Free Water from the Sky!

Yeah, so it's finally raining here in the desert. And in many ways it's fantastic, but in other ways it's horrible.

Each summer, usually in August, we get rain, it's actually monsoon season. The pacific ocean winds and the winds from the gulf of Mexico bring rain to our front door. It usually rains for about a half hour in the early afternoon, just about every day, during monsoon season.

This week however, it's rained for several hours a day most days.

This floods the arroyos, this one is across the street from our house. And it floods our street.

And floods our zero-scaped yard

  But...it lets us water out plants (and our grass grew like 3 inches in a week!)

And it lets us collect free water for the garden and plants. (I know the trash cans and water jugs are ghetto fabulous, but it works because we don't have gutters and the pitch of the roof makes a waterfall right there. Who needs gutters though when it only rains 30 days out of the year?)

But the lightening from the storm started a fire in the mountains very near our home this afternoon.
Sorry the picture is blurry, but the lights in front our our house and you can see the fire in the background on the mountain, maybe 3 miles away.

We are safe for now, I don't think the fire will move into town, but I'll keep you posted.

Side note: Day 21 bloodwork tomorrow and follow up appointment next Monday.

Second SA

So H had his second sperm analysis done.

It's not good.

He did his deed at home and then drove across the desert to drop it off. He said he got there within the requisite hour. However, he blames the low "scores" on the drive, the heat and the time delay. I think he's in denial as he was VERY defensive. But also, there were too many white blood cells and his VA doc also said there were too many WBCs in his blood that was taken a few months ago.

His last SA was borderline low on most things.

He drove back to pick up the results so that I wouldn't show up at my next appointment and find out they didn't have the results (I'm also doing this for my bloodwork). I will not be put off any longer. But this means that I was the one interpreting the results, not my doc (or his for that matter). So maybe I'm wrong.

He has an appointment next Friday with the local VA to see if anything can be done for the WBC locally before seeing a urologist (or any other specialist for that matter), but I think that seeing a specialist for him might be part of our next few steps in addition to a potential IUI.

This is (hopefully) our last natural cycle and I'm therefore in the 2ww. I definitely O'd last week, but with this recent news I don't think there is a point in having hope for this cycle. I will therefore be enjoying some alcoholic beverages this weekend (also, my sister will be visiting on Monday)

Mattie helps me knit

She got it all tangled up but it was too cute.

I'm working on a scarf for myself. I had to stop making baby blankets for a while.

Real Life Comradery

Comradery, sympathy, empathy, knowledge, prior experience, whatever you want to call it. It's very important in this infertile world to be able to relate to someone else going through the same thing. In fact, it might be just as important for surviving infertility as fertility treatments themselves.  

We're not friends (yet), but I found someone local who can relate to what I've been going through.

I saw a patient yesterday who came in to look at new hearing aids. She is now 34 and has worn hearing aids since she was 7. We had a lot to talk about, but I saw in her medical chart that she was seen for hoarseness after a thyroidectomy. She had thyroid cancer. Given my recent problems, I asked her about it. She told me that she was infertile and they found out she had thyroid problems after doing several tests. She said with additional testing she found out that she had thyroid cancer and had to have her thyroid removed.

This freaked me right-the-fuck out given my recent problems.

So I told her about my recent thyroid problems and she told me about a local endocrynologist that she highly recommends. She then asked me how I found out about my hypothyroidism and I told her about my infertility. We had so much in common! She said that she has been trying for 4 year (I hope I don't have to wait that long) and that she also had endo. Between thyroid cancer, hearing loss and endo, she sure got the shit-end of the stick, didn't she?

Anyway, we just sat there and chatted, happy to have someone else as a comrade in this battle against infertility.

She then told me about a great doc she goes to in El Paso that has high success rates and that she is currently seeking treatments from him. If it doesn't work out with LuLu in Las Cruces, I think I'll take her advice and see her doc. She should know, she's been around the block a few times in this area.

It was nice to meet her and have the time to talk, but I guess another lesson is that it could always be worse.

Side note: I did get a call back and get my appointment scheduled for the right date/time. I felt like an ass though.

So I might be a idiot...

I called the fertility office on Friday so that I could demand an appointment. I selected a different voicemail from their automated system so that I could try to get a response from someone else. 

I am not seeing an RE, apparently she is simply a Clinical Nurse Specialist, CNS. So first of all, I felt like an ass not knowing what to call the "doc". 

I left a voicemail for Desirae. She was the very nice medical assistant who does all their scheduling for new patients. She helped me get squeezed in for my first appointment in this office and even brought the medical release down to me when I was working in the same building. (BTW did I tell you guys that I don't have to make that drive anymore?)

Desirae called me back almost immediately after I left her the message and I told her that I had been waiting for someone (anyone) to call me back to schedule my follow up visit. I told her that I had waited so long to hear that I had patients scheduled to see me the day that I was supposed to be seen. She said she would find someway to make the day I needed to be seen work around my schedule.  Let me remind you that this isn't her job, they pay someone else to do exactly this (deal with current patients). So she was going out of her way to help me.

She also informed me that the "doc" goes by Lulu. So now I had a name to go with instead of saying ....um...the doc...the nurse....Guadelupe????

She called be back very quickly to let me know that she had worked me in on the 8th, that was the day that I had requested, and they got me in at 7AM as requested as well. I was ecstatic.

Then I realized by the end of the day that I had gotten the wrong day. That I had actually needed the appointment a week later on August 15th. So I called back and apologized profusely about my mistake and she worked me in at a 7:30 AM appointment the following week.

.......Then....as I was writing this post... and trying to get the dates correct, I realized that I was right the first time!!!!!! Fuck Me!!!! I need an appointment on the 8th.

I called back and embarrassed myself (on the voicemail) telling them that in fact I had the date correct in the first place on the 8th. I had multiple people in my office double check before I called back. I called Desirae, because if I'm going to make an ass of myself, I'd rather just she know.

I am waiting for them to call me back to dismiss me as a patient, and let me know that I'm an idiot if they will be able to squeeze me in on the 8th.

Side note: turns out that Desirae is Lulu's daughter, so there is no way that Lulu will not hear about the ridiculousness that is me.

Small town America can BITE ME!!!!

I went for day three bloodwork today and decided to try out a new lab. I was hoping for a change, or maybe hoping for a miracle [sidenote: come on...seriously universe!!! can't you just throw me a bone on one of these things!?!?!...pretty please] and that I'd be able to use this lab for any future fertility treatments. Turns out, that won't be the case.

Let me backtrack. On my last visit to the fertility specialist (an hour away) she wanted me to get some bloodwork. I asked if I could get it done near home and she said yes because she didn't need the results right away. She did mention, however, that during treatments (meaning if I have to do dominant folicle studies and daily bloodwork to monitor medications) that she would want the results right away, so she wanted them done in her hospital where the post the results online for her and she can check them that same day and let me know if I need to modify medication dosages.

I thought that if this new lab could get same day results I might be able to help by faxing them directly to her or scanning them and e-mailing them or even setting it up so that the lab could e-mail them right to her.

I though wrong.

They send the blood to Albuquerque to be analyzed and the results are sent to the referring doctor within 48 hours.

Fail.

I guess if things result in daily bloodwork, I will be getting up at 4:45, leaving the house by 5:45, getting to the hospital by 7:00, having blood drawn first thing (if they open that early, which they should) racing back to town and starting work by 8:30.

Also, thanks to your comments on my previous post, I'll be hounding the clinic to schedule me a cd28 appointment. 

Still here...

 ...and by here, I mean not pregnant.

CD1 was yesterday as expected.

Called the clinic to schedule an appointment for the end of this cycle and left a message, still haven't heard back today. Called again, but didn't leave a second message. I'm not sure how much I need to nag them to schedule an appointment, but it's hard for me to schedule one last minute as I have to reschedule all my patients that I'm supposed to see.

Since not much else is really going on, I'm thought I'd post some more of my knitting projects.

A blanket I knit for a friend last summer after her son was born. It's the Big Bad Baby Blanket from "Stitch and Bitch" (the book I picked up 2 years ago to reteach myself how to knit). It's well used as you can see from one of the close ups (she says its his favorite blanket). It was a fantastic first knitting project, but it took me forever to do as I was kind of slow.

My favorite part is the very center where the patter changes and makes the design

 I knit a bunny ear hat for this same baby but his mom has yet to send me the picture she took of him with it on. I made it earlier this summer, but it probably won't actually get used to this next winter. It was my first hat, but it turned out well if I do say so myself.

My next project is a basket-full-of-daisies blanket. I'll post pictures of the project soon.

28 years

Today's my birthday!!!! I'm now 28!

Birthday's aren't really big around our house. During our trip last weekend I got a new pair of small diamond hoop earrings for my birthday, but we probably won't go out or do anything special tonight. In fact, I'm already cooking chicken soup in the crockpot for dinner.

Even though birthday's aren't that big for us, I was still hoping for a miracle. Today is day 28 of my cycle and 16 dpo according to fertility friend. (Although I do think it marked O a day or so too early)

I didn't think I had any tests left under the bathroom sink, but I was going for the hairspray this morning and saw the pink of a pregnancy test between ovulation tests. With the 28 and 28 and the luck in finding a test I didn't know I had, it seemed as though the stars were aligning and I took it as a sign that I should go ahead and test. So I did and BFN...

No miracle baby for us, just some more bloodwork this next cycle and I need to call on cd1 for an appointment on cd 28. AF should show up tomorrow.

Side note: I couldn't have the day 21 bloodwork done on the 4th of July, no labs were open. Hope we get the results without a problem before the next appointment.

Photo summary of 4th of July weekend

I've been trying to find time to write a post about our fantastic 4th of July weekend, but I think a Photo summary with a few details might be all I have time to do.

We went to Colorado Springs to visit H's family and some friends. We went to a party on the 4th at a friend's parent's ranch and had a blast, dogs were invited, but ours weren't with us this weekend :( they would have had a blast. We also went to the zoo on the 4th, they have a great zoo there, but it's on a mountain so there was lots of exercise involved.

Turns out that other parts of the country get rain, and in fact it sometimes hails. When you don't ever see rain, it sort of freaks you out. Also, being from the midwest, Hail=Tornadoes, however, it cleared up shortly after this pic was taken.

 We also visited with H's dad and step-mom at their house. H's dad is trying to get him to smile for pictures instead of being a grump. I think we were late for something before this pic was taken.

Instead of taking the dogs with us as we usually do, we hired a pet sitter that came to the house 3 times a day and fed the dogs and let them out as well as watered our plants and took care of our turtles. She left us a little surprise when we got back that included the stuff pictured as well as a note as to how the dogs did each day. Mattie's thyroid medicine is pictured on the right. The woman also gives our pets their medicines while we were gone.

Side note: Still in the 2WW, currently 12 dpo, took a test yesterday, it was negative. Had lots of symptoms this past weekend including diziness and nausea, but it could have been the higher elevation.