And it all begins today

(I know! Two posts in one day. What is the world coming to?)

Husband is going on a camping trip this weekend. I've opted to stay home. There are several reasons for this not the least of which is that this park only has port-a-potties and I'm on my cycle. Yah.

So, anyway, I'm home alone this weekend. And I've planned something. Those of you who know me are not surprised by this. But, when you hear what I've planned you will gasp in wonder. I'm going to paint and tile the bathroom.

This is the bathroom that has been unusable for going on four years because we learned that demolition is easy, installation is much harder. Husband, I think, has gotten discouraged. He wants us to contract someone to finish it for us. I want us to finish it. But, I also want to be able to pee upstairs. in a toilet.

We have the tub installed, floor tile layed, and the walls and ceiling primed. Considering we stripped it down to studs, I feel like we've done a lot. It's a whammy of a first-time home improvement project.

After work today, I'm going to buy paint and paint the walls and ceiling. I'm also going to buy bathroom wall tile and mastic with appropriate trowel. We've been paralyzed by fear of doing the wall tile wrong. We both have visions of showering and having tiles pop off. Luckily the husband of a friend of mine is a contractor and will stop by on Saturday morning to give me pointers. My parents have also offered to come down and help. Yeah!

With any luck, at the end of Saturday, we will have painted and tiled walls and possibly the light fixture installed. If I get really ambitious, I'll buy the base boards and get those down so that we can then install the toilet. I can't tell you how wonderful that would be. A toilet.

I think this will be a good surprise for Husband. I'm very excited.

Wish me luck! I have a feeling I will need it :)

TTC Update: the results are in

We've heard the results of our lab tests. The verdicts? Husband is low on Vit D as am I. We have mega supplements that have been prescribed to us. We take one a week. I am, in fact, high on prolactin, but not so high as to indicate a tumor on my pituitary. I'm low on TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) and have regular progesterone.

I have an appointment to get wanded (sonogram for looking at my ovaries to make sure there are no cysts) on Monday. We will discuss the tests at that time.

I feel like we are making progress. Yeah!

This is the happiest I've ever been on day 2 of my cycle.

TTC Update: If at first you don't succeed,

wallow in self pity for awhile, then try a different doctor.

Side note: I now refer to doctors by their first names. I refuse to call them by their titles unless they are going to refer to me by my title. I can't think of any other situation in which the person who works for you will expect to be referred to formally while they refer to you informally.

So, we met with the new endocrinologist today. I like her much better than the previous Dr. Physician (who wasn't an endocrinologist. he was more of a script pusher. probably has stock in the company making clomid). I'll call her Sara (not her actual first name). She looked at some of my charts and believes I may be high on prolactin. I don't mean that I'm smoking it, but that I have too much of it. So, I gave some blood for testing purposes as did Husband. We are also getting our storage levels of vitamin D tested. At least, I hope that's what we got. I didn't actually see the lab orders. I should've asked to look.

Sara did spend a lot of time talking to me. I relayed the awful story of Dr. Physician. She was very understanding. She asked if I had excess body hair and I said DO? I!, why, yes, I do. I could keep a salon in business. She listened to my lungs and heart and felt my thyroid. She did *not* want to examine me on my first visit. I also discussed the fact that I've found dried milk in my nipples and have been able to express very very small drops of milk. The hair, lactation and stair steppiness of my charts all point to the high prolactin. If that's the case, then I'm probably not ovulating, even though I have a temperature spike and positive O tests. Awesome!

And guess what. Another side effect of the high prolactin is swollen and tender breasts. Ha! ha ha ha ha ha! I'm day 23. My breasts are swollen and tender right now.

I'm optimistic again. I'm cautiously hopeful.

Thank you, everyone!

I'm feeling much better. I actually started feeling better right after that post. I think I just needed to get things out. I'm much less weepy. The other night I was able to talk about infertility and adoption at length without getting teary-eyed. Just barely, but I did it.

I'm enjoying a beautiful Saturday with Husband. We are going to go to a park and go for a walk. Grocery shopping and laundry are the only chores on the list. A nap may sneak in as well.

Thank you for your support while I go through the crazies. It makes me feel less crazy and more normal.