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Places to Go:
Hcg & Inconceivable
I was ready to do it. It took me about 15 minutes to make sure I was mixing the powder and getting the proper dosage. I was rubbing an ice cube at the freckle were I was planing on aiming. Then something wonderful happened. My Mother came home.
My Mother who has MS & at one point in her illness had to give herself an injection twice a day. She tossed her briefcase and rushed over. Before I could even say hello she stabbed me. She then gave me a twenty minute back rub, fed me a bowl of chubby hubby (note the irony) and then sent me off to bed. My Mother rocks.
I did an opk this morning & was happy to see a very obvious positive. Yeah- the stuff works!
This morning, after temp-ing & opk-ing, I watched Inconceivable on tivo. I am torn between feeling excited that a bit of ‘my’ life is being shown in mainstream media and baffled about how unrealistic it is. The plot lines involving the patients were dull and yet over the top. The show should really be called surrogacy since 97% of the story’s plot involved surrogacy. The other 3% involved IVF.
A surogate mother goes into labor and the excited parents rush to the hospital just in time to see the delivery of an adorable black baby. The only glitch: the parents and surrogate are white. So *obviously* the Doctor screwed up and implanted the wrong embryos. And of course after the child is born nobody wants it. Alfre Woodard (the clinic’s shrink) tracks down the surrogate and she reveals that she had unprotected sex before the embryo transfer. Now they have to find the father. & of course even tho he looks to be in high school he wants his son. blah blah blah
The other story line involved a returning soldier who wants to honor his deceased wife’s final wish: to be a mother. Before his wife, also a soldier, went to war they had some of her eggs retrieved and frozen. Now that she is dead her sister has stepped forward volunteering herself as the surrogate. This was a very creepy and icky plot line.
The third plot line is about another surrogate/parent relationship. This time the parents to be are a *wacky* gay couple. I think this was the most upsetting story line as it was such a farce: a pregnant woman is stalked by one of the parents to make sure she is eating right. Since this was the only portrayal of a gay couple it turned my stomach by making them a joke. No lesbian couples were represented at all.
One of the main characters, Ming Na from E.R., plays a doctor who is also a single Mother. We learn through out the course of the show that she is an SMC and conceived via donor sperm. Her son, now 7, has questions about his father and is upset that kids at school call him Frankenstein. “Because everybody knows I was born in a test tube, Mom.” What? The show ends with this creepy montage of Ming Na showing her son her sperm donor’s profile. As the kid gets into bed he places the Polaroid of the donor on his bed side table and stares at him.
And don’t get me started on the lab worker who reveals that, “Maybe God doesn’t want everyone to have a baby. Maybe what we are doing here is wrong.”
& also don’t get me started on the scorned lab assistant that starts doing switcheroos on sperm donations.
So will I watch it again. Shamefully, yes. There is a sense of power in being able to watch something & know that that is not how it is. My Mom feels this way when she watches lawyer shows. the 2nd half of law & Order is always peppered by her remarks of, “No WAY would the judge ever do that!” or “That would never happen.” I get that this is hollywood and tv-land. It is a heightened reality. But I also feel like this is a chance to show many people the grit of infertility and I am hoping the show can rise to it.
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3 Responses to “Hcg & Inconceivable”
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Word word word! I totally agree with everything you’ve said. I was so upset with the “oops black child” storyline, I can’t even begin to talk about it. Seeing that black child abandoned and that the first words he heard in his life were “What the hell is that?” was so upsetting…I was bawling.
And the gay couple? You’ve said it all.
Anyhow, so glad your mom came home to give you the needle and that you got ice cream in the deal! FX for a great IUI today and for great results in 2 weeks!
Uhmmm, yep…couldn’t agree with you more. OK girl…your turn to join me on the Due In boards. I’m rooting for you!!!!
I’m new to your blog, hence responding to a very old post, found your blog via a comment you made on Dos Mamas. Sorry to see your mom has MS, my partner has it too. I think if it’s time for her to stab me for IVF then I ought to get to return the favour. *I* think she should give Avonex a go but she won’t.