Clomid and FSH

I finished taking the Clomid that was prescribed to me. It was 50 mg per day for days 3-7. I also had to take Mucinex to help the cervical mucus somehow. According to reports, the side effects can be pretty extreme so I was nervous about taking it, but I came through it with minimal issues. The only side effect that I had was that the left side of my face was tingly and numb for about 12 hours on the first day. No headaches, nausea or any of the other gnarly side effects.

Today was my follow up appointment which was with another doctor since mine is out of the country. During he exam, the doctor was saying a bunch of numbers to the nurse who was writing everything down. Not much of a bedside manner and I had no idea what she was talking about. My regular doctor always lets me look at the ultrasound while he is doing it and points everything out to me.

I was fully prepared to not have had any response to the medication and figured we would have to wait another month and increase the dosage of Clomid. I was wrong! I have two follicles that are almost ready to go. They measured 15.2 and 15.5 mm, respectively. Ideal follicles are at least 18 mm and they grow approximately 2 mm per day. I now have an appointment to go back on Friday for my injection of FSH (follicle stimulating hormone).

We both know that this is not a guarantee but it is nice to see my ovaries actually doing their job! Think good thoughts.

Fertility

I had another appointment with my fertility doctor a week ago and he said that Caleb and I can still have kids on our own, it just may take awhile. I actually started crying in his office. We had already decided to start fertility drugs which the doctor agreed with. I started one of the prescriptions already and then have another appointment in a couple weeks where I will have another pelvic ultrasound and receive an injection. It still isn't a guarantee, but it does increase our chances. Think good thoughts!

Perfect Day

Right now I am drinking coffee and watching the snow coming down outside. My big, fat cat is asleep next to me and the dog is snoring on the floor. The best part is that my baby Carlyn is asleep in the other room. Everything is right in my world.

Sometimes I watch her and am so amazed by the woman she has become. She is one of those people who makes friends wherever she goes, can light up a room with her smile and always has a funny comment that makes me laugh until I cry. I look at her and can still see the five year old girl with the big brown eyes who looked up at me adoringly. I wonder if she realizes that I am often the one who is now looking up at her in the same way.

She is and always will be the best part of our family.

Beautiful

I have just discovered something that is more beautiful than the elk in Yellowstone National Park-Elk medium rare on my plate. Yummy Yummy!

Bath and Body Works might work for me

Today I have decided that I slightly envy people who have jobs that don't require the things that my job does. I don't mean to talk down about people who have these jobs, but today I felt like all I wanted was to go back to working at Bath and Body works where the only thing I had to worry about was how many samples I gave out during my shift.

I do love my job. It has just been extremely difficult since Christmas Eve when I was on call. Since that night, I haven't slept much and can't seem to get work out of my head. Today I got to the point with a few people where I just wanted to scream as a result of how many hours I have spent on one particular case concerning these people.

I told my coworkers today that working at the mall sounded really good and ended it with "I didn't go to college for this crap". Then I remembered that this is exactly what I went to college for :)

Colleen

Colleen took off a few minutes ago, flying back to the war. I feel too many different emotions about her leaving and can't seem to put them into words yet. It takes a lot for me to pray, but believe me, I will be praying a lot over the next few months to keep her safe over there. I put on my cartouche that she gave me and plan to keep it on until she gets home. Probably sounds silly, but it makes me feel closer to her.

Don't blame me if this grosses you out

I am serious! This is my blog so I can write whatever I want to and if you read it and say to yourself, 'wow, that is so much more than I wanted to know' you have only yourself to blame because I warned you.

I had another appointment with my fertility doctor today even though this procedure had nothing to do with infertility. I had to have an LSIL removed which stands for low grade squamous intra-epithelias lesion. I was anxious most of the day because I am such a baby when it comes to this kind of thing. I have never had a cavity, a broken bone or stitches unless it was during surgery and I was knocked out. I took Tania with me of course, who got to hold my hand the whole time!

As soon as the nurse left the room for me to get changed into the oh so flattering sheet, I started looking at the instruments that they had laid out for the procedure. Tania finally made me quit looking at them. So the doctor comes in and explains everything to me step by step. As always, he tells me to relax. How easy is it to relax when your feet are in stirrups and you are about to be given four shots of Lidocaine in the vagina? The shots definitely hurt and I started crying but the tears were more from the fear and crazy imagination than from the pain. I was so scared by that point that I asked the doctor if I was going to hear the scissors when he started.

I laid there crying with Tania holding my hand and the nurse giving me a tissue. The doctor kept talking to me through the process and at one point I told him that I felt something tugging and he said it was the needle for the stitches. I told him that I didn't want to hear about the needle so he then said that he meant to say that he wasn't using a needle. Everyone else laughed and I told him I was laughing on the inside. He actually is very funny; I just didn't feel like laughing at that moment. The stitches seemed to take much longer than I expected. He had told me that it would only be one stitch so I figured it wouldn't take that long. It turns out that what he meant was that it would be a running stitch which means it is technically one stitch but it is the equivalent of many stitches.

As soon as he was done the nurse cleaned me up a bit and then left for me to get changed. When I stood up, Tania told me not to look at the table so that is exactly where I looked. There was a lot of blood. I mean A LOT! Tania left so I could get cleaned up and dressed. Believe me if there had been a way to get out of there without ever standing up I would have. The cleanup was unbelievable. In the time that it took for me to clean up, get dressed and go to the restroom, I needed a new liner. Even now, four hours later I still have some bleeding.

I had planned to go to work tomorrow because I wasn't anticipating a lot of pain, but it turns out the 'aftercare of the site' is more intensive than I expected. For the next week, every time I use the restroom, I have to clean the area with a syringe and blow dry it. Are you kidding me? How am I supposed to do that at work??? So I called and told my boss that I will not be in tomorrow but I hope to go in on Saturday because the office will be empty so if I take my blow dryer no one will know, hopefully.

I go back next Wednesday to see the doctor again. He should have the results of the biopsy by then. Fun, fun, fun!