Back in the saddle!

Hey there!

So let me fill you in a little bit, since it's been awhile since I posted!

May and June were duds.  As far as I could tell, I didn't ovulate.  But I was traveling for large chunks of time, and dealing with stress at home (like-troubles-with-my-partner stress).  Doesn't make for good baby-makin'.

So now we're looking at the end of July/ start of August to start up again, and I've got Thuper Thpermth on board.  I'm doing less traveling, and enjoying less stress... my partner left me and it seems to be more of a blessing than not.  Funny how things turn out that way sometimes.

Today is about self-care, and I've got the day off work.  After a beauty appointment, I'm getting a 1-1/2 hour massage.  Then probably coming home and baking or gardening.  The weather has cooled way off today and tootling around the house sounds like a marvelous way to spend a day.

I have a beautiful life.

Gonna take awhile for this egg to hatch

(Thanks, Liz Phair!)

Nothing's happened here yet at the Ovum Office.  I thought we might begin seeing signs of ovulation on Saturday, but nay.  Here we are on Tuesday, and nothing.

Crazy long cycle!

I've given Thuper Thpermth a heads-up and they're thanding by.

Fuzzy Math

So, due to the Chinese herbs prescribed by my acupuncturist (which WILL improve my chances of getting pregnant, he assures me), my cycles are waaaay longer than usual.  

When I'm getting laid regularly (like I am these days -- yay, sexy partner!), my cycle evens out at about 30 days, without much variation.  (I apologize if this is TMI, but when I'm not getting laid, my cycles are all! over! the! place!)  Since I've been on these herbs, it stretched out to 38 days.

I know what you are thinking -- Hey!  Fewer periods?  Where can I get me some Wen Jing Tang? -- and I'm right there with you.  But whilst we quest ever-onward toward fertility, it makes things a little difficult.  Do I start to map out my predicted fertile days based off a 14-day luteal phase?  Or a 22-day luteal phase?  Or something in-between?  I've been seriously charting for about 9 months, and only 1 of those months is 38 days long.  How I am supposed to tell?

I like to give the donor some notice so that schedules can be cleared and what-not.  I like to give a fairly tight window, and I've been able to track that so far.  Where I used to be able to get a 3-5 day window, this time I can only narrow it down to a 9-day window.

I'm not stressed about it on my end, I'm mostly just stressed about it as far as being fair to the donor.  

But who says that life -- especially the fertility-questing part of life -- is fair?

BFN

First off, I have to say that I love women in ties.  Do the security guards at my office have any idea how much I love to watch them?  My heart flutters.

In other news, not pregnant.  My cycle is longer than it has been previously, so it's going to take a little bit of fuzzy math to figure out when my fertile days are for April.

In any case, fertility quest onward!

Doctor Appointments

So, I'm in the process of switching primary care physicians (PCPs), and I scheduled an appointment with my new PCP  (Dr. M) for mid-March.  Wanting to start inseminations in early March, I asked her advice on medication I'm on and its effects on conception and pregnancy.  She doesn't have some special OB something something that she needs to advise me on such matters, so she sends me to Dr. G, an obstetrician.

I try to make an appointment with Dr. G, but he reviews my chart, and places me in the "high risk" category.  It is not mentioned the reason(s) I'm high-risk (I'm 35, fat, and have high blood pressure, so it could be any one of those things). He can't advise high-risk patients, so he sends me to Dr. T.  Apparently, Dr. T is some super-specialist?

My appointment with Dr. T is in late February, which is good timing.  While I'm a little woogedy about being dubbed "high-risk," if it gets me into see the doctors sooner, then that's fine by me.

In other health news, I'm in love with my Acupuncturist.  And I mean that in a purely professional, non-gender-specific way.  He's been working with me for about a month and, based on how well I've been responding to treatment, he's very optimistic about my chances of becoming pregnant.  He even prescribed some magic chinese herbs that are going to help prep my body.  They taste like ginger-y bile, but totally tolerable.

Tomorrow I've got an appointment with Dr. P, my Chiropractor.  I haven't talked with him about fertility, but I'm going to use some time tomorrow to give him a heads-up.  I really want to attack this from all sides.  My health is strongest when I handle it really holistically, so I believe that I should handle my fertility in a similar manner.

Wish me luck!