Author’s Note – Chapter 136
I’ve been advised not to put long,
rambling author’s notes that detract from the flow of the story at the end of
chapters, so I decided to give this one a page of its own! LOL. I
just wanted to make a note about realism with the medical storylines, namely in
vitro fertilization.
If anyone reading this has ever had
IVF or knows anything about it, you probably know that a lot of women (maybe
even most?) have to go through more than one cycle before they achieve a
successful pregnancy. I’m a little young
to have had any close friends go through it, so I don’t have a lot of personal
experience in the area, but I’ve researched, and I know the statistics aren’t
really that high. A lot of people do
have babies from IVF, but it seems like it usually takes at least a couple of
tries for many women.
Based on the statistics, it may seem
sort of unlikely that Claire would get pregnant on her very first try, using
frozen embryos, but it’s certainly not impossible. I probably could have made it more realistic
by putting her through several cycles before it worked, but seeing as how I’m
already on Chapter 136 and over 860 pages in, I just figured that would drag
the story on even longer, and for no particularly good reason, in terms of the
plot. Plus, as of now, I wouldn’t have
enough material for Nick to keep the parts balanced between the two, so it
would be all Claire, and I don’t think anyone really cares to read that
LOL. So I decided to just have her get
pregnant on the first try so I can keep the story moving. It’s the same reason I had Nick agree to the
amputation of his leg without going to get second opinions, trying limb-sparing
surgeries, or anything like that. It
probably would have been more realistic, but writing it also would have dragged
the story out unnecessarily, so I didn’t waste my time on it. I am all for realism in fiction, but
sometimes I think you can get away with sacrificing just a little of it for the
sake of the story.
So just in case anyone has just sat
scoffing over the seemingly perfect success of Claire’s first IVF/embryo
transfer over the last few chapters, I just wanted to let you know, I did my
research, I know what the statistics say, and I went ahead and had her get
“lucky” the first time around in order to keep the story flowing. As you can always expect from me, though, the
rest of her pregnancy is not going to be perfect, by any means. ;)
Thank you so much for reading, and a
special thanks to those of you who have been sending feedback – I always
appreciate it, and you guys help keep me inspired! :)
~Julie