It Takes Two to Tango? Try Six...

This morning was IUI transfer day, take 3! Alarm at 5:20am, J's contribution at 7am, time for breakfast in between, the transfer at 9am. I was home to walk the doggie by 10:10.

The normal math of having a baby is pretty basic: 1+1=3. Being infertile, however, math never works the way it's supposed to. I had to laugh this morning when I was up on the table, naked legs spread-eagled and there were 4 of us in the small little mood-lit room. One of the techs remarked, "Don't they say it takes a village?" just as I was saying "How many people does it take to have a baby?"

Today, there were six of us: me, J, the andrologist Edde, the tech who measured my lining again, the nurse who did my transfer and the nurse who was training her. But how can you leave Dr. M out of it? Or our nurse who just left the practice and talked me through all of the protocols? Or our new nurse who is such a ray of sunshine?? That's nine folks, there. That number doesn't include some of the nurses who have filled in "ad hoc" like Carolyn and Sara or the tech in Denver who always does my ultrasounds, Jessica. Twelve. Really?

I suppose when all is said and done in two weeks, maybe there is no baby and so counting up how many people were directly involved today is kinda silly. On the other hand, I just have this *feeling* like this could actually be the one. There's just this pervasive feeling in me this afternoon that the stars are all aligning. 

Hopefully next week I'll be starting a contract position with a great company that I'm pretty fired up about. I hope that will set my mind at ease about my professional situation. And the reason I needed so many people this morning to help with the IUI is because of my wonky cervix. I've had a total of 5 procedures that involved a catheter going through the cervix and this was the only one that didn't hurt like hell. The nurse was super gentle and slow and the observing nurse brought the tech back in to ultrasound my belly so that there was visual guidance for the catheter. It went in so smoothly and I got to see onscreen the transfer of J's little soldiers straight into my uterus. So neat! There's just something about that moment that irrationally makes me feel like this must be it. Maybe a year from now, it will actually be just two to tango, plus a little one asleep in the nursery ;)

This could be my new math lesson: 1+1+4=3

Never Out Of The Woods....

Damn. Just when you think everything is moving on the right track and you're good as gold, synthetic hormones rear their ugly heads.

It was just hours ago that I was feeling super optimistic and hopeful about this cycle. And then I went in for the post-Clomid follicle check. 

<crash>

As I mentioned, my dose was doubled this cycle to 100mg in hopes of higher egg recruitment. Didn't do much... My largest follicle is measuring 18.9mm and the next two, in the left ovary that loves to ride the short bus, are measuring 14mm and 11.2mm. And my uterine lining, which normally measures in the mid 8cm in thickness (very good) is only measuring 6cm today (unacceptable). 

Translation?

This double dose feels like a complete waste. It didn't do what it was meant to do in terms of egg recruitment and it thinned my lining to a point that requires me to load up on another synthetic hormone. Now I have an rx for 4mg of estradiol each day. My insurance company initially denied coverage on the prescription and then the pharmacist had to override their judgement in order to fill it for me and additionally expressed concern over the higher-than-normal dosage. We only had about $450 left in our FSA account last I checked which I expected to just about cover this last cycle. But going on the estradiol with such a thin lining means that I need an additional ultrasound before IUI trigger and transfer. So, an extra $180 out of pocket gets thrown at this. 

Fuck off, man. Acupuncture Jane, help me out!

Double Down on the Emotions Part Deux

Oh, Sunshine & Rainbows!

What a turn the day made. Number 1: we got our shipment of wine from the little family vineyard we visited in Napa last month, Bremer. They make the most fabulous wines, oh yesyesyes!

Number 2 requires a quick backstory. Last weekend we needed to go to the Lone Tree branch of CCRM for me to do my cyst check and bloodwork and we had the sweetest most enthusiastic nurse meet with us. I actually told J after we left that if we move to that area some time soon, I would request her as our nurse. Our current nurse is, well, clinical, and not very personable but I thought it would be a karmic no-no to request another nurse. She gets the job done just fine, being the conduit between Dr. M and us.

So I was in the midst of a nice, relaxing yoga session when my phone rang. I don't get many calls these days so I picked it up and SO glad I did! It was our CCRM nurse calling to let me know she'd taken a new position at the university and so our case would be transferred to another nurse. Well, wouldn't ya know, we're being transferred to the awesome nurse from last weekend! I'll call her Lana. She's awesome and I'm so pumped. Turns out, Lone Tree was just her weekend assignment.

Just the good news I needed. It feels like such a good omen. This cycle has to be a good one.

Double Down on the Emotional Rollercoaster

Long time no see, huh? See... the thing is... everything was feeling really stable for a while there. I felt like I was on a really good track going the natural route. And then the Clomid hit.

Well I guess that sounds misleading. Rewind the tape. Go back about 5 weeks. We visited friends in Cali (with a side trip to Napa, woo!) and while we visited this super sweet family with two little boys and a brand new house, I started my CD1. Yep, blood in the panties (ugh, what a gross word, panties, makes my arm hair stand up). Given our surroundings at the time, I guess J and I got to feeling antsy so I made the phone call to CCRM on Monday saying that I'd like to go for another Clomid cycle. A day later, I went for my cyst check, was obviously all clear, and started up the same 50mg clomiphene prescription. The IUI was relatively uneventful and the following two weeks were equally uneventful. I   knew before the two week wait was over that the only thing I was waiting for was the dreaded period. But, lord, did that motherhecker hold out on me. I spotted for 4 days before it finally came through. When I called CCRM to report my CD1 (again) and schedule a cyst check (again), I learned that Dr. M wanted me to try this final IUI cycle with 100 mg.

So we're doing a big, bad double down on the Clomid. In the real-life world, I've had massive drama with my brother; a big fight with my mom due to the drama with brother; we adopted a puppy; I interviewed for a job, got the offer and turned it down; we fell in love with a house, put in an offer, won the bid, and then were told 20 minutes later the other buyers outbid us; ate and drank plenty of things I shouldn't have; and my dad was in a car accident (dad is fine, car is totaled).

ohmigosh.breathe

Through all of that, I frequently found myself thinking, "Gosh you're handling this well. Prior to the acupuncture and yoga biz, you'd be flipping out right now!" Welp! It took me a solid 2+ months to get on that straight & steady track and took 2 days of Clomid for all that hard work to unravel. I just totally fell apart last night. Looking back, I don't even know what the catalyst was. I recall going into the bathroom to get ready for bed and just staring a myself in the mirror. I felt overwhelmed by a feeling of worthlessness, hopelessness. Cognitively, I knew there was a lot of blame to be placed on the medication, but that surely didn't stop the tears from coming on hard and fast. It's hard to shake the feeling of failure when you believe you're doing everything you can and still finding no success. Helpless.

And then there was the episode (two episodes, coughcough) of Transparent on Amazon Prime that had me choking back tears this morning. Oy. But there was going to be a peak to match my low, dark valley! Two bright spots in my day were on the way...

The Lengths We'll Go To

I'm eating out of the ocean.

Seriously, I've needed to become accustomed to breathing only through my mouth when eating and drinking several things these days. Making my salad tonight was a real... learning... experience.

Last week I bought a new cookbook, Cooking for Fertility, focused on fertility foods because I felt I needed more direction than just, "Oh yeah, that's a whole food. I'll eat it." I wanted better guidance on recipes rather than just eating salads and lentils. One of the first items I decided to try out was this Kale, Cucumber & Seaweed salad. Figuring that sushi works for me and I've tried a little seaweed salad from those sushi places before, it seemed doable.

Welp. Lemme tell ya. Woof.

For about a month I've been using a greens powder (Garden of Life Perfect Food) that has enough spirulina and chlorella to make you think you walked into the fish market. I religiously chug the mixture in two breaths, being sure not to breathe through my nose after each chug. Yuuuuuck! Additionally, the cookbook I bought made a suggestion to drink kombucha. It is a fermented tea and therefore smells a little like a brewery. It's funny, you'd think that would be easy to take, but just knowing that it isn't really a beer somehow makes it a beverage that I gulp down without breathing through my nose. Yawn.

You'd think I'd be used to this... But a seaweed salad is a new level! Most of what's in it is pretty good! Base of kale, chopped cucumber and red onion, shredded apple, black sesame seeds. The dressing is apple cider vinegar, pineapple juice, sesame oil, garlic. Of course there's also soaked Wakame and toasted Nori. Weeeeeird! The wakame seaweed comes in a zip bag all dried out. I put it in a measuring cup with some water and walked away. WOWZERS! I came back maybe 10 minutes later and it had blossomed out of the cup! Kind of a neat trick. But I'm a texture person and man is it slimy. Eeeeep :(

I'm trying to choke it down here remembering that I'm nourishing my body. A big piece of frosted chocolate cake may be easier to gobble up and have seconds tolerate but it sure isn't helping heal the imbalances in my body. So, seaweed it is... Man, when this baby gets here one day, he or she is gonna have a lot of stories to sit through!

Reclaiming Joy

It is so painfully easy to lose yourself in the process once someone stamps you as "infertile." It hurts. It's painful. And you want to find whatever solution you can think of to put the battle behind you. While you're busy researching fertility clinics, deciding on the best supplements and resetting your lifestyle, the goal you're after can become so much of your focus that you forget what life used to be.

The last year and a half has brought so much change that I don't even remember what my life is "supposed" to be like. But what I do know is that most of the time I've been feeling anxious, uncertain and inadequate. Certainly those feelings began to creep in last fall when, month after month, there was no positive test, but it really intensified in May when my contract was up with my old company. In a way, it was the symbolic last tie to my "old" life that I had loved so much.

Despite common professional stressors, life was good in New York. I remember the unbridled joy I often felt just walking through the Theater District on my way home or going for a run in Central Park. Since we've left, I do have my moments of joy and excitement, but so often those feelings are overshadowed by disappointment and discouragement.

One of the first pieces of advice that Acupuncture Jane gave me was to "find joy" which, honestly, had me stumped for a couple weeks. But I put a lot of effort towards reminding myself of the things that made me happy and being more conscious of those little natural things that would put a smile on my face. In Colorado, the sky is just an amazing work of art. Realizing that it was something I enjoyed, I've now tried to really focus my attention towards appreciating those gorgeous skyscapes many times a day. I pushed myself to do things that I was interested in with the hope that I might find a pocket of joy hiding somewhere. So I've tried doing more running and yoga and those things make me feel like I'm reclaiming myself. Which naturally leads to moments of joy and fulfillment.

In the car today I had the windows down with the hot sun warming me up from the air conditioning I'd just been enveloped in. With some old school Dave Matthews Band flowing, life just felt so good. I want to remember to shine more light on these moments and give them all the attention they deserve. And I'd also like to put some more thought into making moments like that. Life is so short that the idea of waiting for moments of joy to fall in your lap seems short sighted. What can we do in life to make our own joy without it feeling manufactured?

Failures and Shortcomings

I'm feeling like a major failure right now. I've been putting so much effort towards being positive, optimistic, chill and zen-like.But some days are hard. And then, just when you're coming out of a hard spell, WHAM! A storm comes. In this case, that was literaly what happened.

My parents and brother came out for a week long visit and we had an awesome time. It was a little stressful to keep up with such a long and intense itinerary and constantly be cooking and cleaning and keeping the ducklings going in the right direction. But it was amazing to have so much compact quality time. We had so much fun! The day that they left I was soooo sad. Crying in the car by myself kind of sad. I was dealing, but then J came home from work (late) and asked me what the status was on baby stuff. It was heartbreaking to have to tell him I was 3 days into a period and see that he really felt hit by it. We had a sad night on the couch. 

That was Tuesday.

On Wednesday I had an acupuncture appointment and since it had been a week and a half, I was super psyched to be back on the needle table with AJ. It was a solid appointment that left me feeling great and fertility yoga was later that night. Wednesday was my DAY, man! My get-back-to-zen day. Things were feeling good. When yoga was over at about 8:30pm, we had a massive downpour and thunder/lightening storm. And while leaving the parking lot I drove into a concrete pile :( womp womp.

When J came out to the car we figured out that the passenger side door wouldn't open. F*ck. Fast Forward: I took Ravy to a collision guy this morning and the estimate came in at $1450. Jesus help me.

Wait, there's more! They can't take us until September 29. A MONTH AWAY.

Oh, one more thing. The repair will take 4 days and we have........ one..............car. Motherhecker. 

I think it goes without saying that I feel like such a huge failure. It's been over a year and I have no baby. It's been 4 months of unemployment and I have no leads. We've been here nearly 5 months and I have zero friends. I can barely get emails returned to me, from job and friend prospects alike. The volunteering thing is going totally crappy. CCRM and acupuncture have been pricey and I've just rung up about $2000 worth of car repairs. It's sad, but J isn't making me feel any better. I want to feel his support. Anything. Maybe a sentiment like: hey, crap happens, we'll get through this, it's not you, you are not the center of a sh*tstorm.

F.

M.

L.

Is that lame? is that phrase totally over? It is the only thing that feels appropriate to say in this moment.

Eternal Waiting Game

Ah, here we are: the Two Week Wait. The old familiar. Thankfully I'm coming to the end. Well, "thankfully" in that bittersweet way. According to my highly regular cycle, I'll expect CD1 to be on Saturday, smack in the middle of my family visiting. Let's just believe that this aligning of the period stars is a positive - I'll have plenty of distractions during a time that I'm craving love, attention, affection. We've also put together a pretty active itinerary so it will be nice to not feel concerns about heart rate and getting out of breath.

Constantly charting for over a year can play serious mind games with you. Meaning? I've come to learn, much to my surprise, that I have a very regular 28 or 29 day cycle. This has caused two issues for me. 

• #1 - Imagine the gut wrenching shock of finding out I'm not actually preggers after my uber-regular cycle went an extra 5 days <dammit> Anyone who has thought she was pregnant for 5 days knows what happens in your brain in that short time.

• #2 - Despite the regularity of my period and ovulation days every month, nothing else seems to come into a pattern. The pre-period cramps I keep getting always show up on different day patterns prior to CD1 and always feel different. Naturally, that keeps me thinking each and every month that "this one is different, I know it!" <motherhecker> My boobs get super sore in different patterns and then I get some weird things, like dizziness, that will happen some months but not others. Man it's a total mindfuck.

Leading me to my chart focus of the moment: I had this wicked BBT drop on 10DPO which usually signals CD1 is right around the corner. Although that happened about a week early :/ When it swung back up the next day I got overexcited that it had been an implantation dip, woooooo! And then the next morning? Dropped again. Rahr. Sadnesses. But of course, this morning, this little body of mine was hot again! This game will likely continue for the next 3 days, keeping my heart in my throat. Puke.

Just trying to stay distracted, busy, centered. Enjoying yoga and bought myself a cute new mat as a special treat. It'll be great to have family here. They'll be our first visitors from the east coast since we moved out in April!