I'm alive...promise

I should not start a blog and then only update it bi-annually. Sorry!

As most of my entries end up being semi-novel like posts, I have to have a good 45minutes free to sit and bash away at a keyboard to update. Luckily for me, I have a completely clear diary at work today and lots to say, so I can update. Yipee!!

So a lot has happeed since December 3rd. Christmas, New Year, follow up appointment with the Fertility Specialist. Hold on to your hats, lots to talk about!

Christmas

Was lovely!

I finished work on December 21st and booked some time off in January, so had a whole 2 weeks off. It was great. We put up our tree;

Rearranged out whole living room to accommodate said tree; (panoramic view...snazzy)

Bought lots of presents, ate, drank and were merry! 

I've moaned a lot about our stupid finances due to the sheer amount of money we throw away at trains and cars, BUT in December, due to my two weeks off work and overlap in train ticket, I didn't need to fork out another £230 for a monthly train ticket so we had that to spend on Christmas! Its the first month in a long time where we've felt comfortable with money and not had to worry, its also the first Christmas where we've been able to buy each other presents! 

I bought Martin a very lovely watch as he broke his other; 

In return I got some Creepers, some new clothes and some new plugs for my ever expanding ears!

We had Christmas dinner with Martins family which was really nice. Sadly his beloved Grandad was diagnosed with bowel cancer just before Christmas, so it meant a lot to us to spend time with him around Christmas. Plus it's the first 'family' Christmas I've had for around 4 years now. In the evening we spent time with my family at my Uncles House and then went back to our own bed for some well needed sleep. The next day my Dad and Grandparents were coming round and we were in charge of cooking a whole Christmas dinner. 

This included setting about 20 different alarms, writing an army-like plan of what needed doing when, erecting a garden table in our living room to disguise as a dining table, and sitting on camping chairs. But it worked! 

Only bad thing about Christmas, my stupid stomach. Perfect timing and all, about a week before Christmas my tablets I take to stop acid production (to help the ulcers) stopped worked. I always know a bad patch is about to happen when I begin waking up at 2-3am in the night with horrific stomach pains. Sadly the only way I can make them go away is to throw up anything (or nothing as the case my be) thats in my stomach. So although Christmas was lovely, not one meal (even Christmas Dinner) stayed in my body for longer than 30 minutes. It's not even that I don't want to eat, I'm starving, but anything will put me in agony even water. 

The pain got so bad just after New Year that Martin took me to the hospital at 9pm one evening. After 4 hours of waiting to see a doctor we were finally called threw. Now, I know everyone has to start somewhere and learn, but the doctor we saw was clearly a junior, and clearly had no idea what he was talking about. He asked if I had tried drinking milk?!!?? (The first misconception around stomach ulcers/gastritus/heartburn etc.. is to drink milk. Milk soothes it for around 20 minutes but is difficult to break down, so the stomach produces more acid to get rid of it...not what you want). He asked what medication I had tried, I told him everything, I told him I had tried double dosing, I told him pain medication didnt work, I told him I hadn't slept a whole night or eaten a whole meal for almost 2 weeks. His response? "I dont know what we can do, see your GP on Monday. Heres some codeine" 

So aswell as seeing a fertility specialist and a cardiologist, I am now on the waiting list to see a gastrologist too. The GP was great when I went to see him, he did say that sadly, there wasn't much more they could give me without an expert seeing whats going on, but as we are trying to have a baby, rather than give me prescription after prescription, he would send me straight to the specialist. So thats where we are with that. 

Follow up FS appointment. 

Was good and bad. You may recall me mentioning that no treatment could be carried out until I had the all clear from the cardiologist? Well, surprise surprise, the NHS hadn't sent me out a cardiologist appointment prior to our FS appointment. So we were still stuck. 

Test Results - Try not to laugh. Both Martin and myself are super fertile. Honestly, you can't make this shit up. My eggs are of  'exemplary' quality, all of my hormones are as perfect as you could want them and my ovaries, tubes and womb is text book fantastic. Martins SA came back showing that his count was brilliant, his swimmers were strong, doing the right thing and plenty of them. There is no explanation as to why we can't get pregnant. By right, 2.5years of not using protection, we should be on our third child. Alas, we are not. 

We still can't do any treatment until I have the green light from the cardiologist. The specialist (who we love) was very apologetic and also angry FOR us that the appointments hadn't been made. She called and arranged all paper work to be faxed through while we were in the office with her, and gave us her office phone number with the instructions to call if we havne't had a cardio appointment within the next month so she can chase it up. She explained that there was no point in us waiting another 3 months just for another consultation, SO agreed that the next appointment can be done over the phone and she would immediately put us though to the next stage of treatment. Stimulated Intrauterine Insemination. (SIUI for short)

S IUI

S IUI, as we've explained it to our familys, is a bit like IVF, except they dont take the eggs out. I know as of my fellow IF-ers will know that is completely wrong, but I can't think of a better way to explain it. 

Stimulated IUI means that my hormones and cycles will be complete shut down using medication, and then started back up again using more medication. This will mean daily injections, tablets, blood tests and scans. Honest. I think that people assume that when you go through any sort of ART (assissted reproduction technique) you walk in, they put a baby inside, you leave. We wish. having read all the paper work only once, I can't remember all of this, but it's something like this....(I will put up a proper schedule when I have it infront of me)

Day 1 - 3 daily monitoring and scans to see how my 'baby oven' is doing. Taught how to use injectables and the way the tablets work. 

Leading up to ovulation - Drugs taken to slow down my own natural hormones, and fill me up with the rights ones to produce the best eggs! Scans every other day to see how my eggies are doing 

Around ovulation time - Scan and blood test to try and detect when my body will ovulate. Results will determine when I get to 'trigger; ovulation using injection. 

Once trigger injection given, hospital daily scans and tests to detect where those eggs are and what they're doing. When they are in the right place Martin will go into the Masturbatorium (not making it up) give us his swimmers, they will be washed, cleaned and inserted into a catherter. This catherter will then be inserted directly into the uterus where, shortening the distance needed to travel. 

Take daily progesterone to make perfect baby hotel for any future offspring and 14 days later go back to the hospital for a HPT. (as if I'm going to wait that long)

Chance of success - 20%. 

Thats not a typo, thats 20%. Which to ladies suffering from IF would understand is not bad for ART, for those lucky enough to look at a man and grow a child, this could be shocking. Most of my friends and damily wrongly assume IVF and IUI automatically mean you'll have a baby. Not true. All of that palava for 20%, and I get to do it 3 times. 

Bring. it. on!