Rach-ology

I decided to copy this from "Big Belly or Bust...What to expect before expecting" and thought it would be fun.

Rules: YOU! Yes, you, reading this. You're tagged. Now that you know more about me than you ever wanted to know, play the game, it's fun! Let others know a little more about yourself, repost this as your name followedy by "ology."

FOODOLOGY:

What is your salad dressing of choice? Italian

What is your favorite sit-down restaurant? We aren't original--Red Lobster

What is your favorite fast food restaurant? I'm going to have to say subway

What food could you eat every day for two weeks and not get sick of? Any kind of pasta

What are your pizza toppings of choice? Mushrooms and Pepperoni

How many televisions are in your house? 3

What color cell phone do you have? Black


BIOLOGY:

Are you right-handed or left-handed? Right

Have you ever had anything removed from your body? Wisdome teeth, a werido tumor from my back, and some bone from my foot.

Have you ever been knocked unconscious? Nope

Have you ever fainted? yes

BULLCRAPOLOGY:

If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die? I don't think so, unless it was going to be soon.

If you could change your name, what would you change it to? I would keep my name the same.

How many pairs of flip flops do you own? I'm guessing around 10-15 pairs

Last person you talked to? Hubby boo


FAVORITOLOGY:

Season? Fall/Winter

Holiday? Christmas.

Day of the week? Saturday

Month? June or July (hey, I'm off work!)

Color? Red

Drink? water

CURRENTOLOGY:

Missing someone? not currently

What are you listening to? Olympic coverage on tv

What are you watching? Olympic coverage on tv

Worrying about? Monday's u/s and bloodwork, will it be good enough to go ahead with IUI

What's the last movie you saw? The Crazies

Do you smile often? I try

If you could change your eye color what would it be? I like my blue eyes, but I also like green

What's on your wish list for your birthday? It's too soon to get a BFP (March 9) so...successful treatments

Can you do a chin-up? Absolutely not

Does the future make you more nervous or excited? A bit of both

Have you been in a car wreck? Actually no...hope I don't have to ever experience that

Have you caused a car wreck? No

Do you have an accent? A little...if you ask my family from MI-a southern accent If you ask some people that I work with- a bit of a northern accent

Last time you cried? yesterday

Plans tonight? Working at the church nursery

Have you ever felt like you hit rock bottom? Not rock bottom, but close

Name three things you bought yesterday? Water, Menopur, Burger King for my mom

Have you met someone who changed your life? Absolutely

For the better or worse? Hoping for the better preparing for the worse

How did you bring in the New Year? With friends playing wii

Would you go back in time if you were given the chance? Yes.

What songs do you sing in the shower? depends on my mood

Have you held hands with someone today? Hubby

Who was the last person you took a picture of? One of my students

Are most of the friends in your life new or old? That's tricky...I have a lot of new friends, but they're nothing like my old friends

Do you like pulpy orange juice? nope

Last time you ate peanut butter and jelly? hm, it's been months

What were you doing at 12 a.m. last night? sleeping

What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? Ow, my head

What? A good day?

I have had the best day today. There was nothing particularly great about it, but I just felt good. I didn't have a bad headache last night, I slept well, and I woke up ready for the day. It's been so long since I've had a good day, I've forgotten how nice it is.

With all my IF struggles, I have not been present in mind at my job for a while. Don't get me wrong. I love my job, and my students are great. I was just going through the motions of work. It was like I was almost annoyed with my precious students for no reason at all. For whatever reason that my body and mind decided to wake up and cooperate today, I'm sure glad that they did. For a good thirty minutes today I had 3 of 5 of my students up and playing chase with me. It was a silly improv game I came up with, but they played along and it went well. One of my students with Down's Syndrome (we'll call him T) had a toy school bus and several toy cars. I kept walking by and taking them. For a while he didn't notice, then finally he said "Hey Parks! My bus!" Then it started...the other students, the nurse, and I took turns running around with the bus, while T chased us. I had never seen him laugh so hard. Even after we gave the bus back to him. He'd bring it to us and tell us to run. I got the best work out.

What was it Elle Woods said? Exercise give you endorphins, endorphins make you happy, and happy people don't kill their husbands. Well then, good news for my husband! I wasn't even upset when he wanted to go play pool with his friends from work. We've been doing the Menopur at about 7, and I told him I could hold this one off til 8 so he could have a little longer.

Well, I guess I'm going to leave work now, I hope my good day keeps on coming!

Dr. Hubby

I'm going to take the time to give my husband some credit. He's been great the past 4 days. He is so careful in preparing the Menopur injections, and always asks me if I'm "ready" before he does it. He's also been a sweetheart when dealing with my Menopur headaches. He texts me throughout the day asking me how I'm feeling. He's a great guy and I don't give him enough credit. Just for giggles I took a picture of him while he was preparing my shot just a few minutes ago.

I love the look of concentration. He's such a trooper.

Well, I'm going to go finish watching Idol!

Boo Headaches!

So, I'm on my 2nd day of Menopur. It burns a little going in, and it's made me have nasty headaches the last 2 days, but other than that I'm feeling okay. Nick and I talked a little bit yesterday, and we decided that we're tired. Since we're with a new doctor, we want to give it a few trys maybe this one and one more, and then we need a break. Well, I need a break-and he was supportive. We pretty much live pay check to pay check so we also need to sit back and save a little bit too. We've had enough money for the drugs and doctor's visits, but we've had to really cut back on a lot of things...unfortunately groceries has been one of those things. We make it work, I can't complain too much, but we've got some big bills coming up, and we still haven't done our taxes. I always dread taxes because we end up owing for some reason. This year I have some medical to claim, but I'm not sure if it's going to be enough, we didn't start spending the big bucks until January. I'm looking forward to a break, but then I can't help but fear that my mind doesn't know how to take a break. I think I'll worry that if I hadn't have taken a break, would I have gotten pregant if I would have continued with treatments. So..although I've said we have decided to take a break, I wouldn't be surprised if I flake out on it.

Well, I'm going to go lay on a heating pad now. Night all!

Wii Grant

A while back, one of our instructional assistants brought her wii and wii fit to my classroom for use to use for a few days. The kids were awesome at it, and there were a lot of physical benefits too. Since then, I have been wanting one for my classroom, but with budget cuts, I couldn't afford it with my instructional money, and when I asked the "higher-ups" they always just told me to write a grant. So...I did. I'd never written a grant before because I figured it would be too lengthy or hard to do. Boy, was I wrong. I wrote it in about 15 minutes, and much to my surprise....I got it! So I was excited, the kids are excited....the only problem is that everyone is out of wiis right now! Ugh! I managed to catch our local walmart when they had just gotten a shipment of the wii fit in, but still no wii...anywhere. Apparently Nintendo shuts down for January for the Chinese New Year. Boo Nintendo! I want my wii! I have roughly 90 days to get a wii before my grant expires. My game plan is to call Wal-mart every morning, and remind them that we want one, so when they get shipments in I'll be the first thing they think about. If anyone is in "the know" about wii shipments, please let me know. I have a purchase order ready to use!

On another note, I made it to Brookwood all by myself today for my first baseline with them. Everything looked okay--no cysts to worry with. I should be good to start with the Menopur on Sunday evening. Here is where I gripe about the $3 parking: Gripe Gripe Gripe. Ok, that's enough...back to work!

Just Waiting...some more.

Since my appointment with Dr. Long I've been feeling kind of impatient. I was on a "new doctor high" for a few days, then it wore off this weekend. Yesterday morning I had a dream that I took a pregancy test and it was positive. I was so shocked I woke up and ran to take a pregnancy test. I knew I wasn't pregnant, but I had to try anyways. No surprise, it was negative. So yesterday, I was kind of in another fertilifunk. It wasn't too bad, I just got upset when my friend casually mentioned she was going to go shopping for baby stuff. Something, as a good friend, I should be happy about...but it made me cry. Then after a nice dinner out with my hubby, we came home and watched Couples Retreat. If you've seen it and you are infertile, I'm sure you can relate. A comedy shouldn't make me cry right? I know I'm premenstral and I'm just being emotional right now. I'm on day 24 or 25--I actually can't remember right now (for once). So, she's coming. I've got my drugs and I'm sittin' on go.

Alas! A Diagnosis.

Today was my first visit with my new RE, Dr. Long at ART. Once we made it through the maze of a parking deck (and all of the elevators)we made it to the office. I was immediately impressed with the waiting room, it was much bigger and more comfortable than the one at St. Vincents. Shortly after I arrived a very sweet lady came up to me and asked me if I was RachelP!!!! I knew immediately that was "Other Rachel's" mom! Not too much later, Rachel came out from her appointment. It was really exciting! RachelP no longer just lives in my computer. =) I arrived at my appointment at about 9:30, and we didn't leave until almost 1:30.

First, we met with Dr. Long. Yes, I actually got to meet the doctor! I hate to keep comparing things to St. Vincents, but I never actually met the doctor in the 6 months that I was with their infertility clinic. Dr. Long is great. Nick and I both really liked him. Within the first 30 minutes of being there, I FINALLY got a diagnosis. I have mild PCOS/Insulin resistance. I literally had no idea. Why in the world wouldn't anyone have told me this. I understand that it's a mild case, and I don't have all the symptoms, but come on! Why couldn't someone else figure this out? So, here's the plan. 150 units of Menopur on CD 3-8 or 4-9. From there, if my follicles look good, we'll do the HCG injection then IUI. I've done HCG twice before, so I know how that game goes, but I'm not familiar with the Menopur, and if we get to go ahead with the IUI it will also be my first. Anyone else on Menopur? What side effects should I expect? Oh, they also said I'd do progesterone suppositories too after IUI.

Next, they did a pelvic exam and an ultrasound just to check things out. This part did take quite a while. I sat completely naked with a sheet and a paper vest for about an hour before they came in for the pelvic exam. Then, I had to change rooms, and instead of getting completely dressed again then told me to put on my top and wrap a sheet around me and I could run to the next room. I waited for the ultrasound for about 30 minutes. By the time I got back to my DH in the financial counseling room, he was going stir crazy. He had read every pamphlet they had on every disease, disorder, and procedure. We me with the nurse for a while and signed more paperwork, and she taught us how to mix the Menopur. After that, the fiance lady came in. She helped us make sense of our insurance coverage. Finally, Nick and I went and had our blood drawn for some tests. It was an eventful, but good appointment.

We decided to go ahead and get the drugs even though it's a while before my next cycle starts. We stopped at Southern and dropped about $500 on drugs, and that was with 50% coverage from the insurance company. Don't get me wrong...I'm not complaining. I'm grateful that we were able to buy these drugs, but it would be nice if they were a bit cheaper.

I'm so thankful to God, that he put wonderful doctors on this earth that can help us when we are in need. I praise him that we're finally able to figure out what is going on with me, and I have faith that he will give us a child one day!

My First Blog Award!

I never thought I'd see the day, but "Other Rachel" from "The Pughs" nominated me for a blog award! Thanks Rach! You're the best! With this award comes a small duty though. I am supposed to nominate 7 blogs for the award as well as tell 7 random facts about myself. (Rachel, I'm using your blog as a template for this..hehe)

In no particular order:

1) "I did, I do, I will" (Shanny)One of my new fertilifriends who has the best sense of humor. Check out her blog to see her nickname for the ultrasound.

2) "The Eberts" (Samantha) I met Samantha at January's Resolve meeting, and I've been following her blog ever since. Her journey and success has given me so much hope!

3) "Life Letters" (Leah) Leah and I went to high school together, played soccer for a little bit (we were horrible) and then she moved away to Utah. Between Facebook and Blogging we are in touch regularly. Her blog is always a fun read.

4) "Q and A" (Audrey) Audrey and I also went to high school together, played soccer for a little bit, but she never moved to Utah. She always posts great pics, I love seeing her little girl Deci. =)

5) "Mandy Owens Photography" (Mandy-of course) She is a friend from school who has really had great success with her photography business. She does great work, and she travels too!

6) "Infertility and the City" (Jaime) I just started following this blog, but so far I love it. It's so comforting to join others in their journey. This is too tough to do alone.

7) "Conception Deception" (Brandy) I also met Brandy at January's Resolve meeting. I was so lost and broken before I went to that meeting last month. Brandy and Samantha both gave me the idea of using blogs to help cope. I can't wait until our next meeting Monday.

I also really enjoy some of the other blogs that "Other Rachel" posted. We follow some of the same blogs. I tried to chose different blogs so we didn't "double dip."

Okay, so now...7 random facts.

1) I have a horrible fear of Buffalo. As a teenager I witnessed a buffalo attack at Yellowstone National Park right next to Old Faithful, and I have yet to recover. Family tends to think this is a funny bit of information. A few Christmas's ago I got a little buffalo toy. Thanks Mom!

2) I can swim like a fish. It took 2 near drowning experiences as a child, but I kept pluging away at it. I love to swim, although I haven't done it much in the last several years.

3) I count my steps just about everywhere I go. Sometimes, when I'm feeling comfortable and confident I don't do it, but if I'm in an unfamiliar place or feeling anxious you'd better bet I've got my mental pedometer ticking away.

4) I had an exchange student live with me when I was in high school. Her name is Anu and she's from Finland. I got to go back home with her for a few weeks, and that was the last time I've needed my passport. It expired this year.

5) I've got the sweetest Golden Retriever ever! I bought him for my husband right after we started dating. His name is Brody and he is so laid back.

6) My husband and I have our own cheesy lingo that we use with eachother. He is my "smouse" instead of my spouse, and he might tell say, "come wish me" instead of "come with me." There is really no rhyme or reason, just certain words we say certain ways. I know..we're obnoxious.

7) I'm a very picky eater. My least favorite food: potatoes I don't even like french fries. I'll eat fries if they are thin and crispy..but that's it. Don't mistake my picky eating for lack of love for food...because obviously-I LOVE TO EAT!

Well, this was fun!

Proud Teacher

One of my students was featured on the news. I normally wouldn't post about my kids because of confidentiality reasons, but I figured since the whole state has seen him, I'm not breaking any laws.

Check it out here: Dylan

I had this student the first two years I taught. I can't believe he is a senior this year. *tear* I'm so proud.