Usually when you look at a typical day in the life of a working person, it’s fairly standard. The range of jobs held by most people isn’t too different. And within their own specific sphere, such as teaching, their days are roughly going to follow the same pattern, with the same issues and the same timescales.
Not so with Team Miracle who deal with IVF in Cyprus.
You often hear people say “No two days are the same.” At the Cyprus IVF Centre this is literally the case. It isn’t possible to get a standard snapshot of a day in the life of patient co-ordinators because their range of tasks is so varied. There is one thing which is the same day in and day out, however, and that is the sense of satisfaction that Umit get from their job.
What’s the typical time that your day begins?
Our day for work? Or our day, full stop?! With two children aged 3 years and 5 months, an early start is always to be expected! It’s good though because that means that we have plenty of time to prepare for the day before we start work at around 7:30/8am.
How far in advance can you plan your days ?
We usually get the times and plans just the evening before. Although we are always in email and telephone contact with patients before they arrive, it’s impossible to predict exactly who we will be seeing on a specific day.
How well do you know the patients before you meet them ?
Part of our job is to establish a good relationship with the Team Miracle patients before they arrive at the Cyprus IVF Centre. Emailing patients from all over the world is a large part of our day. We try to make them feel as secure and relaxed as possible for the environment that they are coming into. We know that having IVF abroad can be daunting and we want to make sure that they are completely happy with all steps of the IVF treatment in Cyprus before they actually get on a plane. We have to be able to have a close bond and trust with our patients because we need to discuss things of a very personal nature, things that they probably wouldn’t even talk about with their best friend.
How long before a patient arrives do you first have contact ?
It’s different from patient to patient, typically we’re emailing for around three months beforehand, but it can be as long as two years prior to the treatment, or as little as one week. Each patient is different and we work with their needs.
What’s the first thing that you do in a typical working day ?
Check the schedule! And work out the order of what’s going to happen. Then we check the emails to see if anything urgent has come in overnight.
How does your day progress?
The average number of visits to the Cyprus IVF Centre per patient is three. And depending on what the visit is for, we spend varying amounts of time with them.
During each day we are likely to get a few patients in for scans. This will be the first visit for the initial scan to get a general overview of the quality of the uterus and it’s the first physical part of the IVF process. On this occasion we spend around half an hour with the patient and chat through any changes to the medication protocol and what to expect from the rest of their IVF treatment in Cyprus.
After the scans, we normally welcome the next patients in for egg collections which is the second stage of the IVF at Cyprus IVF Centre. Obviously the stages beyond the scan depend on exactly what treatment the individual patient is having. For egg donation treatments, this middle stage won’t be required. The partner will provide sperm on the donor egg collection day which is usually the same day that the woman has her scan. For IVF treatment using own eggs, the patient needs to return to the hospital for egg collection and at that time her partner will donate his sperm. At this stage we will spend about one and half hours with the patient.
Spending time with our patients is always our favourite part of the day. We get to see from start to finish how these lovely people begin their journey into parenthood and it’s always nice to put a face to the name that we’ve been emailing. It’s always exciting and we have a wonderful, positive vibe around the Cyprus IVF Centre. There are lots of smiles, laughs and good conversations and very little stress.
Later on in the day we’re likely to see patients for the third, and final, stage of IVF. This is the most exciting part – the embryo transfer takes place. We will have nurtured these tiny bundles of cells in the Team Miracle laboratory until the right time to transfer them into the mother. Reuniting the mother with her embryos is a special, unique moment. our doctors takes charge of the embryo transfer process and patients are able to watch her place the embryos inside the uterus. Depending on quantity and quality, we generally transfer at least two embryos but we always aim to transfer the maximum allowance of four embryos wherever possible to maximise the chance of pregnancy. During this part of IVF at the Cyprus IVF Centre we will spend about three hours with the patient (since they have to rest for 2 hours after the embryo transfer) and this is the beginning of the much anticipated two week wait.
However, that said, we are always available before and after to talk and explain anything they aren’t sure about. It’s also common for us to repeat to patients everything the medical team have told them because patients are understandably concerned to know every tiny detail in the process of creating their child and we need to be clear on what’s happening.
our doctors spend around an hour total time with the patient across all three visits depending on how long the procedures take.
What about away from the clinic ?
A typical day for us always contains patient co-ordination. Whether this is a phone call, taxi transfer or welcoming new patients and helping them to settle in, there is always something to do. Whilst our day technically ends at 6pm, the reality is a bit different! We continue to email and talk on the phone virtually around the clock. When we’re asleep is the only time we really get off.
Is there anything else that you do?
Of course! IVF in Cyprus is a multi-function programme. Apart from the patients who are having IVF treatment with Team Miracle, we also:
- Organise upcoming treatments
- Marketing
- Deal with payments and transfers
- Organise shipment of IVF medication to patients
- Arrange hotel reservations and taxi transfers
- Be on hand to answer questions and supply information whenever the patient needs it
- Attend to the patient in the operation room if required
It seems like a busy, complicated job!
It is. We never stop. But then nor would we want to. Creating embryos for our patients to add to their family is a job that is endlessly rewarding. We meet a rich, diverse range of people and their excitement and gratitude is very clear. Our job as patient co-ordinators of Team Miracle at Cyprus IVF Centre is to give our patients a sense of comfort and security and welcome them to Cyprus to continue their fertility journey.
It’s certainly one of the most satisfying jobs in the world; we are often kept updated with news about the Miracle babies for years afterwards. Social media makes sharing photos very easy these days, which is even better. We love to keep track of our patients’ families and sometimes we are lucky enough for them to return and introduce the baby or babies to us.
It can be hard work and pretty full on but we wouldn’t change it for any other job in the world. Sharing the process of fertility treatments at Cyprus IVF Centre is one of the most fulfilling and rewarding occupations that there is.
