Have Sperm, Will Travel?
(not a blog title I ever thought I'd write!)
Cait and I were discussing the logistics of the upcoming cycle, and realized that this could be very, very interesting. As I think I've mentioned before, my sister is graduating at the end of the month, and a large entourage (parents, us, friends of the family and one of their daughters) are going to New Hampshire for the festivities. Wouldn't you know, the dates of the trip line up quite obnoxiously with my likely ovulation. First cycle in ten damn months we get to try, and we'll be out of town. With. My. Family.
Oh, and we're flying there, since we have to be back in town for a wedding Sunday night. Generally, I'm happy to fly instead of driving 10 hours, but one advantage to driving is you can take anything you want in the car. Such as a liquid nitrogen tank. Whereas I'm not sure but I think they're not really kosher on planes. So that leaves us with the dry ice option, and that brings along its own delightful set of complications. How much dry ice do we need? How long will it last? Where can we buy more in New Hampshire? What will the conversation at the security station in the airport be like? ("What's in the cooler, ma'am?" "Oh, just some sperm.")
Shit. As I was typing this, Cait said, "Can you even take dry ice on a plane?" and I googled it. Dry ice, yes. Human fluids (outside of humans), not so fast. Transporting tissue or bodily fluids requires adhering to a bizarre and arcane set of regulations. And I don't think my little cooler with dry ice from the packy store and a ziplock bag with the vial in it are going to make it.
Our options are disappearing faster than matter into a black hole.
We could buy more sperm and have it shipped to my sister. Ha ha. At boarding school. Ha ha ha. Where she's already been kicked out once and nearly a second time. Ha ha ha ha. Ok, forget that.
We could fake terrible illness and fly up a day later - again, only if the timing works out. That buys us one extra day, at the cost of my mother's considerable ire. Which could be assuaged by the truth, but we don't want the pressure of family knowing that we're insemming again.
We could get really lucky on the timing and not have a problem.
Or we can miss the first cycle in ten months.
Fuck. (Oh, yeah, that won't work.)
Cait and I were discussing the logistics of the upcoming cycle, and realized that this could be very, very interesting. As I think I've mentioned before, my sister is graduating at the end of the month, and a large entourage (parents, us, friends of the family and one of their daughters) are going to New Hampshire for the festivities. Wouldn't you know, the dates of the trip line up quite obnoxiously with my likely ovulation. First cycle in ten damn months we get to try, and we'll be out of town. With. My. Family.
Oh, and we're flying there, since we have to be back in town for a wedding Sunday night. Generally, I'm happy to fly instead of driving 10 hours, but one advantage to driving is you can take anything you want in the car. Such as a liquid nitrogen tank. Whereas I'm not sure but I think they're not really kosher on planes. So that leaves us with the dry ice option, and that brings along its own delightful set of complications. How much dry ice do we need? How long will it last? Where can we buy more in New Hampshire? What will the conversation at the security station in the airport be like? ("What's in the cooler, ma'am?" "Oh, just some sperm.")
Shit. As I was typing this, Cait said, "Can you even take dry ice on a plane?" and I googled it. Dry ice, yes. Human fluids (outside of humans), not so fast. Transporting tissue or bodily fluids requires adhering to a bizarre and arcane set of regulations. And I don't think my little cooler with dry ice from the packy store and a ziplock bag with the vial in it are going to make it.
Our options are disappearing faster than matter into a black hole.
We could buy more sperm and have it shipped to my sister. Ha ha. At boarding school. Ha ha ha. Where she's already been kicked out once and nearly a second time. Ha ha ha ha. Ok, forget that.
We could fake terrible illness and fly up a day later - again, only if the timing works out. That buys us one extra day, at the cost of my mother's considerable ire. Which could be assuaged by the truth, but we don't want the pressure of family knowing that we're insemming again.
We could get really lucky on the timing and not have a problem.
Or we can miss the first cycle in ten months.
Fuck. (Oh, yeah, that won't work.)
posted by Jen at
9:17 PM
6 Comments:
I'm in NH, so if there's any way I can help, let me know (dangermouth@gmail.com)...though i have no idea how i could help. I do have a list of where you could buy dry ice around here...
New England Dry Ice CO
38 West River Road
Hooksett, NH
(603) 668-3448
North Country Medical Courier
85 Mechanic Street
Lebanon, NH
(603) 448-1149
Northeast Airgas
45 Industrial Park Drive
Dover, NH
(603) 740-9735
Northeast Airgas
8001 So. Willow St.
Manchester, NH
(603) 624-7611
Party Time Inc
251 West Hollis Street
Nashua, NH
(603) 882-6454
By
Anonymous, at 2:02 PM
Yikes! This is tricky. I guess you are going to have to hope your cycle does what you want, but I found that method unreliable (in attempting to move cycle a few days earlier so we could insem in July before we go to Spain). I had been pondering the im/possibilities of getting sperm on a plane, too, so I feel your pain. I think you should try to get it shipped to NH somehow. Are you staying at a hotel? Could you tell them you had to ship important/"life-saving" medical supplies in a nitro tank? Hmmm... surely someone out there has dealt with this. I can't believe our FF board can't come up with something, darnit.
By
Briar, at 7:58 PM
Actually, FF folks did indirectly lead me to a couple of possibilities:
1) just take it on the plane in a cooler with dry ice. Others have done it without a lot of questions. My concerns about this are twofold. First, the person who did this successfully got on a plane in CA, not the Washington DC metro area, where security is absure. Second, if we get busted, we're out big bucks and a month of trying.
2) Fed Ex it in our own cooler to pick up at a Fed Ex office near the airport.
Between those two and hoping that we don't even need to go that route, I hope to make this cycle a go.
By
Jen, at 8:17 PM
But trying to get sperm on an international, flight?! You go, girl! (Of course, hoping that by July it's utterly unnecessary...)
By
Jen, at 8:19 PM
Wow, this is a tricky one. I hope you can find a way!
By
Ana, at 6:51 AM
Hey there! Found you through Julie's site. Sounds like you've got quite a dilemma! I hope it works out for you, I"ll keep my fingers crossed :)
By
Anonymous, at 12:25 AM
Post a Comment
<< Home