Keeping you girls up to date on this side tracked IVF journey right now. I saw the breast specialist this morning and it was recommended that I do the biopsy. I am scheduled for Monday morning. I think a little champs, re-runs of “Sex and the City” and “Something’s Got To Give” are in order this weekend. I will be relaxing and staying positive for my procedure on Monday morning.
Archives for July 2015
Abnormal Mammogram Follow Up
So I guess everything does come in three’s. I had my third failed IVF cycle June 16th, then a week later Frenchie came down with a unexplained severe allergic reaction. We still don’t know what the allergy was that put her on IV for three days in the hospital. Now I am dealing with an abnormal mammogram. If you have not seen my update on what my doctor said you can watch my video below to get caught up.
Yesterday I went in for the bilateral ultrasound and magnification of my right breast. It’s so nerve-wracking being at this women’s Cancer center. I don’t know what to think. One minute I am fine, talking myself down and the next minute feels like a year, everything is in slow motion. I start to think if something is wrong what would I have changed or done differently in my life. Would I change anything? Do I have any regrets? You start to really put things into perspective. I know this is probably so dramatic but yet so very true.
I am disappointed that I was allowed to go through four rounds of hormone injections without ever being advised to get a mammogram. I used to think my grey stripe was a crazy amount of grey hair. If I make it out of infertility without having a full head of grey hair it will be a miracle. I always laugh when strangers come up to me and ask if my grey stripe is real, or “How did you do that?” IVF has created a whole new grey hair issue for me as you can imagine. My lucky stripe will soon become stripes.
My appointment was at 1pm, I didn’t get into my gown until 2pm and then another excruciating hour of waiting and thinking to finally get called for my ultrasound/mammogram. I just kept wanting her to speed it up and tell me everything was OK. Once my mammogram with magnification and ultrasound were complete, I was told that I now need a breast biopsy.
Can someone please take me off of this Greyhound bus and PLEASE PLEASE put me in first class with a bottle of champagne? This has been my motto since IVF 3, if you remember I said glass of champagne last month, I have now moved on to a bottle.
I decided to go to a breast specialist for a second opinion based on the recommendation of my primary doctor. I will be updating you with the results of this appointment. I luckily got in immediately and will be seeing the specialist today.
Go BIG or GO HOME
YES! Can you believe it? We are going to do IVF #4 in Colorado. I still feel like this is a surreal life I am living. Even more so when you book a flight a week in advance, jump on “Penny Pinchers Approved” Spirit night flight (more on that later), arrive, have your hotel give away your room, think that maybe you might be sleeping in the car, next day sign your life away/make IVF payments until you are ninety-nine and leave on the red eye. How is that for a little IVF adventure?
Our main mission this year was to do everything and anything we could do to create success. I am not looking back thinking “Oh, darn I should have done that,” “Ohhhh why was I so afraid?” When this is all over success or no success, we will look back and say “Yeah Baby! We gave it our ALL.” Period.
I hope my journey helps your girls that are thinking about doing IVF or you are planning on doing IVF out of state. I think it’s a little easier for me since this will be my fourth cycle. After signing all the consents this week with our new clinic, doing all the tests over, I knew what to expect. If I was just starting IVF and doing it out of state, it’s safe to say I would be very overwhelmed. That’s why I want to document every step of the way so you will not be afraid. I can say that I have made some mistakes in this crazy IVF journey but that’s for another blog post and don’t worry it will be posted soon.
Let’s start with travel to Colorado. From Florida Spirit is the only airline with non-stop flights that are reasonable with short notice. I can’t even tell you now many times I have said “I WILL NEVER FLY THEM AGAIN.” only to be forced to fly them again. Remember when I said in one of my videos that I felt like I was on a greyhound bus with this whole journey, and what I really wanted is to be in first class drinking champagne? Well, let’s see…… how should I put this….???? Just look at the picture below as I stepped onto the plane.
I am not sure if Spirit thinks this is an attractive badge but if you are thinking that they are super cheap, they aren’t. Looks like they have a new marketing team that picked a bright yellow color for their cheapy theme. In my mind it just signals warning. This new campaign is called “Less Money, More Go” Riiiiiiight, not sure what “More Go” means but let’s move on shall we?
Here is how they present their concept:
Bare fare + Options = Frill Control. Frill Control????
Spirits vocabulary does not include the word frill.
Highlights on what to expect from Spirit:
- You pay for your seats. $1-$50 for regular seats, $12-$199 Big front seats (in advance) $25-$75 big front seats (on board upgrades)
- $35 each way for your carry on
- $50-$60 for a checked bag
- $$ for snacks, water or basically anything else to stay alive on the flight
And the number #1 amazing “FRILL” that Spirit offers is that not one of their seats reclines. You sit stiff as a board for the entire flight. So in essence between paying for the flight, seats, baggage, chiropractor and massage therapist you might as well just book United or Southwest from Florida.
We did find some amazing restaurants while in Denver. My husband loves the Food Network show series called Diners, Dive-ins and Dives. He found an app that features all the resturants that have been featured on this TV show. There is also a website that lists all the restaurants featured on TV. I am usually super picky when it comes to food but I am getting more relaxed about everything and anything. I have learned with IVF I can’t control this whole process so why not just enjoy life. No more rules all the time, no more limiting thoughts.
The three restaurants we went to were amazing and delicious.
The Wooden Spoon-the most amazing Macrons EVER!
The Bagel Deli–Kosher
a 2nd-generation, Jewish deli serving up grandma’s matzo ball recipe.
Bang-an old Victorian home turned restaurant, where they’re scratch making southern favorites from peach cobbler to gumbo with cornbread.
You can’t neglect your traveling beauty routine. I usually test out new skin care products that have been sent to me on my travels. I have a review coming up on Tatcha’s Discovery Kit on my main blog. I will give you tips on keeping you skin looking amazing through traveling and this stressful time in your life.
Hello Vodka, It’s Me Pregnancy Test????
I had mentioned I had my first mammogram screening on my most recent vlog that I posted on Saturday but that really wasn’t the whole story. Sometimes I feel like my infertility shenanigans is a script for a new comedy on NBC or maybe MTV’s “Punked” is back and I am on the latest episode.
My relationship with pregnancy tests is almost comical now. Forget “love/hate,” we are purely not on speaking terms anymore. My mammogram was scheduled for 1:20pm last Friday. I arrived early at 1:00pm to fill out any additional information needed. I was checked in and moved to the imaging department quickly. I was asked to sign a form that said something to the effect of understanding the risks of doing X-rays and that I was not pregnant. I was actually one day late with my period and told the administration “Listen, I am sure I am not pregnant, I am on my fourth round of IVF, I can’t tell you FOR SURE that I am not pregnant right this second, but I can tell you that I AM PRETTY SURE I AM NOT.” She said we don’t have pregnancy tests here, why don’t you go and buy one and then come back so we know for sure. Why they don’t have pregnancy tests on hand is beyond me but I guess that would be too easy.
I left and drove to the nearest drug store. I decided to buy the First Response Gold Digital test, I didn’t need to be reading lines, I just wanted YES or NO. I was thrilled that I bought a digital, I was going up in the ranks of testing, no little crappy lines for me baby, I am BIG time with a digital. I take the test back to the hospital, luckily I had been sipping on my extra large ice tea so I was ready to get this over with. I have to mention it’s just as creepy taking a pregnancy test in a stall as it is giving yourself injections, been there done that. There is something just so unnatural and dirty about not being at home testing or injecting.
I stood in the stall thinking, how weird would it be if I was just hanging out at the sink with my pregnancy test on the counter waiting…..???? I mean let’s put some class on this, so I stayed in the stall waiting for a YES or NO. I had left the box in the car as I was trying to be discrete about all this testing nonsense. Waiting……Waiting…….Come ON…..I thought this was a mac daddy test?
And then this happened…….
Then this…..
The eye pads are for all the stress that these pregnancy tests create. I thought I would give you a laugh with my raw, uncensored, no makeup craziness. As you can see girls, IVF makes you crazy so the formula to get out alive is to have a little fun, embrace your crazy out of control hormones and know, this too shall pass.
How and why do I keep getting defined by a question mark?????? Or as I keep being told, “Your infertility is unexplained.” I stood there thinking, where’s the camera that is going to catch my reaction to this ridiculous question mark? I had left the box in the car with the other test so I had no idea what this question mark meant nor could I take the other test. I looked it up on my IPad and you guess it, ERROR. Not only do I have “unexplained infertility,” failed cycle after failed cycle, I now have a QUESTION MARK? I love when you are being annoying to someone and they tell you the oldest phrase in the book: “You drive me to drink.” Well, I can tell you that my relationship with pregnancy tests drives me to drink lots of expensive champagne. As my husband would say: “Oh so it’s the pregnancy tests fault?”
I went back out to the desk to explain the situation which was annoying as other people men sat listening. I rescheduled my mammogram for this morning. I want to get past the last stressful test and put IVF #1-#3 behind us.
Our new chapter starts this week flying out to our new clinic and starting IVF #4. I can’t wait to keep looking forward and not be defined by a question mark or my previous failed IVF cycles.
Love to you girls and KTF (Keep the Faith).
The Pregnancy Book for Men + GIVEAWAY
Today’s post is dedicated to all the husbands that have been such troopers being by our sides through IVF, IUI, Infertility. We tend to forget that they are just as effected as we are but in different ways. My husband and I have found that laughter is the best medicine when things get stressful with infertility. You have to keep your humor, the fun in your relationship and find ways to make fun happen.
In one of my recent posts I had featured the Pro and Con worksheet from a company called Knock Knock. I tend to seek out this type of company, it makes me feel carefree, fun, quirky, etc. I am more of a serious girl and have found that in order to stay alive through infertility you need to keep your sense of humor and laugh A LOT.
I thought The Pregnancy Book for Men was adorable and fun. It will keep you man updated week by week, not only on the baby’s development, but also on changes you possibly will be going through. The best question that the book has is “How do I deal with my partner’s hormonal swings? HAAAAAAAAAAA I think he is probably an expert by now, I know my husband is. What I really loved about this book is that it provides a humorous approach to the utterly terrifying prospect of fatherhood-and a checklist for packing the ultimate hospital bag. Your husband will love that this is not a frilly book, I mean, it says From Dude To Dad In 40 Short Weeks. Enter the GIVEAWAY below for a chance to give your sexy husband a fun and entertaining book that makes reading about pregnancy fun.
Don’t forget to sign up for Knock Knock’s Newsletter. New members get 20% off any order of $50.
Second Opinions Take One
I know I have been a little MIA lately. It’s been harder than I expected to get back to “normal” this past month since my IVF #3 failed cycle on June 16th. I say “feeling normal” very loosely since I have no idea what “feeling normal” is like anymore.
I caught up with Heather from Beat Infertility and filled her and all her listeners in on how I have been doing since my first postcast. You will find all the details on my story (at minute 21:01) after Kara’s interview.
Check out Beat Infertility on Facebook and Instagram Join other inspiring women going through infertility.
Don’t worry, I will be updating my YouTube channel and blog after this week. I have my last second opinion consultation on Monday. We will be making a decision on what fertility clinic will be the right one for us to cycle for IVF #4.