Meet-ups and more

I started back to work on Monday.  Things are going well, but I am tired.  The kids are very sweet and the mom and dad are great too.  I've got Thursdays off, so I'll be trying to comment more and get caught up on the unread  blogs in Reader.

This past weekend, I got to meet Keep Calm and Carry On and have lunch with her.  We had a great time, and like she posted, we taken about trying to get the Southern girls together (although anyone willing to drive/fly to wherever we end up meeting is welcome).  One option is that my house is relatively centrally located based on the Southern girls I'm aware of (email me if you want to know exactly where mrsblondies at gmail dot com), and D and I would be willing to host anyone who would be interested.  We don't have a particular date set either.  Anyone who is interested, please comment on either my blog or on Keep Calm's or email one of us.

I'll post more tomorrow.  It's bedtime.

New Cycle and Some Exciting Stuff

CD 1 was Saturday, D's birthday, which was not ideal timing.  Earlier I had said that my six week surgery phone follow-up was April 12, but it's actually April 19.  I had missed counted.  I had some cramps this cycle, but they weren't as bad as usual and my back didn't hurt at all.

I didn't follow the Endo Diet very well a couple days this week and I've had stomach problems.  I'm going to be more careful about following it (especially avoiding gluten/wheat).

I got the nanny job that I interviewed for on Tuesday.  I'm very excited.  I'll be starting on Monday.  They have 2 1/2 year old boy/girl twins (the boy has Down's) and a little girl who is 6 months old.  The kids seem very sweet and I got along really well with the parents (and they are Catholic, bonus!).  D was very happy that I got the job since my pay ran out last week (plus he's just happy I got it in general).

My dad is going to be back in the States this coming week for a meeting (they live in Qatar), so we are going to meet him in Austin and visit with my brother and my grandparents.  While I'm in the area, I'll also get to meet Keep Calm and Carry On for lunch, which I'm very excited about as well.  She'll be the second blogger friend I've met; I met Life in Mazes about 2 months ago.

Prayer Buddy Reveal

My prayer buddy during Lent was Alive in Hope.  I hadn't read her blog until I got matched with her, and low and behold she was having her laparotomy with Dr. H about 2 weeks after I had mine.  It's amazing how the prayer buddy matches are so perfect.

I mainly prayed for a successful surgery and for her healing after surgery.  I offered up my surgery and I also prayed for her during adoration and Mass, especially during the Triduum.

I'm going to post later about some other stuff, but I wanted to reveal my prayer buddy separately.

Happy Birthday, D

In honor of D's 28th birthday, here are 10 random things about him:

1. He's a very hard worker.  D not only works very hard at his main job, but also works on Saturdays so we can have some extra income.  He hasn't taken a single day off for being sick (even when he's been sick) in the more than 5 years we've been together.
2. He's very loyal.  D is the type of person who would work for one company for the rest of his life.  I don't know if that will end up happening due to the size of the company he works for and the fact that we'd like to move back to Texas, but he's definitely not a job-hopper.
3. He's got a great sense of humor.  D is always trying to make me laugh, even when I don't really feel like it.  He likes to hide and pretend that he's left without me and other silly things like that.
4. He'll eat pretty much anything (except strawberries since he's deathly allergic).  I never have to worry about D not being willing to eat what I make for dinner.  He even eats the things that don't turn out well, which are relatively few.
5. He loves sports.  Since he works lot, he doesn't get to play them as much as he would like.  He played soccer and basketball in high school.  He's looking forward to the upcoming softball league with some guys from work.
6. He's very smart.  He and his best friend love to have deep intellectual conversations.  He says that he wishes that he'd applied himself more in high school and college.
7. He's very good with our finances.  He's in charge of paying bills and is very good about it.  He does our monthly budget and has a spreadsheet of past years and the plans for the next year.
8. He's a great son.  He especially loves his dad and calls him with questions about things.
9. He's very handy.  He hasn't done much work on our house due to our lack of funds, but he built our TV stand, replaced all the locks when we moved in, and put in a path to our garage.  I expect that once we can afford it he'll be doing lots of projects around the house.
10. He's got the same hair color and eye color that I do so every once in a while, we get asked if we are brother and sister.

P+14

I'm at P+14 again.  Since peak day was less than two weeks after surgery, we didn't use any days of fertility so I'm definitely not pregnant.  I'm very excited to finally have a decent LP.  I haven't been quite as good as last month about following the Endo diet, but it still seems to be extending my LP (and removing the endometriosis probably helped too).  I'm having a tiny bit of spotting so today or tomorrow will likely be CD1.

My interview for the nanny position was postponed because the family was sick, and then the rest of the week is taken up by Holy Week things (the family is Catholic too).  It'll be next Tuesday evening.  I really need to start working soon, so I'm really hoping to get this job and start by April 12.

I'm going to try to stay off the computer after Holy Thursday Mass, so I'll be back on Monday.  D's birthday is Saturday so I'll probably have an auto post for that (which I'll need to finish later today).  I hope everyone has a blessed Triduum and Easter.

Updates

I wanted to update since I haven't posted in a while.  I'm doing pretty well.  My stomach is feeling much better; I did have some heartburn earlier in the week, but it's hopefully done too.  My incision is doing fine and I don't really have much pain from it most of the time.  I haven't taken any pain medication in over a week.  I'm pretty much sticking to the Endo Diet in the last week or so since my stomach is finally working more normally.  During my 2 week follow-up phone call from PPVI, the nurse asked me about the Endo Diet because she's dealing with endometriosis too.

I have an interview for a nanny job on Tuesday, and I'll update when I have some news on that.  I haven't been doing a whole lot lately other than reading (blogs and books), listening to my iPod and resting.  I do need to work on housework a bit.

D's 28th birthday is in 8 days and we are going to have a couple friends over for dinner, etc.  Since I'm currently unemployed, I'm probably just going to do a special dinner and cake as his present.

I managed to ovulate on CD 16 or 17, but I only had one day of good 10KL.  Hopefully that was just because of surgery and my body trying to get back to normal.  CM has never been a problem for me so I'm hoping that this was just a fluke.  I'm currently P+7 or 8, but this was a break cycle so I'm just looking for a good LP (13 or 14 days would be lovely).

My 6 week phone follow-up with PPVI is on April 12, and that's when I'll be finding out exactly what Dr. H thinks that we need to do.  The main thing that he's going to be treating me for is the inflammation that he found during my hysteroscopy in December.  I'm still taking Hydrocort (which is supposed to help with inflammation) and I'll probably be starting on the Pain and Brain supplement that's also supposed to reduce inflammation.  The Endo Diet is also supposed to help reduce inflammation too.  One thing that I have to remember is that treating the inflammation, since it's chronic, will probably take a few months so it may be a while before anything happens.

Tummy Troubles

The main problem that I've had in healing from my surgery is stomach issues.  I had some serious constipation on Friday (4 days out from surgery), and my stomach has continued to have difficulties (mainly nausea) since then.  The nausea was still around a bit as of yesterday, so I've had a really hard time eating much since the surgery.  I've lost 10 pounds in the 10 days since the surgery and I really need to gain it back.  I'm hoping that the nausea issues are finally done so that I can get back to the Endo Diet since you've got to pretty much eat whatever you think you can handle when you are nauseated.

I haven't really had issues with the actual incision or much pain.  I stopped taking the Dar.voc.et on Friday since it can slow your digestive system.  I took ibuprofen and tylenol for a couple days, but I haven't even take those in 3-4 days.  The only time that I really have pain is when I laugh or cough.  I did have a rash near my incision, but I'm not sure if it was an adhesive allergy or if I had an weird immune reaction to the surgery.  I do tend to get a rash on my hips whenever I get sick, and no doctor that I've talk to has any idea what could be going on.

I had my follow-up with Dr. H on Monday afternoon.  He was really happy about how my incision is healing and with how the surgery went.  He says our odds of getting pregnant are up to about 75%.  I have to call PPVI on this coming Monday and then in another 4 weeks.  The 6 week post surgery call, on Monday, April 12, is when Dr. H will let us know exactly what we are doing moving forward.  He did say that he'll be order some bloodwork, but I don't know how extensive it'll be yet.  He'll also have me start on the Pain & Brain supplement, which is supposed to help with inflammation.  Since my hormone levels were good (and will be tested again), his main concern now that the endo is out is the signs of inflammation that he saw inside my uterus.  The hydrocort is supposed to help with that too.  Dr. H also briefly mentioned the Endo Diet, but said that he hadn't had time to really research it yet.  

The pathology report from the surgery confirmed that the 8 spots removed were endo, plus I had a benign growth on one of my ovaries removed as well as the cyst on one of my tubes removed that had be weighing it down.

I haven't really had any peak-type mucus yet even though I'm on CD 16, which isn't very surprising since my body has been under a lot of physical stress in the last 10 days.   

I'm out

I got out of hospital yesterday.  I'm actually having a rougher day today with a bit more pain.  My back is bothering me quite a bit.  I need to got walk around more I think.  D will be leaving tomorrow morning to go back home, and my mom will be staying with me through Monday when we fly back early evening after my appointment with Dr. H.  This is going be a relatively long post going over the surgery and recovery.  I'd like to thank LIM for posting on Monday and to thank all of you for your prayers.

Here's an overview of the last few days:
Sunday- I did the bowel prep and showered.  The bowel prep wasn't too horrible.  I tried to go to be before 10 but didn't sleep very well.

Monday- Surgery day.  I woke up about 4am.  I wasn't planning on getting up until 5, but I couldn't fall back asleep.  I got on the computer until it was time to leave for the hospital about 5:25.  We got to the hospital about 5:45, and they got me back to start doing the prep with the cleaning cloths about 6.

  The cleaning cloths were really difficult to open, but I finally got them open and did the whole body wipe down.  I had the same pre-op nurse as I had in December for my laparoscopy.  She got my IV started.  The priest at Creighton came in after D and my mom came back, and I got anoiting of the sick.  Dr. H came by and talked to me briefly.  I don't really remember after they got my sedation meds started. 

The surgery lasted about 3 hours and Dr. H removed 8 spots of endo as well as the cyst on my tube (I can't remember which tube right now though).

I woke up in the recovery room and was there about 30 or 45 minutes that I remember before they moved me up to my room.  I wasn't feeling too bad pain-wise when they had me on the morphine.  D ended up going to buy some ear plugs (the hospital didn't have any) so I'd be able to sleep.  I highly recommend earplugs if you are going to be in the hospital overnight.  The nurse cleaned my teeth with some swab things that made my mouth feel much better and less fuzzy.  I finally got some ice chips about 6 pm and it was so wonderful.  I didn't sleep very well that night, and it wasn't just because of the people come in and checking on me.

Tuesday-  I woke up pretty much at about 3am, just before the nurse came to check on me.  A lab person came to draw some blood about 4:30, and then Dr. H's med student came in about 6 to talk to me.  He was very nice and seemed pretty knowledgeable.  Dr. H's fellow came in a little later and told me that they would start me on the clear liquids, and I got the clear liquid breakfast.  I didn't see Dr. H that day, but my mom and D said that they saw him on the floor.

I still was doing pretty well with the pain and they switched me to oral pain meds in the late morning and I started back on my T3 and hydrocort.  I was able to take a shower midday and started doing the walking.  The nurses were impressed on how well I did with the walking. 

After dinner (meaning Jello, juice, broth and tea), I started not feeling well.  I hadn't had any issues with nausea up to this point.  The nurse gave me nausea medication, but I don't remember which one.  I was feeling uncomfortable sitting in bed so I had D go walk with me, but we barely made it 20 feet before I realized that I needed to vomit.  Thankfully I made it to the bathroom in my room.  I got back in bed, but started feeling off and restless in the bed so we got up to walk again, and I talked to the nurse and ended up vomiting again.  She gave me more nausea medication, this time Zofran, and I didn't have any more nausea issues.  I think that at least part of it was my system not being used to that much sugar. 

I actually slept pretty well from about 10pm to 6am, but there was a miscommunication between D and my mom and he ended up locked out of the hotel room and sleeping in the car.

Wednesday- The med student came and checked on me again, and then Dr. H came and check on me.  He said he was very happy with how the surgery went, and that as soon as I was able to pass gas that I'd be able to get started eating real food.  Thankfully after my breakfast, where I just at the broth and the tea, I finally did pass gas and then Dr. H's fellow came in and said that I could have real food for lunch.

After lunch, they said that they had the discharge orders for me.  We just had to wait for D, who had been resting and then went to work out after the locked out drama of the night before.  We got back to the hotel about 4 and I ate my first meal of non-hospital food.

D dropped off my prescriptions, but he had to come back and get the new RX card from me since he only had the old card, so it took about twice as long as necessary.

Thursday (today)-  I've been having a few issues with slight pain in my ears and some back pain.  I actually feeling a bit more tired that I was yesterday.  I'm very thankful that D was here to help me shower.  The pain from my actual incision isn't as annoying as the other issues.

I probably will post again when I get back home on Tuesday with information about what Dr. H says at my appointment.  I've been reading blogs, but I don't really feel up to commenting right now.  I am keeping all of you in my prayers.

Surgery Update - new information :)

Hi, Life In Mazes here.  Just wanting to fill you all in tht Mrsblondies made it through surgery and is currently in recovery.  There are no specifics on the surgery at this time, but let us continue to pray that she is receiving the best possible care and has a swift recovery!  Will update if I get any additional information.
New Update:
I did just get a new update from mrsblondies' Mom.  She said that she is out of recovery and doing well.  She did have eight spots of endometriosis removed and the cyst on her tube was removed.  Praise God!  She was in surgery for three hours and in recovery for two.  So glad to hear that she is in her own room right now!!

Surgery tomorrow

My surgery is tomorrow at 7:15am, so we have to be at the hospital at 5:45.  My mom, D and I got are checked into the hotel and I got my pre-op blood draw done.  I ate some soup and I'm going to do the enema when they head out for dinner.  Life in Mazes will be updating my blog sometime tomorrow and D will hopefully post on my FB tomorrow when I get out of the surgery.  I appreciate all your thoughts and prayers and I'll probably post once I'm out of the hospital either Wednesday or Thursday hopefully. 

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.