The letter

fertility + PLUS

11th July 2007

Simonne Walmsley

[address]

Auckland

NHI [number]

Dear Simonne,

I am writing to inform you that you have been enrolled in the publicly funded healthcare waitlist for infertility treatment.

You will receive the date of your orientation appointment soon, as well as your treatment month. This will all be relayed to you by letter. It is very difficult for us to give you a speculative timeline, so we ask for your patience with the system.

If you have any questions of concerns please feel free to contact me on [phone number and extension]

Kind Regards

[name]

IVF Coordinator

In the instant I read this letter, I felt insanely angry and hated anyone and everyone that has never had to go through this. It passed quickly, but it was there, for an instant. Yuck.

I hate that the letter is addressed to me, alone. I know that anything IVF related depends pretty much on the female - her age, her weight, her health, her history, her everything except whatever male factor qualifies her for treatment. I wish that letter was addressed to both of us.

It meant a lot that the letter was signed though, by an actual person, instead of an electronic reproduction of a signature. That was nice. Comforting even. Caring? It felt like it a little. It took the edge off.

The very funny thing was that Al phoned me to say that the letter had come in, pretty much at the exact moment a friend emailed me to say that her wee girl was having the temper tantrum to end all temper tantrums and was currently doing hard time on her naughty mat ... perfect timing. On the back of that, I managed not to scrawl 'return to sender' across the letter though when I got home.

Wooppee for Friday! Happy skippy joy (yep, stole that one from T).

Have a good weekend one and all, and thank you to the lovely man who saved me at the petrol station this morning. The stupid petrol thing would click off after about half a litre, and he could hear it clicking from the next pump as I tried to fill my tank (very slow process). He popped his head through the pumps, and suggested I pull the nozzle almost out of the tank, because it looked like the nozzle was bent (it was, it was pointing about 45 degrees sideways), so it was registering my tank was full when it wasn't because it was pointing into the side of the tank. It all went beautifully from there, apart from me feeling like a complete girl.