It’s almost over

It’s just a typical Saturday here. I’m procrastinating and avoiding work by worrying about what I’m going to do with the rest of my life.

I just submitted my departmental honors thesis. What a relief! I have my thesis defense next week. The semester is coming to a close. I took my last exams (not including finals) of my undergraduate career yesterday. Thursday was my last lab too. I have three more days of class and then finals start the following Monday. I have 4 lab reports, a poster, and my thesis defense to do by the end of next week. I have 2 finals and the MFATs (major field assessment test) week after next and graduation is May 12th. I’m not as excited as I thought I’d be, more relieved than anything else.

As for graduate school, I have decided to take at least a semester off. Being unemployed this semester has really eaten into my savings and I need to work for a while before I go back to being a poor student. Also, I want to move across the country for school and there’s no way we can afford it now that I have been living off of my savings instead of actually saving money for the move.

I still haven’t decided which route I want to go. I’m really leaning towards a CNM program instead of a chemistry program. If I do decide to go the chemistry route, I won’t be going straight into my PhD, I’ll get my masters first and see if I want to continue. I’m just not as passionate about chemistry as I think I should be to go into a PhD program. Who knows, maybe it’s the past 3 semesters that have beaten me down and I’m just too tired to be excited about chemistry right now.

I used to think that I wanted to go to medical school. I always wanted to be an OB-GYN. I don’t think I could do that anymore. The more research that I’ve done about pregnancy and birth while we’ve been TTC, the less and less I like the philosophy that many OBs have. I much prefer the reduced medical intervention, natural side of childbirth. Granted, I won’t be the one birthing the baby, but that’s what I agree with. I know med school wouldn’t change my philosophy, but I don’t think I could be taught and eventually practice in a setting that had such a different philosophy regarding childbirth. That’s where the CNM comes from. It may seem really random considering that I’m a chem major, but a lot of chem majors go on to medical school. Pre-med students at my school are either bio majors with chem minors or chem majors with bio minors.

Who knows what I’ll do, but suggestions are always welcome!

My Girls

My Girls

Originally uploaded by NotACrayon.

My girl & Kara were relaxing in the sun this afternoon, just thought I’d share!

Protocol

R is starting the Pr0vera today. She’ll take it for 10 days. Hopefully she’ll get her period about 2 days after she stops taking it. Then Day 5-9 is Cl0mid. We’ll be visiting our donor around days 13-17 (that all depends on when she actually starts her period).

Fingers crossed that this all actually works!

0range and Mar00n Effect Friday

If you can, please wear orange and maroon to support V1rg1n1a Tεch today!
Hope

Originally uploaded by NotACrayon.

Bl0ckbuster, biting me in the ass again!

So, I’m a procrastinator & I didn’t do my local taxes until today. In my defense, where I grew up we didn’t have local income taxes. They taxed the hell out of purchases and property so we didn’t need one. I rarely remember to do my local taxes until the very last minute, even though I’ve lived here long enough that I should remember. So, I did my local taxes this afternoon and Bl0ckbuster never took out any local taxes. I’m getting close to broke, 2 months on unemployment will do that to you, and the amount that I owe my lovely county is more than I get on one unemployment check. Thank G-d I have R to bail me out (again). She’s paying my local taxes for me. Isn’t she sweet!

Tragedy

Our hearts go out to those affected. As it stands, there are still people that our donor can’t get in touch with. There is a chapter of my fraternity, ΦΣΠ, at V1rg1n1a Tech. They lost one of their initiates and one of their Alumni lost his sister. I am thinking about taking a trip down there this weekend to be with my Brothers, family, and friends.

Scary *Updated

Our donor goes to V1rg1n1a Tεch. We’re trying to get in touch with him to make sure he’s OK.

*Update: Our donor was running late this morning. He was in the shower and didn’t go to campus on time. Thank G-d he was a lazy bum this morning. We breathed a huge sigh of relief when we found that out. All those affected are in our thoughts.

A diagnosis? and A plan! *Updated

Primary infertility – Unspecified ovulation dysfunction

Well, we could’ve told him that. I’m not too impressed with the RE we saw today. There were many things that he said that just got under my skin A LOT. I had to bite my tongue more than once. We knew that we might not be able to find a doctor that was willing to help us at all. This was one of the offices that refused to help a lesbian couple conceive just because they were a same sex couple when our friends were TTC 2 years ago. Still, we didn’t lie. They knew who I was and I went with her to the appointment. Here are some highlights:

• He assumed that R was having sex with our donor, not that we were doing IVI at home. We didn’t correct him. Remember, we were scared that he’d say no and wouldn’t help us at all.
• He tried to discourage us getting pregnant using a KD because, and I quite, “We’ll end up spending more money on legal fees than the entire prenatal care and delivery.”
• I can’t tell you how many times he brought up the legal ramifications of using a KD. Yes we know it’s risky, but what’s our other option? We don’t want to use frozen and we want to have kids. I’m not waiting until they can produce sperm from my bone marrow!
• He thinks that R’s irregular cycles are just caused by stress. He said that it can be stressful to have sex outside of the relationship (remember, we didn’t correct him).
• He wanted to know why we were temping & acted as if it was unnecessary.
• He gave us Pr0vera so we don’t have to wait on R’s period again, just in case she were to have another 53 day cycle. R is supposed to take it for 10 days and then, ta da, AF visits. We’re thinking of cheating and using it to make AF visit just at the right time so she will O when we are near our donor the 3rd weekend of May.
• He gave us Cl0mid. The dose is 50 mg on days 5-9. OPKs starting day 11. He said to only use F1rst Response OPKs. Then she’s supposed to have sex the day of her LH surge. Ewwwww…have sex, especially considering who our donor is.
• R has to get bloodwork done one week after her LH surge to test progesterone levels.
• He asked who our donor was. We didn’t name names, because we didn’t want his name on any any records. We just said that he was a family member. The doctor actually felt the need to ask R if the donor was her family member. Sure, we know so little about genetics that R is knockin’ boots with her brother & wondering why we can’t keep a bun in the oven. Actually, he is one of my family members. The doctor didn’t see how this person was our family member & kept referring to him as my family member, leaving R out of the mix. Just because he’s a brother-out-law since we’re not legally recognized as a couple doesn’t make him any less of a family member in our eyes.

As much as it all bothered me, I had to think that I was lucky. At least he was willing to help us, albeit with an annoying commentary. We’re lucky enough to have insurance that will cover fertility treatments. He is the only RE that accepts our insurance within 50 miles of our house. My newest mantra is “we only have to see him until we get pregnant.” We got what we wanted, Pr0vera & Cl0mid. Here’s hoping we don’t have to deal with him very long.

Questions for you , what’s your opinion on these?

1. Why only F1rst Response OPKs? Do they have a lower level of detection?
2. Sure, there’s no common genetic information flowing through R and our donor, but you’d call your Bro-in-law your family right?
3. Do most REs think temping & charting are a waste of time?
4. Should we have corrected him on the sex thing?
5. Are the Cl0mid side effects really as bad as everyone says?

*Update – Forgot to add that R has normal anatomy. A slightly tipped uterus, but he (Dr. Forehead) said it was nothing to be concerned about.

BTW…RE will now be known as Dr. Forehead & he resembles J0hn Lithg0w.

Doctor Tomorrow

We have our appointment tomorrow (technically today since it’s after midnight). We have a lot of questions for the doctor and are hoping to get the answers we want. The three days of spotting finally turned into a period, albeit light, but a cycle nonetheless. We won’t be trying this month, hopefully next month. My seminar presenting my research for the last 3 semesters and my thesis defense are the Monday after R ovulates this month. There’s no way I can get away next weekend to see our donor. He is also graduating this semester so he has a lot going on too and can’t come up to see us. Just to make sure we don’t have it easy our donor is going to Europe for a month after graduation. We’re hoping that he waits a week or so after his graduation to leave so we can try in May. Also if he waits we’ll be able to try (assuming that the May cycle is a bust) when he gets back too. It’s all up in the air since we don’t know why R’s cycle was so late or if it will be a regular cycle this month. We’re hoping it all works out soon and we can try again.

We have a list of questions for the doctor. Any suggestions about what we should add to the list?

Finally…maybe

AF might just be here. It is really light in color and flow, but at least there’s something. It’s better described as spotting, but at least it’s here. Five more nights until our appointment with the RE. Hopefully we get some good news.