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...