Work has been CRAZY busy lately. I mean, I've been BUSY before at work - but never this CRAZY busy. The good part is that my workdays fly by. The bad thing is that I've been putting in a lot of long hours at night and for the past couple of weekends just trying to keep my head above water. I've been getting a lot done - but there's always so much more to do. The biggest project I'm working on goes live in May and then I have some others that are scheduled for April, May, and June. I'm kind of the go-to person for other smaller things - so all of those things take time as well. Just trying to balance everything so that nothing gets dropped - though I feel like I've been neglecting some of my smaller projects. Lucky for my company, we've been home the past couple of weekends - so I've been able to put in quite a few hours over the weekend. I'm going to talk to my manager about it during my one-on-one meeting with her on Friday - not sure what she can do about it, but we'll see.
Yesterday was Valentine's Day! We usually don't do gifts for Valentine's Day - but my Valentine surprised me with a gift yesterday morning. A few weeks back I was talking about how I didn't have a good place to keep my necklaces and earrings. And he was listening and got me a really nice jewelry box. So thoughtful - what a nice surprise! :) After I taught my class at the YMCA last night, I stopped by Giant Eagle and picked up a 4 pack of Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA beer and some snacks as his gift. We hung out in the basement and played a couple rounds of Rummikub! Valentine's day would've been pretty perfect - if I hadn't also gotten my period that day. It was a little late - so my hopes were kinda getting up that maybe something worked this time. But not so much. :( Lately I've been thinking about where we were a year ago. Kinda crazy to think that it's already been a year since we were dealing with the devastating news about my negative pregnancy test after our fresh IVF cycle. Sometimes it's still to believe it really didn't work. One of my neighbor friends knew we've been trying but didn't really know the details. So one night it came up in conversation and she was asking if we've done any testing. I told her that we are WAY past the testing phase and gave her the run-down....we've done the testing and tried clomid for awhile, did 2 rounds of artificial insemination, 1 surgery for me, 1 fresh IVF cycle, 1 frozen cycle, and a surgery for my hubby.
Since my hubby's surgery in August - we've just been giving it the ole college try, if you will. I did download an app on my phone that will track my cycles - so I've been logging them in there since December. I'm sure some ladies in my situation probably drop quite a bit of money on pregnancy tests - but I honestly can't remember the last time I took a home pregnancy test. With our fresh IVF cycle and FET cycle in 2011 I did the best blood tests, but I don't think I took any home pregnancy tests last year. And I haven't taken one this year either. Some months are more disappointing than others, but overall we've been keeping busy and keeping our spirits up.
You might be asking - so now, what? In January, I called the nurses at Dr. Williams office to see if maybe they'd give me a prescription of clomid to try to see if that would help. (I know we tried it back in 2010 and it didn't work - but after my hubby's surgery, part of me wonders if that's just the little boost we may need.) Dr. Williams agreed to give me the prescription but also wanted to do a couple blood tests (since it's been awhile since I did the initial test back in 2009). He ordered tests for thyroid and prolactin. The thyroid test is just to see if there is a thyroid issue that could be impacting conception. And prolactin is the "milk producing hormone" secreted by the pituitary gland. Elevated prolactin levels need to be reduced for successful conception to occur. I went to the LabCorp by my house and had the tests done at the end of January. (The office is so small and you can pretty much hear everything that goes on - so I heard two different ladies getting beta tests done in hopes that their numbers continued to go up. I hope that they got the test results they wanted!) The good news is that both my thyroid and prolactin levels were normal. Now that my period arrived yesterday (which is considered Day 1) - I will start taking clomid once a day tomorrow (Day 3) until Monday (Day 7). For a $9 prescription, it's worth a shot, right? :) Think happy clomid thoughts for us, okay? We're going to hope for the best and see what happens.
My sister and I have been doing really well at getting up and working out together in the mornings. We're making our way through P90X - we're in week 6 of 13. :) In addition to getting our workouts done in the morning (which is so nice to not have to worry about after work) - it's also some great sisterly bonding time. Even if one of us is a little grumpy or fiesty at the beginning of the workout - we're always laughing by the end of the workout. I've also been trying to watch what I've been eating. The combination of working out and eating right has really been working for me - I've already lost about 7 pounds since the beginning of the new year. My clothes are fitting better and I'm feeling great! My sister and I also booked our tickets to Guam for March - we're going there for our cousin's wedding. It's going to be a quick trip - it'll take us about 24 hours to ge there and then we'll be there for 3 days and then have the 24 hour trip home. The bride-to-be is our Japanese cousin, Kiyomi. She has made many trips to the US for big events in our lives - our high school graduations, my college graduation, and both of our weddings. We always said that we would go to her wedding and I'm so excited that we're really going! Only 3 weeks and 4 days until we leave!
Even if the skies get rough
I'm giving you all my love
I'm still looking up
Still looking up.
I won't give up on us (no I'm not giving up)
God knows I'm tough enough (I am tough, I am loved)
We've got a lot to learn (we're alive, we are loved)
God knows we're worth it (and we're worth it)