Mad Men (season 4)

For anyone who has never watched Mad Men on AMC, you are really missing out. I think I've seen every episode (I got the first two three seasons on DVD to rewatch), and I don't typically plan my life around TV shows.

My draw probably has something to do with the fact that I started my career at an ad agency (one that reportedly influenced the creator, and some things haven't changed in 40 years). I also love the early '60's as an era, such a huge period of transition. And the show is one of the best written and most gorgeous on TV. Not to mention that the main character, Don Draper (played by Jon Hamm) is seriously easy on the eyes.

The season premiere is Sunday, July 25th, and I'm counting down. Enjoy!

Radon testing

So one of the things I found when I cleaned our linen closet recently was a package of radon tests I had bought in the winter (which winter, I'm not sure). We needed to wait until summer to test, so I got busy.

We put them in the basement rec/storage room, which is bordered by two areas of crawl space (which we've "finished" with cement). We just got our results back. One test was 3.6pCi/L and the other (6" away) was 7.0, for an average of 5.3pCi/L. The cutoff for recommended mitigation is 4.0, while it is suggested for lower levels as well.

So I think we are supposed to re-test now since we are borderline, but it looks like we will need to do something. The mitigation for radon is usually thick plastic in exposed basement crawls with piping out of the house, but we already have several inches of cement in these areas. Another house project to distract us...

A summer welcome

The new summer welcome screen on OKL. The puppy moves to the backyard (or summer house) and finds a friend. ;) Love it!

Charting with the moon

Saturday was a full moon, and CD1... It is believed that the first calendar was based on women's menstrual cycles and the phases of the moon. The moon of course controls ocean tides as well.

From wiki... The word "menstruation" is etymologically related to "moon". The terms "menstruation" and "menses" are derived from the Latin mensis (month), which in turn relates to the Greek mene (moon) and to the roots of the English words month and moon—reflecting the fact that the moon also takes 27.32 days to revolve around the Earth. The synodical lunar month, the period between two new moons (or full moons), is 29.53 days long.

A few summer novels

I picked a few novels for summer reading today...





I'm not a big novel reader, but I love travelogues and these are set in Nantucket and India, respectively. Can't wait to read them!

I finally did it!

I just booked an IVF consult w/Dr. Sherbahn @ Advanced Fertility for July 19th! This was supposed to be my lap date, but that got pushed back once they coordinated all the doctors' schedules (it's now set for Aug 9th).

We were really grasping at straws as to why we are not getting pregnant, and our current RE keeps telling us we don't need IVF. But with S's dismal SA results this week, we have another potential issue that we were completely unaware of before. It now seems the likelihood of egg stimulation, IUI, and progesterone support getting us the result we are seeking is low.

It's kind of ironic because our first RE was awful and wanted to do IVF w/my septum still in, and my 2nd was great to take it out, but now she is totally not concerned about his morph and still thinks we should keep doing inject/IUI cycles. I/we had been trying to avoid IVF if possible, but that was when everyone was telling us there wasn't anything wrong with us.

I am also somewhat comforted by the fact that if we fail the first time, which will max out all of our IF bennies (though Adv. Fert. has the best success rates around), we can look at doing additional rounds OOP in India @ $3-4K/. This makes me more hopeful that we will be able to have a child, eventually, without spending all of our savings. Of course, this is assuming they don't discover any deal breakers during IVF.

Depending on what he has to say, we may or may not do the lap in August. Now it seems like it could be a waste of time/$ if we have to do IVF anyway (which is the recommended work around for endo). Though I would certainly consider doing one if we fail at IVF #1. If I can get/stay pg, they say that alone will likely solve my endo problem.

Here's to moving onward and upward! :)

Indeed

source

Losing confidence

In response to my e-mail notifying my RE of S's SA results:

"[His] morphology is definitely abnormal. The impact of morphology on fertilization is highly controversial with some studies suggesting that low morphology is an indicator of the sperm's ability (or lack of) to fertilize the oocyte and other studies showing no impact. Morphology is not related (as far as I am aware) to hormones. Hormones control production of sperm and his numbers are fine. Morphology is definitely a gray area, I don't think in and of itself it is an indication for IVF (again controversial). I have had patients conceive with IUI with 0% normal morph. I would have [him] see a urologist to make sure there is nothing else going on. I usually send patients to Dr. Merrill Matschke, a reproductive urologist at (847) 295-0010.
EF"

Is it just me or is this not very helpful or reassuring? Everything with her is "highly controversial"; affect of septum, removal of septum, endo as a cause of IF, doing a lap to treat endo, relation of morph to IF, doing IVF for low morph. S is definitely going to see a urologist, but now I'm just starting to feel like we are on a wild goose chase. I feel like since we have to wait until August to do the lap, that I will be ready to do IVF ASAP after. Am I just being impatient? I'm not sure...

Teratozoospermia

This is the official name for low sperm morphology and terato=monster (I'm not making this up). There are some morphology pictures on Advanced Fertility's site. They may end up being our IVF clinic in the Chicago area, as they have the best success rates.

Dr. Malpani (in Bombay, India) also has a great website with lots of info. Who knows, if we end needing multiple rounds of IVF, we may end going there (@ a few grand a pop and family to stay with).

From his site... "Ideally, a good sperm should have a regular oval head, with a connecting mid-piece and a long straight tail. If too many sperms are abnormally shaped (round heads; pin heads; very large heads; double heads; absent tails) this may mean the sperm are abnormal and will not be able to fertilise the egg."

Pictures of sperm with abnormal heads and necks from here.






Mayo weighs in on outcomes..."If pregnancy does occur, having abnormal sperm morphology doesn't increase the risk of having a child with birth defects."
Treatments vary based on the cause, which is sometimes difficult to determine.
It could be a varicocele. Treatment of these is common but controversial.

Still waiting to hear back from my RE on our new news, but my lap is scheduled for August 9th. I guess Dr. Tu only does surgery on Mondays. So much for minimizing my time off of work that week. Thinking maybe we'll take the next week off to go to the Cape.

good news and (of course) bad news

We finally got our test results from last Friday late this afternoon. We were supposed to get them on Monday, so I called Monday and this morning. Our cultures take at least two weeks, so those results are yet to come.

First, the good news. My Crinone is working. My P4 level was 18.9, anything over 15 when medicated is good.

S's SA came back as well. We did a new one (1st/last was 14 mos. ago) because Dr. David said the morph number was so high (76%) that it was likely not performed correctly. Of course, neither of our other two RE's caught this. So his new count is still great at 87MM (normal is 20-40MM), as is his motility at 64% (they like this >50%), but his morphology this time was bad at only 1% (should be a min of 8-14%).

Of course, Dr. David is out of town until Friday, so this was all conveyed to us by the nurse. She asked me if he had been sick lately with a fever. He has not. Does he use hot tubs, use a laptop on his lap, carry his cell in his front pocket. All, no. In the meantime, I'll be talking to our RE here to see what we need to do. I have absolutely no idea...

The best of Target, on sale!

Target has some of my all time faves on sale this week. Here's a sampling...

Any size damask stripe sheet sets for $36.
These sheets are an amazing deal. I've yet to find anything as nice for the price at the discount stores, like Home Goods. They come in limited colors, but are 450 thread count (much more than that is not really noticeable). They aren't Egyptian cotton, which I like, but they are very nice and wash well. We have multiple sets in king and queen (but all in white ;)) for all our bedrooms. And at this price (which includes extra cases), you can buy an extra set for when one is in the wash.

I bought this carry-on sized wheelie a bit ago, but flew with it for the first time to NY. It was perfect! I love the laptop storage (on the side), and if you pack it before you put the laptop in (and use the expandable feature) it still holds a lot, and fits in the overhead bin. I somehow fit in five days of stuff, which is no small feat for me. It's on sale for $80, but I paid $70, so if you want to wait... ;)

I raved about these Thomas O'Brien towels here, and they are the towels in all of our bathrooms. Bath sized is only $8. Remember, life's too short to use really crappy towels...


If you need more color choices or just want to spend a few more bucks, these from Fieldcrest luxury are also great. In their line, I found just the right color of lavender to gift my mom.


We got two of these Waterpik ecoflow shower heads recently (one from Target and one w/a double head, from Costco) and I was actually quite impressed with the water pressure. It is a few bucks off at $27. They use 1.5 gallon per minute vs. the standard eco level of 2.5. We are trying to save water where we can, like installing dual flush toilets for all three of our heads.

When we decided to get rid of all the triclosan (anti-bac) products in our house awhile back, we went with the great stuff from Method, and we haven't looked back.


I also love the green cleaners from Green Works/Clorox and Seventh Generation, which are also on sale this week.

Last but certainly not least, the garden dept is on clearance and the ceramic garden stools (usually $99) are now $47! (fortunately I only paid $49) Also in white.


Happy Shopping!

More chandie love

courtesy of Grand Central Station...

I promise

...that I'm not a stalker. Really. I just rounded the corner in SoHo and there it was. Of course, it wasn't open, so I guess I'll just have to go back... ;)

Back from NYC

We had a great time in NY! After pushing the limits of the new tarmac wait rule, I had productive work days on Wed. & Thurs. at our downtown office, at One Liberty Plaza. It's crazy working in the building literally across the street from the WTC site. The Brooks Brothers in the lobby is the one that they turned into a morgue. :( Great to see they are finally building something there. On Thursday, I had dinner with a great old friend (and roomie) in SoHo. Then S arrived and we started a little vaca.

Well Friday morning was all IF business. We went up to Dr. David's office on 5th Ave (across from the Met) to have more tests done. There was some confusion as to what we were having done there and what we had already had done in Chicago (too many drs, too many tests), but we got that all straightened out after a bit. I am still waiting to hear on my P4 levels and S on his semen cultures, which were time sensitive and not able to be done here, respectively.

We also thought that they were sending off the sample for another SA (for morph specifically), but since they don't do it there, they very oddly sent us off on the train to deliver it to the lab. So we took his giz (carefully wrapped and upright) on the subway. Yes, these moments are how we know we are living some twisted comical representation of how reproduction is supposed to be. So we've now taken our first IF vaca...

We went to Asia de Cuba at Morgans for lunch on Friday and saw FELA!on Broadway that night (both so good!). We did the Upper East side/Central Park/SoHo again on Saturday and spent the evening in Chelsea catching some great comedy at Gotham. On Sunday, we went to Park Slope/Brooklyn to have brunch w/my step-sister and visit my friend and her hubby's new condo. It was hot, hot, hot all weekend, which made me wish we had spent it in the Hamptons instead of in the city...

We returned home to a message from Dr. Tu (the endo surgeon), who in preparation for our consult tomorrow wanted to let me know about some kind of clinical trial/study that he wants me to be in. I've reached out to his clinical study coordinator to see what it's about and should know more tomorrow. Hopefully we have the surgery scheduled tomorrow and can then plan out our summer (which begins officially today!).

Off to New York

So I'm off to the Gild Hall Hotel... I'm already in love.

Have Crinone, will travel

I picked up a new batch of Crinone today, since I'm headed off to NYC tomorrow. We are scheduled to go to Dr. David's office on Friday for S's SA and cultures and a P4 test for me. I had my culture done last week when we went in for our consult, so I think we've now done all the other testing that he recommended.

I'll be away for a bit, so it'll be quiet around here for a few days...

And on the 17th day...

she ovulated... just.like.clockwork. And there's no such thing as a break cycle for us. ;)
I've never actually seen the sight of two dark pink lines before. The only other time I used a cheapie OPK (when we first started TTC), I ran out of sticks before my surge...

Cuteness on paper

Boatman Geller stationery sale

I am a confessed prep-aholic, but this stuff is just way.too.cute.








plus a gratuitous insertion of some greek key, just for fun...

John Robshaw

John Robshaw is a guy after my own heart. Besides being absolutely adorable, he shares my love of all things Indian and designs gorgeous textiles. I'm so glad to see them showing up more and more, recently in Garnet Hill, Lonny, House Beautiful, among others. They are pricey, but oh so pretty.


A sampling of the lovely pillows from his online store...











As you can see, I have a weakness for geometric designs...

Like a Catholic...

So I guess that it's mostly Catholics that go the route we are headed on, or that's what the RE said... opting for surgery over IVF. Though we're open to IVF and have absolutely no moral qualms about it at.all.

We met w/the RE this morning and after lots of discussion we decided to do a lap since she says she is 90% sure I have endometriosis. She didn't press for it, since she said that they have really moved away from surgery (and to IVF, unless you're Catholic) though she loves doing surgery. She said she would be fine to just keep doing our current protocol (injects/IUI), or to do the lap and then back to treatments (our choice), or straight to IVF (which she did not recommend). She still sticks to the mantra that she doesn't think that we need IVF, whatever the hell that means (though I know what she thinks it means). She thinks of our real TTC journey beginning after my septum surgery, oh how I wish that were true.

She said it's "controversial" as to whether the lap will help me get pg (meaning it hasn't been definitively shown to be the rule), but also that it would be worth it for my quality of life and peace of mind even if I do end up needing IVF in the end. She said that surgery is actually most effective if the endo is mild (which she thinks mine is, though she has no way of knowing this), which is of course counter intuitive. She said that if they find endo embedded in my ovaries they won't mess with as it will just hurt outcomes. But it could be screwing up my tubes and keeping the egg from getting where it needs to go or just messing with my hormones generally.

The best news is it won't count against my IF benefits (yay!). I hope to get it done by early/mid July, so we can get on with our summer. I got an appt. to meet with the pelvic surgeon on the 22nd and then I'll know more. There would be two other surgeons and my RE, so this is the real deal. But she also mentioned that she wanted to poke the hysteroscope back in my ute while I was under to make sure everything looked good post-septum op (she did an HSG in April, but why not right?)

She also said that she didn't think that my IF is any longer "unexplained". She said between the probable endo, the septum, and mild ovulatory dysfunction, we think we know what we are dealing with now. She said I wouldn't need to be on Lupron after, so that was good. Hope to be back on meds by August and then if we aren't pg after a couple more rounds of injects, then it's on to IVF.

It feels good to have a plan. And now we wait some more... ;)

A little summer Lonny

The June/July issue of Lonny Magazine is finally here! I'll be spending some serious time with this one. So glad to see my former neighborhood shop Jayson Home & Garden in a feature article. Enjoy!

Giving stuff away

After nearly five years of sharing a household w/my DH, we are still giving old stuff away (like stuff that hasn't been used in five years). Today's drop off was lots of old, but perfectly fine sheets, towels, and rugs that should have been gone a long time ago. I tend to take my time getting rid of things. I know I need to work on this. ;)

It really is a win-win-win-win. We get a nice clean linen closet and a tax deduction, and Goodwill gets the proceeds (to help some deserving soul) and someone shopping in their store gets a deal. What could be better than that?!

I'm just left to keep track of everything, which is a huge drag, made slightly easier with this handy guide.

Testing and talking

I'm gearing up for another consult with my RE (Dr. F) on Thursday. It'll be CD14, so I'm hoping to have my cervical culture done while I'm there. S will have his SA and cultures done while we're in NY next week, as Dr. F told us that they do not do all of the tests that Dr. David wanted us to have done. We are also going to talk about next steps. If it's not obvious, I'm frustrated and can't wait to have a plan.

Should I have a lap? Given my symptoms, IF, and history of a uterine septum, I'm certainly a prime candidate for a lap. Right now, I guess I'm for it, unless she can make a case for why we shouldn't. It sounds like I might need to be on Lupron Depot for several months afterwards, and though this would be good for me, it likely would not be very pleasant.

Besides the physical presence of endo, if it is in there it's messing with my hormones (which have always been wacky) and also potentially making my lining inhospitable by lacking certain enzymes, like beta integrin 3. In talking to my sister E, I found that she was dx at 16, had a lap at 24, and then of course had three insta-kids between 34 and 37.

So we'll see how it goes...

That Lonny mag is such a tease

Click pic to read...

The Cape

So as we wait to see if this summer will bring a lap and/or IVF (which would both obviously be time sensitive and mean time off of work), I am just dying to book our week on the Cape for July or August.

I went by myself last year (and met up with some friends) the last week in July, as I seriously needed a mental break and S had just started a new job in May. I drove, as I have done many times to Boston over the last 15 years, by myself. Visiting friends and family on the way to and fro. This time, I'll have help driving and have my sweetie to hang with. Yay! Though of course he is convinced that we should take his new Prius. A tight fit over my SUV, but it's a new game for him to see how many MPG he can get (he's a nerd like that), and we calculated we could get there and back on about $100 of gas. Not bad since it's over 2,000 miles round trip.

I think we will probably rent the same little place on Sea Street that I rented last year. It's very cute, and a short walk to the beach and the ferries to Nantucket and the Vineyard (where we'll go on day trips). Close to everything we would ever need in Hyannis and of course to the all important Four Seas ice cream shop in Centerville

and the Cheese & Sandwich Shop in Osterville


I had a great time last year. The regular Sunday NY times travel feature, 36 hours in..., featured Martha's Vineyard the weekend I arrived (so apropos) and so I decided to go there on Friday to try the Grace Church lobster rolls (which are absolutely amazing, and I'm an aficionado) and fell in love with the little shop called Nochi. What I didn't buy when I was there, I called and ordered over the phone.


Nantucket is always completely adorable. After the ferry ride, I skipped sailing to shop my way around the town and had a bite at The White Elephant. And there's always random celebrity sitings, last year I saw TV personalities Kathy Lee and Frank Gifford and "chick lit" author Jill Kargman with her parents walking up Main St.

We'll probably take a day and drive out to P-town, at the tip of the Cape. And enjoy the National Sea Shore (before the oil makes its way there :() and Chatham. Generally it's a week filled with as little as possible, since that is of course the entire point. Lots of walking/laying on the beach, reading, ice cream, lobster rolls... So good.

I still need to decide what books I want to pick up to read, since I'm finally getting through the stack that has formed since last fall...