She gave us information about what we needed to prepare. It was only then that we found out we needed further blood tests – for ‘sediments’, white blood count, etc. I would also need an EKG in order to get anesthesia. It was Thursday and had we been in the US I would have freaked about getting this done in a day. But not in Serbia.We left bolnica jeremerova (or some such)…and headed first to Biomedika where we went almost 2 weeks ago (that seems like forever) for our HIV and other blood tests. 5 vials, 1 fingertip and 1 ear prick later and we were done there. Next we headed to our usual pitstop – the pharmacy(s). This time, we had a laundry list of supplies to buy. Darko was cranky about driving us all around. By then we knew his mom was paying him 4k per trip. I told Gordon we should give him a little more, from us, for all the running around. It was only fair, I said, since she is paying him to drive us to and from Belgrade – not cross town to biomedika, and then this pharmacy and that one. When we stopped at the bank at pharmacy #2 we took enough so we could give him an extra 2k.

Armed with a bit more menopur, cetrotide, spritzs, big and small needles, iodine and progesterone vaginal suppositories and the all important sub-cutaneous ‘stop-injection’, ovitrelle, we headed home.We ate lunch, and his mom got up to see how we did. Gordon told her everything that transpired. At the conclusion she started making phone calls to find a place I could get the EKG. She found a place they were obviously already familiar with. When she hung up she explained how she talked to the Dr who would do it (!) and when she asked how much it would cost he said “We’ll make it easy for you.” She laughed (that’s serbia for you) and pressed for a number. He told her 1.5k (that’s rsd in case you’re wondering, equivalent to about $25). My appointment was at 6pm Friday.