Breathe, It'll Be Over Soon!

I'm still here. I'm trying to stay calm, because my test is in 3 days!!! I'm semi-prepared, but not awesomely prepared. Maybe I can become a little more awesome in the next two days?

To keep myself reasonably calm, I've given myself permission to fail one of the three sections. Horrible isn't it? But it helps. I want to pass the whole thing, but I'll go easy on myself if I don't.

The first two sections, given on the first day are multiple choice, but tricky. I'm hoping to pass those, as that's what I'm mostly studying for.

The third section and second day of the test is the practicum. It involves problem solving a floor plan and drawing it out, as well as doing details, and other fun stuff I won't bore you with. While it's possible to practice for that, I haven't put in much time, so I'm looking at that part as a trial run for the fall when I take it again.

Wish me luck!

(At least it's distracting me from all the baby making stuff...ha ha ha)

Study, Study, Study?!

My exam is a week away tomorrow! I've been trying to study regularly for the past few months, but now it's crunch time. I forgot what it's like to force so much (often trivial) information in my head.

Otherwise, I'm trying to remain calm and patient for mid April. I'm going to have to start a list for packing, otherwise I'm going to drive myself crazy with all of the random thoughts about going to NY.

BTW, does anyone put much stock in the high protein low carb diet for IVF? Just curious.


This is totally unrelated to all things IF, but I just had to post this bit of common sense politics. Daniel Hannan may be my new hero. I don't know how to imbed a youtube video directly. :(

It's a Go!

I don't know if a girl could be looking forward to surgical procedure than I am!? LOL

I am officially scheduled for my Polypectomy on Friday, April 17th. I need to be in NY on Wednesday the 15th for the pre-op visit, so I'll possibly be in NY for a total of four weeks if all goes well.

Due to the change of plans and the length of time I'll be away, I've decided that I'm going to drive up to NY. It'll be easier on me if I have a car and I don't have to worry about plane tickets and timing etc.

So the new plan goes like this: I'll drive up to Maryland Saturday April 11th, stay through Easter and drop off one of our dogs. Roxy's our 2 year old stubborn dalmation-mix. She's super sweet, but a little intense and adverse to training (I trained our Husky mix with no problems). No one down here wants to dog sit her while M and I are both out of town. No one except my uncle in MD -he really likes her, and who am I to keep them apart. :) M is hoping that this will become a permanent arangement, but I'm not so sure.

Yes, that's what Roxy did to one of my favorite shoes when I came home from work late, too bad she didn't give me a matching pair.

Anyway, I'll finish the trip to NY and then either M or my Mom will come up for the Laporoscopy. I'm not sure if I'll stay with my friends at that point, or if we'll get a hotel room. But after the surgery, I'm definitely staying with my former college roomates. That's going to be fun, so I have something to look forward to.

When the time is right, M will fly up and I guess we'll get a hotel for retrieval etc. Then we'll drive back home together, hopefully making a stop in MD (to pick up Roxy?) and then again in Savannah, GA. At least that's what I'm thinking right now. M is worried that I shouldn't drive such a long distance, I don't think it should be a big deal, as long as NY-RE says it's okay.

Sorry, that was a boring, rambling post about nothing.

Good News!

I heard back from Emily this morning. She's so nice, have I mentioned that? She wanted to know how the visit with my gynecologist went and if they'd do the surgery. I filled her in, but told her that M and I might want to skip all the stuff down here in Florida and just take care of business in NY.

I don't know if I've mentioned, but M is in charge of this IVF cycle (I was in charge of most of the past decisions with IVF-1 and now it's his turn...this is how we decided to resolve our differences about this mess because we're both stubborn!). So he voted that we move everything up North, including the surgery.

I was very apprehensive about this plan (and let M know it!), it seemed to be a lot of trouble (for me), but after speaking with Emily and the NY-RE, it's making so much more sense.

You know how I had my panties in a bunch over the surgery/IVF-2 timeline dragging out? Well NY-RE put my mind at ease, there will be no waiting between the surgery and IVF-2!!! Can I get a hell yeah?! Don't worry, I asked repeatedly, and he said that it shouldn't be a problem, as long as there aren't any complications.

I'm waiting for the surgical nurse to call about scheduling the Hysteroscopy, but he said he could possibly do it Friday, April 17 when he gets back from vay-cay. He would then check me out on Monday and give me the go ahead for stims that same week! That would put me at retrieval around the first week of May. Only a few weeks behind schedule, not bad, and I won't have to worry about co-ordinating all the different Dr's, I'll just stay in NY for three weeks instead of two.

So here is the bad news, 'cause it couldn't all be good. I would miss my friends wedding reception and be unable to make her wedding cake. I might know someone who could step in and fill my shoes, but of course that's up to my friend. I feel horrible to do this to her, but I know she'll understand. But still.

Delayed Until???

It's official, IVF-2 is being delayed. I spoke with Emily and she confirmed what I already knew, that I won't be able to stick to the schedule.

I had my follow up breast exam with my ARNP gynecologist today, which was the perfect setting for grilling her about doing the Hysteroscopy/Polypectomy. I think she got the picture that I'm not happy with their views (it's not medically necessary -ha) about doing the Saline Sonohysterogram. I asked if they would be willing to do the Hysteroscopy/Polypectomy since it's now clear I have a medical need for that. She said they would.

I now have a surgical consult scheduled for April 1 with a Dr. in the practice. I don't want to wait nearly 3 weeks just for the consult!

I am so frustrated and dissapointed by all of this. Not surprised, just frustrated. I had finally geared up for this, and now I have to wait for who knows how long.

Emily is going to speak with the RE and get some more information from him and pass it on to me later today or Monday. Not sure what's going to happen, but it looks like IVF-2 might not happen until May or June.

Polyps=Fun

I survived the Saline Sonohysterogram! It wasn't nearly as bad as I feared it would be. It was similar to an IUI, but maybe a touch more cramping. I'm still feeling the effects now, but it's not too bad. I took the advice found on Stirrup Queens blog and took two advil beforehand.

I ended up going to the radiology clinic instead of my gynecologist. When I spoke to the gynecologists nurse, she informed me that I would have to pay out of pocket, as it's related to IF...blah, blah, blah. When I called up the radiology clinic, they were much more cooperative and were going to let insurance pick up the tab.

The tech that did the wanding was awesome, she has plenty of experience doing Sonohysterograms and let the marketing department of the clinic know that the yahoos answering the phone (I told her that I was nervous because they didn't even know what a Sonohysterogram was when I called to make the appointment) aren't on top of things.

She was also impressed with my wanding experience. She was having a hard time finding my left ovary, so I offered to press down on it for her. She started laughing and shared with the other tech. Ahhhh...funny yet a little sad.

Now for the bad news. I failed the test, I have more polyps. She and the Dr. saw at least three polyps while they were poking around. I'm still waiting to hear back from Emily in NY to find out what will happen next. Obviously the polyps have to come out first which most likely means there is a hysteroscopy in my future (where, I don't know).

I'm hoping that I won't have to postpone the IVF if I can get the polyps removed in a timely manner, but I don't know how likely that is. I also don't know if they require a waiting period before proceeding with IVF afterwards. I hope it's minimal, as I don't want to grow more polyps while I'm waiting!

Did I mention I just bought the plane tickets for NY yesterday? Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Almost Changed My Mind

Whew, that was close.

I went to my CD3 scan today. Other than the annoying 45 min wait and having to explain my situation to everyone (using a different RE), it went fine. After it was over, I marched directly next door to try to persuade my gyn-y to do the saline-sonohystogram instead of making me go to some skeevy clinic that may or may not know how to do that sono-thingy-ma-bob, what was it called again?

Instead of being directly turned away by the staff (as I was by phone), I was allowed to write my request on a walk-in triage form which was handed to my gyn-y. I was then told to wait for a call from her to discuss the situation. Unfortunately, I missed her phone call today (my Iphone is acting up), so I'm going to have to call her back on Monday. But there is hope.

Anyway, for some reason I started to majorly freak out about the scheduling of the IVF-2 -as it almost conflicts with that stupid licensing test I signed up for. I actually did tell Emily that I thought it best to wait another cycle but then changed my mind back. I'm sure she thinks I'm crazy.

Hopefully it will all work out, I'll just be on bcp's longer than normal, about 24 days which means two packs. My main concern is just being able to concentrate on studying and taking the test with the IVF-2 underway. If everthing goes well, I'll start stimming the day before the exam.

Keeping with this schedule also allows me to be back in town for my friends wedding reception. I told my friend that I'd make her wedding cake and I would feel horrible if I backed out. In case you're wondering, I've never made a wedding cake, or any super fancy cake for that matter. LOL But, I've done a considerable amount of research and preparation for the feat.

I'll blog about the cake making soon. :)