TTC Update and etc.

I'm the only one here on my team this morning. It's early and dark and quiet and I don't want to work yet. The robots that control our work environment can't detect my presence unless I make movement about a foot behind me. Therefore the lights go off. Then I'll stretch and the lights come back on. However, these robots are determined that it will never be warm in this office.

I think I mentioned previously that we have started seeing a new fertility specialist. She's actually an endocrinologist. I will provide a quick run down on what we've learned and what we're doing.

I have high prolactin and excess androgen male hormones. I'm taking two prescriptions at very low doses. One is bromocriptene. It's for the prolactin. I'm only taking 2.5mg per night. That's half of a very small pill. I'm also taking prednisone for the androgen male hormones. It is a cortico steriod, which, ironically, makes my body produce less male hormone. I'm only taking 5mg per night. That's an entire very small pill.

My chart? It is crazy. It's all over the chart. My temperatures are much higher than they normally are. I think this could be because I'm exercising pretty regularly. It could also be that my body is healthier and is regulating my body temperature better. Who knows? I don't know who knows; but I can tell you who doesn't know: my doctor. The amount of understanding and knowledge that physicians lack really makes their level of hubris and assumed authority puzzling.*

Husband doesn't have enough male hormones. The irony is just slapping me in the face. We are going to have to schedule an appointment to learn how to give him injections of HCG(LH), which is the hormone women produce when they are pregnant. Counter intuitive, I know.

His last "sample" had improved morphology, but quantity and motility were still very low. I was glad to know the quality had improved. I admit that I was a little worried about getting pregnant with one of the defunct sperms and having a child with some sever genetic problems. So, improved quality makes me feel much much better.


*This is a generalization and is not meant to be applied to individual physicians.

Late quarterly update on resolutions

I figured it was time to review my resolutions that were made in January and note my progress, or lack thereof.

1. Liver. Find a way to prepare liver that I like, or at least, will eat.
   Progress: None
   
2. Kefir soda. I'm not going to get too specific on this. Basically, something made with kefir that is fizzy, like a soda. I might use coconut water, or something else.
   Progress: I've thought about it. Does that count?
   
3. More ferments. I want to make Kimchi (Korean sauerkraut) and Tsukemono (Japanese sauerkraut) and pickled carrots with ginger. I love the pickled carrots on a samich.
   Progress: Again, I've thought about it. Even bought the carrots and ginger at one point.
   
4. Vitamin D. I need to get my level of calcidiol (storage form of vitamin D) checked and get it within a normal range if it is low.
   Progress: I did get my calcidiol checked. It was low. I'm supplementing to get it higher. We have another check in a few weeks.
   
5. Exercise. Three times a week. Something. Anything. 10 minutes of movement would count.
   Progress: Meh. I'm still working on it. But I haven't given up. In fact, I did 20 minutes of kettlebell workout yesterday.
   
6. Laundry. Keep caught up on laundry and the closet clean. We shall see how this goes...
   Progress: This went really well for the first two months. I need to get re-caught up again. Pokemon time may become fold and iron time. (yes, we watch the back episodes of Pokemon in the evenings)
   
7. Bible. Finish reading it. I got out of my groove when I had to put the Bible reading on hold due to cramming for the ITIL v.3 Foundations certification.
   Progress: I'm back in my groove. I'm well into Jeremiah and am full steam ahead. I still predict that the whole Bible will be read before Christmas.
   

Overdue update

The bathroom went well. There were some tears and doubts, some painting at 3am; but I forged ahead, and we now have painted ceiling and walls, and one tiled wall in the surround. Husband and I plan on tiling the remaining two walls Saturday. Yeah! Success!

I'm very excited at the prospect of peeing upstairs. Very. Excited.

We also had another trip to Big Bend. I was sick the week before we left, which made getting work done a challenge. as well as packing. and caring. Then, right when we were a good 3 hours from civilization, Husband discovers the camera is broken. The whole reason for the trip was to get pictures of more birds. It could not have gotten off to a worse start, but we still had a great time. We brought a lot of our own food and cooked on a propane stove and in a crock pot. That worked out really well and saved us a lot of money. It was nice to come back to the room after a day of hiking and have something hot and ready in the crock pot. Good friends and good food equal good times. Even when you have a broken camera.

Currently, I am barreling toward the weekend like a herd of stampeding buffalo (really, they are bison, but whatever). Ain't nothin' gonna stop me. Weekend! Here I come!

It will be a homey weekend. A weekend of food prep, yard work, bathroom tiling, laundry, dog petting, reading, and reflecting on how much God has blessed our lives.
I can't wait to get started.

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.