Finally really CD 1, Cycle #29

This will be a break cycle due to my surgery, but I finally started my new cycle.  I need to double check my chart, but it looks like I had a 14-15 day LP, with only tiny amounts of pink in my CM for the previous 3 days.  If this is due to the Endo Diet (which I can't guarantee since this was also my first full cycle on cortisol), I'm sold. My mom got into the States yesterday, and is in our hometown until we leave on Sunday for Omaha.  D and I will go down this weekend.

I was wrong

Yesterday wasn't CD 1, but I'm having the tiniest bit of pink/red combined with 10K and still waiting for true flow.  13 day LP isn't too bad.  6 days until surgery.

One week, and CD 1

Just some quick stuff:
My surgery is in one week.  My current nanny job is finished on Friday.  I'm stressed out, but it's mainly since I need to find a job soon.  I've applied for a couple things, and we'll see if anything pans out.  Please continue the prayers in this area!

I'm doing pretty well on sticking to the Endo Diet (I've posted about it on my recipe blog and I have some Endo Diet-friendly recipes up in my February and March meal plans).

Today is almost definitely CD 1, though it's not quite officially yet.  That means another 12 day LP and no crazy spotting/bleeding.  Hopefully, once the endo is out, we'll have a decent chance of conceiving.

Stressed

My surgery is in 11 days, and I just had to start looking for a new job for after my recovery.  D kind of freaked out and told me at first that if I didn't have a new job before leaving for Omaha, I couldn't get the surgery done (he relented especially after we discussed that it wouldn't really save any money and he stopped freaking out).  I've been crazily searching online and have applied for a couple jobs.  Staying home right now is not an option for me, so I really need to find something very soon.  I'm looking at other nanny positions, medical research positions, and a bunch of other stuff.

"Early" ovulation and exposure to H1N1, and Lent plans

It's CD 19 and I'm P+4, which means I ovulated on CD 15.  Since I usually don't ovulate until between CD 16-21 (and sometimes later), CD 15 is pretty early.  We had decent timing (P-3 and P-1), but of course my surgery is in about 2 1/2 weeks so I don't have my hopes up.  I'm glad that I'll be at about CD 8 or so for my surgery.

The little boy I nanny for tested positive for H1N1 yesterday and I didn't get the vaccine, so I'm hoping I don't catch it.  We are going to visit my relatives and D's best friend and his wife (so I'll be visiting with two pregnant women), so it would be an extra poor time to get sick, especially with H1N1.  I also have had some very mild UTI type symptoms that I'm trying to keep at baby with large amounts of cranberries.  Please pray for me!

I'm doing pretty well so far on the Endo Diet, which I started about a week ago.  I've got my dinner plans for done through mid-March (I didn't do any plans for the time we are in Omaha, but I sent my mom some info).  I'm working on lunch and breakfast plans.  I'm have the hardest time with breakfast since I take it with me to work and I don't want to have to cook it, and eggs are out so muffins and breads are much more difficult.  I'm not sure how well I'll be able to follow it this weekend since we'll be traveling and staying at people's houses.  It's only 2-3 days so I'm not going to make a huge deal out of it, but if anyone does have any suggestions, they would be greatly appreciated.

For Lent, I'm significantly cutting back on my internet time (and cutting FB games completely).  This means that although I'll still be reading the blogs, I won't be commenting too much.  I'm going to try to use this time for prayer, reading (focusing on spiritual reading) and keeping up with my housework (which is a difficult area for me).  I still need to talk to D and figure out almsgiving.

Have a blessed Lent everyone.

302nd post ***Updated***

Update: I really should know better than to talk about my body improving.  It then immediately does exactly what I said it wasn't.  I have some light bleeding.  My body is crazy.

managed to miss noting my 300th post, so I thought I'd mention it now.

I had a seven day period, so that was very exciting.  It may still sound long, but I usually have 10 to 12 days or more of bleeding, so seven day is a huge improvement.  I'm on day 11, but I'm not having any peak type mucus yet, so I still probably have a little while before I ovulate (just as long as it's by Feb. 21 so we don't have to not use days of fertility this cycle).

I'm working my way into doing the Endo Diet (no dairy, no wheat/gluten-free as much as possible, no red meat, no soy, no eggs, no caffeine, no sugar).  Fertile Thoughts has been a big help on figuring resource and recipes.  I'm slowly trying to switch over and start planning for dinners.  I'll be adding Endo Diet recipes to my recipe blog and I'll also go back and tag the endo diet friendly recipes.  I'm not sure how well I'm going to be able to do it while we are in Omaha for my laparatomy, since I'll be in the hospital for 2-3 days.  We'll be staying at R.eside.nce Inn, so we'll have a kitchen; I just need to come up with a plan on what to get for while we are at the hotel.  I also need to cook a few things for the first week we are home or come up with stuff for my mom to make while she's here.  If anyone has any suggestions on meal ideas that fit the Endo Diet and are easy to make or can be frozen for later, I'd really appreciate it.  Surgery is in just over 3 weeks.

Another family member is pregnant.  However, this time it's my aunt (which is weird to say since she's 27, 2 years younger than me), my mom's youngest brother's (who's is 43) wife, and she's due in August. so I'll be have a cousin who is almost 30 years younger than me and will be closer in age to my kids (hopefully) than even my youngest cousin who is 13 (17 years younger than me).  I'm very happy for them especially since my uncle is in his 40s, plus my aunt had a miscarriage previously.  My grandparents will have a new grandchild when they are 83 years old.

It's snow here in NW Louisiana, and has been for the past 2 1/2 hours.  We are supposed to get about 4-6 inches of snow (it probably won't stick much though) in the next 24 hours.  It's nothing compared to what you East Coasters have dealt with in the past couple weeks, but it's a lot of snow for here and this is about the 4th time it has snow this winter, and we usually get one time with about 1/2 inch of snow at most.

A lovely meeting

Today I finally got to meet the lovely Life in Mazes (her blog is private).  We meet at a bookstore halfway in between our towns for tea and then had lunch.  It was so great to finally meet a blogger in person, and like anyone else who has finally met a follow blogger IRL, it's like spending time with an old friend.  It's so awesome to be able to talk about all the IF stuff that no one else understands or wants to hear about.  Even though we both brought our cameras, we didn't manage to get a picture.

In cycle news, I'm on CD6 and am exciting that at least as of now, I haven't had any brown bleeding.  I'm very excited and I hope this continues to be the case.  I didn't have any premenstrual spotting/bleeding in the two cycles since my surgery.  I think that some combination of the D&C done as part of my surgery and the antifungal, antibiotic, and cortisol are helping keep whatever caused it away.

   My surgery is in about 4 weeks, and I'm definitely ready to get it done.  I haven't had any luck finding a place were D can get the SA done without have to take off work (which he can't do since his vacation days are going toward traveling to Omaha), so it may be awhile before we can get a formal SA done (we had an informal one done by the urologist I nanny for and there were no obvious abnormalities).  Maybe we'll get luck and won't need to do.  One can hope.  

Giveaway from Jenna's Journey blog...cookware

Jenna's Journey is giving away a Rachel Ray Dutch Oven.  If you love to cook as much as I do, go check it out.

Need help

If anyone knows of a lab in Houston, Austin or Dallas that offers semen analysis on Saturday, please let me know.  We are having some issues with scheduling and we can't do it in Omaha since we don't get there until Sunday (and no one does Sunday testing) and my surgery is super early Monday.  All the places here are Monday to Friday 8-3 only and D isn't willing to take off work (plus I'd have to too).  I'm starting to call around to places in Houston, Austin, and Dallas (we'll be there over the next few weekends), but it's going to take a lot of phone calls I'm pretty sure.

CD 1...Cycle 28

Today is CD 1.  My surgery is in exactly 5 weeks so we'll see how my cycle falls but unless I don't ovulate until after CD 23 again, I should be in a new cycle for the surgery.  I had a 12 LP with no spotting, so that's good.  I'm not really upset about CD 1.  Our timing wasn't great, I still have endo on my ovaries, and my surgery is coming up soon.  I'm just hoping that we'll have a chance and decent timing in April.

I could tell all day yesterday that CD 1 was coming, but it pretty much just taunted me all day long.  The cramps kicked in early this time.  I usually don't have cramps until about CD 3-4, but they started late last night, and are in full force in my back.  I'm really hoping that something can be done about the length of my period because I don't want to deal with 10+ days of bleeding (yes, it's better than the 21 I'd been having, but still not normal).

D and I had a big blow-out on Friday night, but we've been communicating much better since then.  We had some interesting conversations on Saturday and I'm glad that we got some of the stuff talked about finally.  We have a tendency to get annoyed, but not ever say what the issue is and we talk about some of that stuff.

Just waiting

I'm about P+8 or 9, so a new cycle should be starting Sunday or Monday.  I hopefully will have just a started a new cycle right before my surgery, but it might be pretty close.  My bbs just started hurting again.  This is the third or fourth month that I've had it, but I hadn't had any bb pain in the months before and I don't know why it suddenly started happening.  I'm over halfway between my surgeries.

The sad situations that TCIE and Sew makes me feel even more down that I already was.  Please go give them some support and keep them in your prayers.

Facial Care System

I need to find a new face wash, etc.  I have combination skin with very mild roseacea /redness.  I'd prefer something of higher quality than a drugstore brand (unless it's super awesome), so I'd say moderately priced.  Thanks for your help.

Weird dreams, etc.

Last night I had a weird dream.  I wasn't pregnant, but for some reason people who I wasn't going to see for a while were giving me presents of maternity clothes and baby clothes.  It was very odd and I felt a bit embarrassed.  About a week or so ago, I had a dream that was clearly based on AYWH adopting Clara.  In this dream, somehow we had been offered a preemie to adopt even though we weren't actually actively pursuing adoption.  I'm pretty sure that K and R were with us in the dream.

I'm think I might have ovulated about 2-3 days ago (Monday or Tuesday), but yesterday was peak day based on my current instructions.  My ovary pain ended after Monday.  We only used Saturday morning.  I'm getting close to the halfway point between surgeries.  I have about 6 weeks left.

I'm going to post a picture of my pill boxes (I have three for my meds and vitamins).  My vitamins are in one, my nighttime Hydrocort and antacid in another, and other Hydrocort doses and T3, plus the antibiotics in the third).  I got one of the 4 a day pill things where you can pop out the day's worth of pills separately.  Here's what I'm taking:
Hydrocort (5 mg 4x daily, breakfast, lunch, dinner and bedtime)
T3 (22.5 mg 2x daily, 9am & 9 pm)

Rainbow Light Complete Prenatal (6 daily)

Vitamin B-complex (50 mg, 1 daily)

Vitamin C with rosehips (250 mg, 3 daily)

Vitamin E (200 mg, 1 daily)

Flax Oil (1 tbsp daily in breakfast smoothie)

Fish Oil (1 daily)

These both D and I are taking:

Clarithromycin antibiotic (500 mg 2x daily, for 21 days...we've got about a week left)

Fluconazole (150 mg 1x daily, yesterday, today, and tomorrow...they found even more yeast in the cultures)

Good news and annoying news

The good news: I have 10C/KL, so I'll probably ovulate pretty soon and I'll most likely be pre-peak for my surgery (I still have to get through ovulation next cycle to guarantee it).

The annoying news: My ovaries are have spend the past two days trying to get out of my abdomen (at least that's how it feels).  We also haven't used any days since Monday and I'd be surprised if we used tonight since Friday is his day he hangs out with one of his friends and rarely is home before midnight.  I'm not so much worried for this cycle, but our timing has almost always been not what I'd like (by D's choice).  Best case usually is using 3 days before peak and peak day.  I'd much rather use the day before peak, but every other day for 5 days rarely seems to work out.  I'm worried that we are going to waste all our time after surgery due to crappy timing, and I can't see any way to help the situation.  I'm waiting for D to decide when he's going to do his repeat and more formal SA. I have a feeling it'll be at the last minute just before my surgery.

On a somewhat related topic

I think I may eventually need to go back to school to study biomedical science (I could hopefully do a masters or PhD program) because other than homeschooling, one of the things I'd really like to do is to actually be involved in the research into infertility (as a researcher not a participant).  If only I'd know this 8-10 years ago in college before I started my graduate work (which I didn't end up finishing) in developmental psychology (which I did love, I just couldn't stand the writing part and a couple other things).  Another thing I'd like to do if I went back to school is statistics, which I did really well in during graduate school.  I want to figure out what I'm going to do if I can't stay home or be a nanny.

Endo ladies- research study

If you have been diagnosed with endometriosis, please consider participating in this study by Juneau Biosciences.
 They are looking at the genetic component of endometriosis, and they mail you a kit to collect your saliva sample, family history, and endometriosis related medical records.  Hopefully this can help women in the future (possibly our daughters).

Cortisol, etc.

I got my results from the cortisol draw (11.4 at 9am), and Dr. H wants me to do the low-dose cortisone since it was on the low side of normal and due to the my answers to the adrenal questionnaire.  I got the letter late today, so I'll be talking to the PPVI nurses tomorrow.  D and I also have been on the 21-day antibiotic regimen again.  The worst part is the horrible taste in my mouth that develops after I take the pill.

To Misfit, I don't think that any sort of hormonal intervention would work at this point in my cycle, plus I don't want to use up any time on hormonal support before my surgery when it's less likely to result in a pregnancy (assuming of course that once I'm cleaned out I'll actually be able to get pregnant).  It is my first full cycle after my lap so maybe that's why ovulation is delayed.  I wouldn't have thought that it would be holiday stress since the cycle didn't even start until after Christmas.   I guess I should assume that next cycle will be a break cycle unless I ovulate this week sometime or have late ovulation that cycle and don't ovulate until after the surgery.  I would be nice to be pre-peak and close to ovulation at the time of my surgery so I could do the u/s series.  I'd like to get the series done but if it doesn't happen this time, it won't happen in Omaha.  I wish I could get it done locally.

I'm feeling a bit down right now.  My grandma feel again and broke a rib.  She has problems with nerve transmission and it's really easy for her to fall down due to that.  I'm tired of waiting for my surgery since I was hoping everything would be fixed last month.  It's been 18 months since I found out about Creighton charting and over a year since I received my letter from Dr. H saying that I'd need to have the surgery done and that he suspected endometriosis.  

CD 15 waiting

I'm on CD 15 and I'm not having any peak type mucus yet, just 8C.  I'm hoping this cycle isn't super long and doesn't put us in post-peak time for surgery.  I don't get why my body would do a lovely CD 15 ovulation a week after surgery, but can't even manage to start gearing up by then the cycle after.

Yeast

Just a quick update. My endometrial cultures from my surgery came back with an unusual strain of yeast so D and I will be taking Di.flucan later this week.  I'm still waiting to hear if there will be any other treatment for my chronic endometritis (chronic inflammation of the uterine lining) before my surgery.

Year in Review 2009

My 2009 year in review
January- I get Dr. Hilgers reply to my letter.  I actually manage to ovulate on CD 15 (earliest I'm aware of).
February- I start my blood draws for the hormone series.
March- I finish my blood draws and get the results for my hormone series.  Everything looks good except my T3 levels.
April- D and I go to Las Vegas for his 27th birthday.
May- I start T3.  A long cycle starts.
June- D and I go to his best friend's wedding.  Long cycle finally stops.
July- Our 2nd anniversary.
August- I had the scary bleeding, and the surgery at PPVI was scheduled.
September- Not too much happening.
October- My 29th birthday.  Our house almost floods during a flash flood.
November- I have a weird pain after eating for a few days but it goes away.
December- I have my surgery and need a second surgery because the endometriosis was too widespread.