HSG prelim report

Today was finally HSG day. I spent my entire afternoon at the darned hospital because I couldn't see driving all the way across town to do a urine pregnancy test, then going back 2 hours later for the HSG. So I peed in a cup, set Hubby up for his repeat SA, grabbed lunch, and returned to the hospital. I checked in and 45 minutes later, finally got called back.

The nurse I had was amazing. She explained everything to me (even though I basically knew what would happen) and went over all the risks and whatnot. The doctor that did the test was pretty cool too. He reiterated what she had gone over with me and then we got started. I was nearly expecting the worse since I rarely have cramps with AF and most people I know have had some serious cramping/discomfort issues with and after their HSGs. Mine was easy. Both of them.

This may be a little TMI, but I'm gonna share it anyways.



The doc inserted the speculum and wiped down my cervix. Painless. He then inserted the catheter with the balloon on the end. He inflated the balloon and I was all set for the dye. Completely painless and cramp free. He started injecting the dye and my uterus filled up nicely as well as my right tube. Pretty amazing sight to see that stuff on the screen. Then, the unexpected happened. The balloon came out. The doc said he'd never had that happen before. So, in order to actually be able to finish the procedure, he had to start all over again. The second time around, I had a little cramping/pressure. Nothing too unmanageable by any means. As strange as it may sound, it just felt as though I had a little bit of gas. The dye was injected again and the left tube illuminated quite perfectly. Apparently there was a little bit of an angle once the catheter got into my uterus, which is why the first one came out - it wasn't in far enough. The second time around, the right tube wasn't filling up, so he pushed a little bit more. Within a few seconds, it finally filled once again. I could tell something didn't look quite right as I watched the dye spill into my tube. I saw what looked like air bubbles being forced through the engorged ("dialated" as the doc said it) right tube.

Once my second tube finally showed up on the screen, we were done. The doc did a prelim report and mentioned that my right tube was dialiated which could be caused from a possible ectopic pregnancy. He said that since it's dialated, it doesn't mean that I won't get pregnant, but it just means that it will take us longer (yeah...like 22 cycles isn't long enough...). Of course, this is just a prelim report, and I won't know anything for sure until I meet with Dr. M. probably next week sometime.

So that's the story from today. I got 2 HSGs for the price of 1. How nice. Plus, I'll probably have a little more spotting and draining than normal since he had to do everything twice.

And now I'm off to nap before I go to an all-nighter at our church. Tomorrow I sleep!

You know your cycles are messed up when...

you sign in to FF and get the wonderful "We're giving you a free trial of VIP benefits" screen. Then, you go to your chart and FF marks your fertile days as CD 12-29 with AF possibly showing on CD31.

And I'm sure my HSG won't mess with this at all! haha (yeah right)

What a week!

So it's only Wednesday, but honestly to me it feels more like a Thursday or Friday! This week has been kinda crazy already, but in a somewhat good way.

Hubby and I have decided to start working with the youth group at our church. It's something that's always been a passion of ours, and now we finally have a church that not only needs adult help but also has an amazing youth group as well. The youth pastor is super excited about having us help out too. We've even agreed to help out with an all-nighter event on Friday night/Saturday morning. It's such a great opportunity for us to finally do what we've always wanted to. And I kinda let it slip that I've been involved in worship teams before (never a leader), and the youth pastor was asking me about that as well. Seems they need a new worship leader for the youth group. He told me that the band they have is pretty awesome, they just need someone to guide them. I told him I've never done any worship leading, but we'll see how things turn out.

At church on Sunday, one of my friends approached me and asked how my job search was going (she's always checking up on me to see how things are). She asked how desperate I was getting because her job is opening very soon. [She's changing professions.] I found out the job is literally across town from where we live, but the starting pay is around 32k/year (a pretty large step up from what I made at my last job), which I'm perfectly happy with. It is a desk job (which I'm okay with), and she said that she would talk to her boss about me and put in a good word for me. Well yesterday, after facebooking back and forth, I finally got a little more info about the position and I emailed my resume to the boss lady. Even her boss was hoping that I'd at least meet with her to discuss the job. Now I sit and wait once again, but I'm feeling pretty good about this one.

As for TTC, I'm on CD7 today and I'm not so sure AF plans on ever stopping completely!! I'm scheduled for my HSG on Friday, but if AF is still hanging around, I'll have to push that to next week. Hubby is going to do his SA next week (the lab only does it Monday/Tuesday between 7:30-9:00am). I've already done my CD3 bloodwork (that was a hassle). So now it's just another waiting game to see what happens. Depending on what the tests show will determine what we do next. I'm okay with trying a few months of Femara and IUIs. I think Hubby would rather just skip to adoption if something comes back abnormal. He's so ready to be a daddy, and even said so the other day. If only I could give him that news. Someday I will though.

Neighbors Update

About 2 minutes ago, my neighbor's husband comes over to our house. (Just to clarify, I've never met the guy in my life and I had no idea who he was at first.) He asked if my husband was home to which I replied no. He then asked what time he would be home and I said 4:30 or 5. He wasn't too happy about that answer, but there's nothing I can do about his work schedule.

He then asked me if I had said something to housing about the smoke and pet urine smell. I wasn't going to lie to the guy and say no. Heck I complained in the first place because A) they're not the nicest nor most respectful neighbors, B) we've put up with their stench for way too long and C) I just don't care for them at all. I told him that yes I did tell housing about it because the odors irritated my husband's allergies really bad. He then got all defensive and said "Well, why didn't you come talk to us about it?"

Me: "I never see anyone over there." (Which is honest. They're basically hermits and I don't want to deal with them anyway. When you introduce yourself as "my dogs are going to bark and you just have to deal with it" and "don't tell housing about the cats," it leaves a very sour taste in my mouth.)

Him: "My wife is always home, you could have just come over." [Yeah, I probably could have gone over there and talked to her, but seriously, would they have done anything about it? No. Plus, I would have gotten even more bombarded with their stink. eww...]

Me: "But I never see anyone home or around at all."

**insert more of this type of stuff**

Him (as he walks away): "Well, you don't have to worry about it for too much longer because we're moving."

Me (internally): Seriously?!?!?! What was that all about? But heck! They are going to be gone and maybe we'll get some nicer people in here!! Hallelujah!!

So alas, our crappy, smoking, over pet-populated, smelly neighbors will be leaving our building. I'm not sad to see them go. I'm also not sad that we won't be hearing her stupid car alarm go off at all hours of the day and night. I'm also not sad at all that we won't be getting chewed out by our motorcycles setting off that stupid car alarm anymore.

This day just got incredibly better!

Oh, and completely off topic, but spot showed up. C22 here we come!

The neighbors are moving! The neighbors are moving! The neighbors are moving! The neighbors are moving! No more cigarette smelling clothes or cat urine smelling house!! The neighbors are MOVING!!!

Post #58

What an exciting post number! haha j/k

I can't believe I haven't posted on here in over 10 days!! And to think I was doing so well!! So now it's catch-up time once again.

On the TTC front - according to FF, I'm 13 DPO. I've temped the past few days just so I can see what's going on as far as when AF will show. If my calculations are right, she'll be making her grand appearance on Monday. Lucky me. At least this next round will consist of my slough of CD3 bloodwork as well as my HSG finally. Then back to Dr. M's office to meet with her and decide the next step. The more I think about it (depending on the test results of course), the more I'm almost wanting to do a few months of Femara with IUIs. For one, our insurance actually covers it, and two, we don't really have extra money lying around to go to an RE. That's what I'm thinking...we'll see what the tests say and what Dr. M thinks about it all.

On the non-TTC front - I have become "that neighbor." Living on a military base usually means 4-plexes. I have absolutely no problem sharing walls with the neighbors as long as their respectful and whatnot. Well, yesterday I'd had enough of our wall-neighbors. They're both smokers (which I'm okay with. What they do with their health is their own problem). Add to that 4 kids, 3 dogs, and 3 ferrel cats in a 3 bedroom house. Ever since we moved in here back in April, we've had to deal with our adjoining wall areas smelling like their cigarette smoke and their house. It's absolutely disgusting. We have to keep our bathroom doors closed to keep the smell from completely permeating our house. I also avoid the laundry area if I don't have to be there because 99% of the time it smells like cigarette smoke. The sad part - Hubby and I don't even smoke nor do we let people smoke in our house ever.

So yesterday, I called my mom to get a second opinion on it all. I asked her if she thought I should go file a complaint or what. She agreed with me that it needs to be dealt with because we shouldn't have to change our lifestyle because our neighbors are inconsiderate. I trekked over to the housing office and had a nice little chit-chat with one of the ladies there regarding it all. She wrote down everything that I told her. She made notes about the cat urine and the fact that Hubby has severe allergies to cats. She told me that she would have to discuss the situation with her manager and see what can be done about it all. She told us that one option we may be given is to move to another house, if we are open to it. I told her we just moved here in April, but I'm sure we'd be okay with it. She took my phone number and told me she'd call me back and let me know what they decide. Now I wait for her phone call. If I don't hear anything by this coming Friday, I'm going to go visit her again because I've already put up with cigarette/cat urine smells for way too long and I'm tired of it all.

Other news -

• I applied for a couple more jobs, so it's once again a waiting game.
  
• I've also decided to do some volunteering stuff at our church. It's only 1 day a week, but heck, it gets me out of the house!
• My sister and her new boyfriend are finally coming out here to visit us in September. I hope the weather is still halfway decent then so we can go explore new places outside.
• My uncle was in a pretty bad motorcycle accident this past week. He's doing fine amazingly. His helmet was on the back of his motorcycle instead of on his head. When will people ever learn?!?!
• I made 3 cookbooks for Hubby and I using the bagillion recipes that we've accumulated over the past 4 years. I typed them all up (using Excel and Word), and put them in page protectors then in a binder. They're pretty schnazzy and very functional, if Hubby will put the recipes back in the book when he's done with them. It took me almost 4 days to get it all done, but alas, they're beautiful and now it's so much easier to find our favorite recipes. I plan on doing the same for my mom for Christmas this year. Her recipe box is a disaster and she really liked the way I did mine. So, what's a few hours for a super cool home-made Christmas gift?

Whew...I really need to stop waiting so long between posts! There's too much going on to do that!!

Happy Weekend everyone!

We have a plan (somewhat...)

Today I got to meet with Dr. M, the other GYN doctor. I had my list of questions to ask her and I was ready for the appointment. I printed off all my charts and was mentally ready for everything. I didn't need any of it.

My wait was a lot shorter than the first time I was at the office. In less than 10 minutes I was back in a room, waiting for the doc. She came in and wasn't really what I expected (but in a good way). In the past, I've only had older male physicians, but she was a newer doctor. She didn't waste anytime getting into things. We discussed the past treatments that I had done as well as mine and hubby's health history. She basically told me that taking anymore Clomid wasn't going to help me much - in fact it would probably hurt me more than help me. She discussed the possibility of changing my O-induction meds, but told me flat out that the increased chances of us getting KU on them wasn't much better than the Clomid. They were merely not as damaging to the lining as Clomid. She also told me that we could try IUIs, but there really isn't a huge increase in our chances either. We discussed an HSG and further options for us. She basically developed a series of next steps for us to take and we'll go from there.

Here's what we get to do with the next cycle:

• CD3 bloodwork - FSH, LH, estradiol, TSH, FT4, prolacting, fasting glucose, and fasting lipids
• HSG - complete with anti-infection meds and motrin
• Repeat SA - it's been a long time since Hubby got checked out, so she wants to make sure things are still good with him
• Follow up with her after all of this so we can decide what to do next

She also told me that if everything comes back normal, we can either

1. try the other O-induction meds (letrizole or something like that)
2. do a lap to make sure I don't have endo or any other abnormalities
3. see an RE
4. TAB for awhile (she mentioned a couple of years) then TTC again [her reasoning - we are young and military insurance doesn't cover anything past an OB/GYN for IF treatment (aka it's really expensive and it will all be out of pocket for us)]

So now it's all a waiting game for a couple of weeks. At least now we have an idea what to do next and it doesn't include more Clomid. I discussed things with Hubby and I don't think he's too keen on option 3. He mentioned that although he'd prefer to have a biological baby, we may have to resort to adoption. I'm really hoping and praying that we won't have to go that way. Not that I don't think adoption is good - I'm actually a strong supporter of it. I just don't want to give up so soon on TTC. I mean we are young still (only 24), and there are still other avenues that we haven't explored yet with regards to TTC. Only time will tell what will happen with us.

*additional stuff...*
She also made the question/statement that I should throw away my temp charts if I haven't already because all they do is lead to stress (yup...been there done that a lot). Hubby was happy about it. I'm not quite so sure how I feel about it, especially since that's the only way sometimes that I know AF is coming.

Major trigs ahead, for those who care.

I'm beginning to join the "why not me" group. In the past, it honestly hasn't bothered me that much when I hear my friends announce BFPs. I was happy for them and excited to see baby bump and pregnancy updates. Lately though, it's starting to bother me a little. Last month, my cousin and his fiance welcomed a new baby - I didn't even know they were expecting until a month before they were due. One of my coworkers from high school recently had a baby as well. Another former coworker is expecting a baby any day now. I also just found out a couple of weeks ago (courtesy of facebook) that a good friend/classmate from my high school and her husband are now expecting a little one as well.

As if that alone wasn't enough, for the past couple of nights, I've had strange pregnancy dreams!! One night, I dreamt that our bottom feeder fish gave birth to a bunch of little ones (like 15-20). Last night, I dreamt that my former classmate was wearing a white strapless sundress over her bulging baby bump and for some odd reason, twins kept coming into the conversation. It was very odd. It's like I had a third sense that I just knew she was having twin boys and it was so realistic.

I'm just so ready to join that group. I'm ready for all the ladies on the Web.MD 12+ months boards to join that group. We deserve to become mothers to more than just furry kids and fishies.

On a brighter note, I finally meet with Dr. M tomorrow to hopefully establish a plan and get the ball rolling once again. Maybe she can shed some light on my + OPK but no temp rise. I'm just ready to get off the TTC train and get on the KU train.

One day our time will come. I just pray it comes soon for us all.

It lied

I was so excited that I got a + OPK last week and Hubby and I got in some good BD'ing. All I was waiting for was FF to confirm my O through a temp rise. That hasn't happened. In fact, my temps went up for a couple of days, and now decided to go back down again. I'm thinking either the OPK was defective or my body is just really messed up. How frustrating!!

On a better note, Hubby and I got to experience something new yesterday. We took on the white water rapids of the Royal Gorge with a group from our church. That was an absolutely amazing time! Our group split into 2 groups - a wilder, crazier bunch, and the mellower ones. I must say I was a little nervous at first because we were hitting Class III-IV rapids and it was my first time going rafting. Once we got down river though, I had an awesome time! I wasn't getting very wet though, which somewhat surprised me. I thought that going through Class III-IV rapids meant a little wetter and a little better. Hubby on the other hand, got drenched. We were in the middle of a Class IV rapid and his feet weren't planted good enough. He toppled over the side of the raft, leaving our boat in a little bit of a panic. Our guide grabbed him and helped pull him in and he was fine. He got a little freaked the first few seconds that he was out of the raft, but I think he enjoyed the rush of adrenaline. I personally wasn't all that worried about him. Hubby tends to end up in situations like that a lot, so it's part of our lives. Plus, our guide was a really great guide and he grabbed Hubby right away and got him back in the boat. Quite the story to tell, that's for sure!

The rest of the trip went very smoothly. No more man overboards or super extreme rapids. Once we passed all of the major rapids, our guide let us slowly drift down the river. The other group met up with us and the nice easy day of rafting soon turned into an all-out splash war! Their guide goaded them on, and our guide made sure our boat was in line with theirs so we'd have a fair fight! I ended up completely drenched as did many of the others on the rafts. It was so much fun though and definitely worth the water! Hubby and I have already decided that we're going to go again sometime. We had such a great time!