Good Morning

I wake up at 08:00 and call my husband to wish him goodnight, but he doesn't answer. He must already be asleep. I'm a little hurt, but hey, when you're tired you're tired. I just miss his face, a lot. I sleep another hour, getting up at 09:00. I make myself cheesy scrambled eggs and then get ready for my appointment at the IVF clinic.

New Life Clinic

Apostolos arrives, and I head downstairs, getting into the taxi. My appointment is at 10:30am, but we arrive at the clinic closer to 10:00. I check in early, relaxing in the waiting room. They must be running a bit early too, because Thaleia soon comes to get me for my ultrasound.

We go into the doctor's office, Thaleia staying on the office side as I go to the ultrasound side and strip my bottom half down for the vaginal scan. I lay on the table with the white cloth across my legs. The doctor soon comes in and I am told I have twenty-five follicles. My follicles are growing slowly, but I am assured that is fine. They'd rather have the follicles grow slowly than too quickly. The doctor explains to me that if follicles grow too quickly they can burst. That does not sound pleasant. My Gonal-f dossage is increased from 200 to 250, and I am prescribed Orgalutran. Orgalutran is another injection that helps to keep the follicles healthy and in-tact.

The doctor leaves, I clean up, and join Thaleia at the desk on the other side of the wall. Thaleia gives me a prescription for Orgalutran, along with other medications I'll need for the next steps of the IVF process. She calls around to various pharmacies and finds that the nearest pharmacy that has what I need is at the Cosmos Mall.

IKEA

I leave the clinic and hop on a bus to make my way to Cosmos Mall. I take the bus over to the IKEA depot. I have a ton of time, so I decide to go in to check out the store. I am curious how different it is than the ones in the United States. This IKEA store is definitely smaller than other ones I have been to, and everything is on one floor. The IKEA we have in Denver has three floors. I notice that the decor selected to be put in the baskets in the aisles are more Mediterranean style, which makes sense. I take pictures of a few items that interest me, but leave without purchasing anything.

Cosmos Mall

I decide to walk to the mall from IKEA. It's only 1.4 kilometers or 0.87 miles away.

The mall is beautiful. There are decorative fountains outside and rounded stone seating - surely a call back to Ancient Greece. I walk around the entire mall, but I don't find any stores that really interest me. I mean, I'm not shopping for clothes, so that's more of a me problem than a mall problem. I head over to the food court where I get my cappuccino and a slice of pizza. The pizza is okay, I'm not a big fan of the crust. It's supposed to be a mushroom and ham pizza, but one end also has peppers and onions, which I hate.

I make my way over to the pharmacy within the mall. I spend 500 Euros on medications that would cost me over 5,000 dollars in the United States. I walk out of the mall where there's a whole line of taxis. I ask one taxi driver if he takes cards and he says no, so I move on to another one. The next guy does take credit cards, and I hire him to take me home. He's very kind and speaks English very well, so we converse quite a bit on the drive.

Peraia

I start work soon after I get home. I do take a break and walk down to Alexandros for coffee. I take a few photographs, and then head back home to continue working. I finish my shift and crawl into bed, calling Jeremy to tell him goodnight. It's Wednesday, so he's hanging out with the group. I get to say hi and goodnight to my nephew, Zack, his parents Norman and Bethany, and our friend Kyle. I fall asleep quickly, another day in Greece complete.