Let me tell you, Dr. Hughes was absolutely AMAZING! WOW is all i can say! First of all, this is the man who INVENTED PGD. He runs the Genesis Lab in Detroit who is doing our PGD testing. He went through the entire PGD process with us and explained to us in layman's terms how the probe was made and how the probe works to find my genetic disease in one single cell. It is absolutely incredible what they do! To think that they have to create a genetic "probe" that will search for my disease on one single cell from our embryo is incredible! He said that the probe is completed, and now all they are doing is testing it to make sure it finds the genetic markers for my disease on the DNA that i sent him in October. He is extremely OCD which makes me feel so much better because you definitely want someone who is overly thorough to work on your little cell! He told us that the probe will almost definitely be completed by January. He said we will almost definitely be able to start our IVF Cycle in January! He obviously won't speak in definites because nothing is ever certain, but he said he would be absolutely shocked if it wasn't finished by January.
He then went on to say that my biggest enemy during this entire process is stress. He said stress adversely affects the sperm quality as well as egg quality. He told us to relax and leave all of the medical minutia up to him and my doctors. He said while everyone would love to have children the "old fashioned way", there is no reason why we cannot enjoy this process as well. He wants us to not focus on all of the medical things going on. Don't think about the shots of the PGD or anything like that. He said think about holding your baby in your arms a year from now. Think about the life we are about to create. This is a wonderful time for us and it shouldn't be ruined by all of this medical talk. He also told us to enjoy each other, go out to dinner, relax, enjoy the holidays, and just keep each other stress free.
The most incredible thing that he told us was that he wants us to send him a picture of Me and Justin. He said he got involved in PGD to begin with so he could help couples. He said the only problem with PGD is that now, he never gets to meet any of them! He wants to print out a picture of me and Justin and hang it in the lab so the PHD's who are working on our little cells (we are assigned to the "blue team" - a team of three PHDs who will test our cells for my disease)they will see who they are doing this for. He also said that once they get our cells, they work for 17 hours straight to find our disease in time to send a report to my doctor the next day. He said having a picture of the couple helps them to get through that rough time! Obviously, this is the part oft he phone call where I lost it. I started crying! He is 100% right how easy it is to become lost in the science of all of this. you forget your creating a baby, a new life. He helped to humanize the whole process for me and for that i will be forever grateful to him.
It was such a fantastic phone call and it really put me in the right frame of mind. He was such an inspiring person, I am so glad we had the opportunity to talk with him.
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