doctors, with Kat and I back to back - but with no point as we only had the one translator. Our translator seemed to be having trouble and then another boyish looking young girl (pretty) came in and that turned out to be Olga, who actually spoke fluent English. Thought she must be older than she looked! Answered all the usual questions, although floored when asked for date of last period. I thought Olga had all those dates so I didn't bring them.

Then l was asked to go behind screen and strip from waist down. Had to put on big green covers over feet and sit on green covering. One of the Russian Doctors came round and inidicated to me to put feet in stirrups. Very uncomfortable. She took 2 swabs asked me to hold swabs as he ferreted around! She went. I could hear Kat being grilled and Olga translating. Five minutes later, me still in same position (no covering for modesty) and new doctor came round and did ultrasound on very old fashioned machine. She said nothing about results and l decided not to ask – she clearly spoke no English. She indicated I could get dressed again. I was now feeling really cross, as I had paid over £200 for a last minute high vaginal swab and ultrasound – all of which were clearly unnecessary and we were now going to pay for all over again.


Both doctors went back to their respective desks and we were told the egg retrieval would be tomorrow, Sat.. K had to give his sample tomorrow at 11.30 and I was told to start taking progesterone pessaries from Saturday night.

Train back. We were tired and ordered room service.. our beds had been pushed apart again, so we pushed them back together! Watched Lion, Witch & the Wardobe on our portable dvd. Very enjoyable.