Off to WI!

We are heading up north this weekend to meet our new nephew and celebrate our older nephew's third birthday on Sunday, and my eldest sister's 40th today, and my niece who just turned one! These kids are too cute!

Where I'd rather be...

Something fun, going from queen to king...

I'm so very tired of all the IF drama, so it's time to focus on something else. How about a new bed? I just ordered this (mattress and boxsprings only).



We had been waiting... S and I each bought new queen beds just before we met each other, so it seemed silly to get a new one, though it is a little tight. And our MB is only ~14x14. And we bought a queen bed frame a few years ago, and a chaise (that will have to go). But it was time.

Now I just need to decide on bedding... It seems I always come back to PB, hopefully not for complete lack of imagination. I just usually seem to find what I like (though I don't like everything they do). Now I just need to choose, hmmmm....

Pearl Embroidered in powder blue...



Or, Grand Embroidered in porcelain blue...



To match our PB Jordan rug in slate blue...


I'm looking at the duvet and possibly shams (why no king?) and boudoir (w/monogram, of course ;)). I've already bought white damask striped sheets, and an absolutely amazing mattress pad, and four king pillows. Bed skirt and down comforter still to come, so stay tuned... :)

Good/bad/crazy morning...

I think nothing good can come when the work day for me starts at 7am... Another call with Switzerland this morning (these are sadly going to become all too common), and found out that the trip is off. Good, so we can focus on getting pg this month. So with CD1, I called my RE this morning to schedule my u/s for next week as instructed when I was in last Friday for my bloodwork, and find out she is on vacation ALL NEXT WEEK. You've got to be kidding, they couldn't have told me this when I was in the office? Ok, so I wait to hear back on what to do... Nurse calls back and they either want to put me on BCP until the 9th (when she gets back) or wait until next month. Are they crazy? I've been waiting a year and half and she wants me to throw away a month (either way), and my first month post-op? Her partner doctor can't do it? No she wants to do it herself... To the detriment of me, the patient. Lovely... So I've just booked a ticket to join S in Utah (yay for skiing and sex!) during my fertile window and we are winging it on our own. I am so praying that we get KU and then I can just skip the RE, the u/s, the whole thing. Pray for us!

She's here, finally...

I started spotting yesterday and last night I felt so sick and tired, I just knew that she was finally coming. So CD1 now, I'm not sure why this feels like such an accomplishment, baby steps... So the funny thing is that S will be OOT days 11-15 and I'll be OOT 11-17. Hmmm... So we likely won't be doing an IUI (the plan) or anything constructive for that matter. We'll have to see. I fired up the ole CBEFM this morning, but given the testing window and my movement across eight time zones, this will be interesting (test at lunch?). Or maybe try just a regular old OPK. I will need to go in next week for my saline u/s to make sure that all is clear, which again is an accomplishment in itself. I completely misunderestimated (one of my fave non-words that I heard used just last night) the toll of the post-op meds, so I'm so glad to just be getting that all out of my system. Yay to drug free living! :)

Liberty at Target, I can't wait!

Just found out that Liberty of London is coming out with a line at Target (but, of course!). It launches on March 14th, but I find the special collections are sometimes released early.

For a preview... Liberty for Target site/video

It's been quite a week...

So after the pain and misery of Sunday and Monday, I spoke with my RE's nurse about the stomach pain I was having and after telling me she thought is was heartburn (which it wasn't), she wanted to know everything I was taking (which of course I've already told her). So on top of the Premarin (4/day) and Provera (2/day), I also have always taken a PNV (w/DHA), extra Omega (1/3 daily dose), baby aspirin, and cranberry extract (1/3 daily dose). She seemed annoyed that I was taking the cranberry and I reminded her that it is to help prevent UTI's (which I'm prone to, and c-berry juice is rough on my stomach). So she talked to my RE and told me that I should stop taking the cranberry. BTW, I've been taking it for three years w/o issue.

Since she was so helpful, I decided to stop taking everything except the Premarin/Provera which I finally finish tomorrow (thank God!) and now feel better. No more pain (aka stomach bleeding, or the associated black poo, yay!). I now see that Omegas aren't recommended w/aspirin, but of course no health professional (including my RE, nurse or mom) has ever bothered to mention this to me.

After I'm done w/my Rx protocol which has been SO much worse than the actual procedure, I will have to see if everything I was taking goes back to working for me w/o any stomach bleed or not as I wasn't able to manage a trial and error experiment this week.

It's been an insane week at work, 14 hr. days, on top of all of this stomach crap. My boss doesn't know what I'm going through (I'm new and now he's moving to another group), which makes it all that much more difficult. He also likes to drop random comments about how working late keeps him from seeing his kids. Ugh! If he only had a clue, and his wife stays home for crying out loud. Almost done with changes for our project to go up to the CEO. I guess he's waiting for it...
I finally got word about the Switzerland trip... It will overlap with S's trip to Utah (which I'm so lucky I hadn't yet bought a ticket for) and also likely for my entire fertile window. One of us will be gone for a good week, so unless he has super swimmers and we get REALLY lucky, March will be a bust. :(

I found a new discount home decor shopping site, One Kings Lane.
One Kings Lane


Let me know if you want a referral to join. It's like a Gilt Groupe for home, and this picture from their website made me happy...

IF is kicking my ass...

So I thought I was doing really well (which in IF terms is really just eeking by, but anyway), and now I'm pretty sure my stomach is bleeding. :( I didn't take any of my pills this morning and called the nurse to see what I should do. I had to leave her a message and may not hear back from her until this afternoon, so I'm sitting here eating antacids (which I know won't help me) and wondering what if anything I could eat at lunch and not make myself sick. Life is just grand.

A long Sunday...

I was so looking forward to a nice relaxing Sunday, but of course reality got in the way. I did lay around all day, but that's not really what I had planned. Right after I took my AM meds (which are up to 8!), I started having a really bad stomach ache, which did not let up all day regardless of what I ate. I finally took some Prilosec after talking to my mom (the RN), since she figured it was reflux. I've had reflux (and was on Rx meds around the wedding), but it didn't feel like this. I am feeling better today, but now I'm bleeding. AF is not supposed to come until I've finished my week on Provera. I am CD26, so it's not way too early, but since I've been medicated all cycle (BCP, then surgery, Premarin and now Provera), I figure the regular calendar probably doesn't apply. We'll see what the rest of Monday brings...

Vancouver Olympics begin, school done!

Oh how I wish we were in Vancouver... We loved it when we went in 2007. We made it up to Whistler (though it wasn't ski season :() and over to Vancouver Island (for an old friend's wedding). We enjoyed watching the opening ceremonies last night, though of course I fell asleep before the end. So tragic about the Georgian athlete who died yesterday, I refuse to watch the footage of the accident that has been so callously distributed.

Now we are off to the city to celebrate V-day, which since I left the plans up to S means 'Avatar' in 3-D IMAX and dinner at Tizi Melloul.

Great news! I finished my executive mini-MBA coursework yesterday, and with two weeks to spare! Yay!

Friday, finally...

It's Friday and I'm looking forward to the weekend. A massage, acupuncture, starting my Progesterone, the Olympics, movie and dinner w/S, and just relaxing. Ahhhh...

Crate and Barrel(s of fun)

S and I went to the preview party for our very own neighborhood C&B store last night. The nearest store didn't have furniture, so they built a new, bigger store with their whole line. It was a mad house. I think the idea of free food and drink (and a drawing for gift cards) brought out the masses. We bought a few little things, reinforcing my obsession with globes. Excited that now I won't have to drive to whole 15 miles to the other malls that have the big stores.



Also, the latest (Feb/Mar) issue of Lonny magazine is finally out! It's the closest thing since Domino folded last year. Enjoy... www.lonnymag.com

Careful what I wish for...

I found out today that I will likely be going to Switzerland for business in early March. Cool, right? It's been a running joke since I started at Z in October, when/if I would ever get to go. Well, be careful what you wish for. Let me explain. I had planned to join S on his business trip to Utah at the beginning of March to get away, maybe do a little skiing and ensure that we are in the same state when I O'd, as we've been on hold for what seems like forever. Well now we may not even be on the same continent, as he won't be able to join me because of his work commitments and need for a visa. I also didn't realize that given the obscene amount of estrogen I've been taking, it's probably a bit risky to be making long trans-Atlantic flights. So I started taking baby aspirin again stat (thanks for the heads up Mom!). DVT's are super scary, but considering my sister E nearly died a few years ago from a pulmonary embolism, it's a little too close to home for me. Hoping now that the stars align in our favor in March so I O sometime when we are both in the same time zone. Ah life is funny...

Estrogen and Mucinex

So I'm on day 10 of my 21 day post-op estrogen protocol, and I feel like I'm drowning in my own fluids. Besides feeling like my pants are wet all the time (lovely), I have an obscene amount of phlegm in my throat at all times. So I went out and got some Mucinex. It seems to be helping a little, but not enough to overcome the 5 mg of Premarin I'm to ingest each day, which I've discovered is a hell of a lot of estrogen (as a point of reference estrogen replacement therapy begins at .3 mg). A side effect I'm not hating is that my boobs are getting really big. Great, except they hurt. I think it's time to go bra shopping. ;)

Great Finds

So I consider myself a semi-pro shopper, and some of my latest greatest finds are...

Frette Antonella Euro pillow sham ($25 from $190, Oak St. store move)



Earnest Sewn Keaton jeans ($38 from $198 from gilt.com, I'll take two)



L.L. Bean XL zip-top boat and tote bag in sweet pea, monogrammed w/'Ravinia' ($8 from $44)



James Gasowski contemporary art canvas ($30 from $50 from Ikea) I don't usually like modern art, but I liked this, maybe it reminds me of my life... ;)



Cole Haan Merit Jodhpur boots in black with Nike air ($100 from $250)

Post-op appt.

Can I just say that I love my RE. So it's a little strange that she is a just a bit older than me (maybe 35), but she's totally someone that I'd be friends with IRL if she wasn't my RE. She said my septum resection was "textbook" and she was almost giddy with how well it went. She said she wished she had a video of it, but was sharing the pictures of her handiwork with other patients (should I be proud?). She said the excessive discharge is a s/e of the estrogen, so I guess I need to just buck up. She warned me that my next AF would be bad, given all the drugs. She also is completely on board with our plan to try on our own for a few months post-op. She recommended doing IUIs, but didn't think we should jump into IVF, yet. She also told me that she has IVF twins (after her daughter), which I hadn't realized. So she understands why I'm a bit reluctant, if we don't need it. She said to come back after I get AF (hopefully late this month) and get another saline ultrasound, which will count as post-op (non-IF). She is very cognizant of our IF limit and is asking for a summation from the ins. company. While we could do OOP, sadly this drives treatment plans. We are aligned that injectables are not the tack we are interested in either. If we end up doing IVF, we'll exhaust our IF limit on the first try, which is a bit frightening given their 50% success rate. I'm afraid those odds don't put my mind at ease, as luck has not really been on my side in this process.
Good news today! S finally got his permanent residency conditions removed. After 12years in the U.S. for grad school, work, paying taxes, applications, interviews, endless biometrics, my husband is one step closer to citizenship! Hoorah for small victories!

Diversions...

So since we are in a holding pattern for TTC (on meds post-op, no sex, and won't get AF for another 3-4 wks. in a best case scenario), we have some time to think about other things. What a novel concept. ;) It feels like we are simultaneously getting off the baby making hamster wheel (which is very relaxing...), moving in the right direction and moving nowhere at all. So of course I'm trying to decide where we should travel next. While it's always been a favorite pastime of mine, travel was truly one of my saving graces last year. The planning and the doing. It gave me something to look forward to, when life was not giving me much else to work with.

On our list this year is Italy, Dubai and the Maldives, and another summer beach trip. We are still debating a ski trip to Utah in early March. S hasn't really skied very much, so we're not sure the mountains are the best place to start, as much I'd like to go. We need to decide on this soon. I'm trying to think of some other shorter trips to consider, since we always end up taking a lot of long weekends. I'm not sure where we go matters all that much, it just gives me something to focus on over which I can actually exert some control.

Everyone deserves to be happy and have "someone to love, something to do, something to look forward to..."