319 - Good to go

Yesterday I had my saline sonogram. Basically the doctor inserts a small catheter into your cervix, and through that he puts a saline solution into the uterus so he can see the contour of the uterine cavity. Once the saline is in, he inflates a balloon (I guess to stop the water from coming back out), and then inserts a sonogram wand to look at the uterus and ovaries. It wasn't as uncomfortable as I'd feared, I thought the catheter would be really, really painful, but I didn't even feel it go in. The first time he inflated the balloon I didn't feel it either. But he said, "Sometimes the catheter doesn't seat right and you have to put it in further." So he did. And I felt it a little more. When he re-inflated the balloon I felt it for sure. It was a sharp pain, but momentary. Figured I'd be crampy afterward but I wasn't... but that could be because I took 600 mg of Ibuprofen about an hour before I went in... He had also given me a two pill Z-pak to take that morning so there would be no risk of infection.

He was really good about telling me what he was doing and what to expect. He's growing on me, I'll admit.

When he first came into the room he said, "I'm sorry I took so long, I had to pull the procedure up on the internet so I'd know what I was doing. The good news is, so far everything is going exactly like they said it would!" And then came the jokes... What's blue and looks like a bucket?... A blue bucket... What's red and looks like a bucket?... A blue bucket in disguise. I told him my Bin Laden joke: Guy walks into a bar and says 'bartender - give me a bin laden', bartender asks, 'what's a bin laden?', guy says, 'two shots and a splash of water.'

So after that, we went to his office. I told him I was going to try the other chair this time, because the one I'd always sat in before seemed like nothing but bad news. Sure enough, it was the chair all along... he said my uterus and ovaries look fantastic and I'm all set. I'm fully healed from my surgery and I don't have any cysts on my ovaries as I'd feared I might. I take my last birth control pill on Sunday. I'm sure you're wondering why I'm taking birth control when I'm trying to get pregnant... and since I am obviously having trouble and Bob isn't here it seems further pointless. Apparently the birth control pills thin the uterine lining, calms the ovaries and lets the doctors control when you ovulate, and that way they can schedule their patients. Also seems to reduce or prevent ovarian cysts. So I stop that on Sunday. Then on Thursday evening I start taking my shots. On Monday I have a teaching appointment to learn how to mix my medication and give myself injections, and I have a baseline ultrasound. Tuesday I have a dental appointment because I know you need to do that before you get pregnant, as gum infections have been said to lead to miscarriage, so I'm just getting checked out. Pretty sure I have a cavity or two, just want it all taken care of before it's too late to do anything.

So as usual, I start to relax and then comes the snafu. I'm flying my cousin in to stay with me after the embryo transfer because I have to be on bed rest for three days. I thought when I started the meds, I plugged the date into the calendar and day by day I knew what was happening. Not so. The old calendar showed me taking ten days of meds, the new one shows eleven. Apparently I can take the medication anywhere from eight to fourteen days, it all depends on how my body responds to it. So I won't know when the egg retrieval is until 48 hours prior. But, the good news is, that gives me five to seven days notice for the transfer. So it sucks that I have to rely on my friends to take me to two more appointments and I can't tell them when those appointments will be, but it sucks worse that I can't schedule my cousin's flight. Thank god for Southwest Airlines... they only charge you the difference in fare, no change fees. So it only cost me another $30 to reschedule her flight... I'm just guessing at the moment, but the first flight date was definitely wrong so it had to be done.

Getting excited... things are really starting to happen now, and I'm hopeful that I will surprise them all and produce plenty of follicles and viable eggs, but yeah, I'm worried that this may all be for nothing. The acupunture-to-go is still in my ear. I have managed to keep the two needles in there for a week. When I wash my hair I cup my hand over my ear and I think that has helped the bandaid stay on because the adhesive was never wet. I figure the longer, the better... I'll get more benefit from it. I've also been eating better and while I haven't lost much weight I think I have lost a little, which I figure helps.

Other than that, I guess the big news that already came and went is Bin Laden. Initially I was worried about Bob being in a country full of pissed off terrorists... then I got fed up with people on Facebook posting crap about it. I feel like Bin Laden must be laughing in hell, because instead of bring our country together, his death has managed to further divide us. There seem to be two camps... those who think Obama walks on water, and those who think he's the anti-Christ, with very little in between. I just can't fathom that Obama is getting credit for this. All he did was happen to be in office at the time, the military and intelligence communities did all the work. There was actually a woman who wrote in to a radio show I listen to who said she was getting tired of Obama and wasn't going to vote for him if he ran again but 'now that he's killed Osama Bin Laden' he's got her vote.

I really fear for our country because the sheeple are taking over... I don't like the guy, but it isn't even about that because I don't really like any politician, it's about thinking for yourself instead of taking what the media tells you at face value. It's about realizing that Obama didn't start the manhunt, he didn't support the tactics used to gather the intelligence, he was going to pull our troops out of the middle east, so while everyone is doling out credit, give some credit to Bush, give most of the credit to the military, and give some credit to Obama for his part in it. But don't give all the credit to Obama and don't give all the credit to Bush, neither of them put their lives at risk, and neither of them pulled the trigger.