The start of the journey

Yesterday I actually slept in! I only had an afternoon appointment so I let J Bird go work out at 6 am without me.  When I heard him come in and start to juice, I immediately sprung out of bed and thought, "I have to take my meds!!"

I ate breakfast and waited about 30 mins to take the Lupron shot and waited another 30 mins to take the Dex to try to avoid nausea.  The shot was very easy, I didn't even feel it go in.  Before I took the Dex I started to feel nauseous and short of breath.  I googled the symptoms and while nausea is typical, shortness of breath can be an allergic reaction.  I emailed my nurse and she said that if it continues I should call the office.

The Dex didn't seem to do anything else to add to the side effects, except that while we were at The Avengers movie my legs started to hurt so bad! It felt like growing pains.  When I  got home I jumped in a hot bath for a few mins and took some Tylenol.  It seemed to help alleviate the pain in my legs.

Right now I just ate breakfast and I'm killing some time before taking my medicines.  I hope yesterday was just an adjustment period.  My parents drove all the way down from PA yesterday and we plan on exploring a flea market, farmers market, hitting up the pool (It's a high of 96 today!) and making some good food :)

The time is almost here...

To start my drugs! Tomorrow morning I begin my Dex and Lurpron.  It's pretty ironic that the first drug I start on is the drug I fought so hard to stay off of, but this is just for the short term to help suppress my system.

In other not so awesome news- I looked at my meds while talking to Nurse Linda and realized I DO have the Progesterone in oil shots in addition to the suppositories.  J Bird is very happy that he gets to shoot me in the ass, but I'm not as excited about that part.

one.day.maybe.baby.room

I had a moment this morning.  I’ve been using our guest room/one.day.maybe.baby.room as my personal hair studio.  It’s not a fancy hair studio, more like just a mirror on the floor, but I can leave my blow dryer, flat iron and brush arranged how I like it and I don’t have to clean it up.  Also since it takes a good while to do my hair I like to sit down.  And once when I was really tired, lay down to do my hair.  I’m sure my hair looked awesome that day.

I peruse the net and today I looked at an interior decorating blog I haven’t seen in months.  The girl who writes it must of gotten pregnant since the last time I saw it, so she had pictures of the nursery she designed.  Since I was sitting in our one.day.maybe.baby.room I let my mind wonder.  I started to think of color schemes and furniture that I would love to use.  I started to get excited because in the upcoming month this day dream may become a reality.  I might to get to design my own nursery.

It was fun…until I started to tear up.  This is one thing that infertility steals from you.  I’m sure women who are planning on getting pregnant day dream about their future nurseries and never stop themselves.  As an infertile, I stopped myself because of the what if’s.  The what if’s that are too painful.  What if a baby never sleeps in this room?  What if I plan this awesome nursery and I never get pregnant again?  What if this room is meant to be my guest room/hair studio and not a guest room/one.day.maybe.baby.room?

So for now, I will stop my daydreaming and focus on what is real.  Things I know will happen.  Take it one step at a time.  And put that damn pregnant interior decorator blogger on my shit list. Until I am pregnant and it’s not a day dream any more.

Another part of the equation

I finally got back my blood work for elevated natural killer cells.  It really didn't take that long, I was just impatient!  The nurse sent me an email telling me that I do have elevated rates of natural killer cells.  It's really not a big deal to me I am just happy that we have this part of the equation figured out before we drop a few G's on IVF.  My treatment will include one intralipids infusion before I leave for Las Vegas and then one more if indeed I have a positive beta test.

I will be having another consultation with my Dr tonight and he is going to explain more about activated natural killer cells (NKA).  From what I understand, about 30% of women with endometriosis have NKA.  NKA can explain reoccurring miscarriages or why an embryo will not implant in the first place.  I cannot explain as good as my RE so if you would like you can read his blog here.

In other news I have been on birth control pills for over a week.  Isn't it funny you go on birth control before IVF?  I am pretty sure they put you on birth control so that they are able to regulate your cycle in order for everyone who is cycling in June to start on the same date.  The birth control makes me feel nauseous and yucky all day long.  No me gusta.

All of my drugs arrived on Friday!  I worked half a day and then raced home to wait for my drug dealer Fed Ex man.  I sat in my office and did work, but any time I heard a car came down the street I couldn't help but look out of the window.  I was surprised and ecstatic to find out that I have Progesterone suppositories and not Progesterone in oil (PIO).  PIO comes as a intra muscular injection and you have to do it every night.  I've heard horror stories about lumpy booties and how painful it is.  So thankful my doc sent the suppositories!

All my "drugs": Starbucks included in the category

Protcol and Endo diet

Last week I talked to my nurse and she gave me my protocol.  I am not sure what type it is but it is apparently a pretty light protocol.  Which is awesome considering the price range of drugs was $2000-10,000 and mine was on the very low end.  (Pretty large range, eh?)  Insurance covered the Progesterone and Folic Acid which only amounted to $400, but considering what they pay for IVF itself (a big fat $0), I'll take it!

We have been discussing ways to cut back on our spending since we did not have any time to plan for the very large payment we are going to make in 4 days.  J Bird called Comcast and got us a sweet deal taking $30 off our bills and giving us about 20 more channels (Oxygen yay!)  Other than the necessary bills, our largest expense each month is groceries.  We both love to eat and to eat healthy at that.  It's not cheap to buy all that good stuff so I started trying to make one (two if absolutely necessary) trip to the grocery store a week.  If I forgot to buy something at the store we try to do without it because it seems as though I can never get out of the grocery store with just the items on my list which equals more moolah.

Around March I had completely given up on the endo diet.  It was too hard to stick to and I wasn't seeing any difference.  3 weeks ago I had a moment.  I was volunteering at a baseball game for the company I work for, just trying to get our name out there.  With it being Autism month the baseball team agreed to "feature" our company on their scoreboard between innings.  A girl I work with was there with her adorable 4 month old and she told me that she went GF and vegan to increase her fertility.  And obviously it worked for her!

I decided to really stick to the diet this time around.  I made it a little easier on myself by only focusing on gluten-free, dairy free (except for Greek yogurt), vegetarian and limiting soy but not excluding it all together.  Trying to start this diet in the spring time is a bazillion times easier that attempting to start it around the holiday season.  With all the fresh fruits and vegetables in season I have not been so tempted to fall off the wagon.

My food staples have been; mean green juice, Chex cereal w/almond milk, fruit shakes, grilled eggplant, spaghetti squash, grilling yellow and green zucchini, mushrooms and peppers, salad, Naked juices, guacamole, almond thins and for a very yummy snack Larabars (which I made home-made today).  So far, so good! The only time I knowingly cheated was communion this past Sunday.  Boy, oh boy did that Hawaiian bread taste good.