Post-Op

I had my post-op from my hysteroscopy today. I have to say my biggest pet peeve about doctors offices is waiting forever for them to actually see you and you only see them for like 3 minutes. But, he said everything went good. There was one little area that was a tiny polyp so he took care of that but other then that, everything looked perfect.

He is such a nice doctor. He said after everything we've been through, he hopes this works for us and he has a good feeling it will be it. He looks forward to seeing me back in the office in a couple months for my first pregnant ob-gyn appointment. He also had a warning for Brett "the hormones from IVF will make you crazy. Make sure you tell your husband that and to be patient with you." I have told Brett that but he says when I wake up every morning, look at myself in the mirror and say "I will not be a crazy hormonal lady today". lol! I love my husband. He is such a dork.

Brett is in the field this week. He is on the range for the next two weeks after that and he *may* have to go to the field in August. I have to try and get a note from my doctors office stating when all our procedures will be so he can stay at the motorpool and work there. We'll see. I truly only need him for the egg retrieval day but would need someone to take me to and from embryo transfer and I'd like someone to be around when I'm on bed rest but I am sure my mom could come down if I needed her to. He may also have to be gone the whole month of October to Mojave Viper but we'll see. They don't really like to inform the guys ahead of time.

So, next step...Doctors appointment on August 10th and my first shot! I am a little nervous but so excited to move forward. I remind myself that in a little over a month, I WILL be pregnant!

Surgery done....next step, Lupron.

I had my hysterscopy yesterday. They did a surgical hysterscopy because of seeing polyps during my sonohysterogram. So we went in at 10:30 and filled out paperwork. I went back and put on that sexy gown then just laid around and waited. Brett came back at like 11 then at 11:30 I got wheeled back to the surgery room. I got anesthesia right away so obviously don't remember a thing. I woke up in the recovery room and I remember the Dr. mentioning not finding any polyps. I was half out of it though so a little while later I asked the nurse if I remembered it correctly. She said yes, they stood there and looked at the screen and didn't see anything. So, pretty much I went through all of that for no reason and we could have done IVF a couple months ago but, everything happens for a reason.

At like 1:30, I was able to come home. Brett made my lunch then I took a long nap. I kept feeling dizzy when I stood up and had cramps. But, we went to bed early and Brett took great care of me. I woke up this morning with some bad cramps... just feels like bad menstrual cramps.

I have a post-op Thursday then on the 10th of August I go in for my first appointment for IVF and start my first injection. Yay for moving forward!

Bucket List

My sister's recently made bucket lists so I thought I would be a follower and do the same thing. So here it goes:

1. Fulfill our dream of having four children.

2. Own our house home with a nice backyard and maybe even a pool.

3. Go on a girls trip with my mom and sisters (and nieces).

4. Getting a matching tattoo with Brett (no, not our names or anything... just a something to symbolize our love)

5. Go on a cruise with Brett

6. Run another half marathon.

7. Reach my goal weight.

8. Visit Australia

9. Learn to play the piano

10. Learn to be a truly good cook.

11. Learn to surf

12. Go to New York City.

13. Go around L.A. or Hollywood until I meet someone famous.

14. Ride in a hot air balloon.

15. Visit all 50 states.

16. Volunteer at a women's shelter.

17. Be a stay at home mom.

18. Start learning American Sign Language again

19. Go the shooting range and learn to shoot

20. Learn to play poker

21. Ride on a sail boat in the ocean (not like grandpa's sail boat on Kenai Lake :)

22. Go tent camping.

23. Spend the rest of my life with my husband.

24. Go to an NHL game because I know Brett would love it.

25. Make scrapbooks for above mentioned children.

26. Learn to ride a motorcycle and maybe even get my license someday.

27. Scuba dive

28. Have fruit trees in our above mentioned dream backyard

29. Also have a garden in the above mentioned dream backyard

30. Go to Washington D.C. and visit all the museums and monuments.

31. Go to Maui with Brett.

32. Have a huge slumber party with my nieces where we can camp out on the living room floor, watch movies, eat junk food and just have fun together.

33. Take a chunk of money and donate it to women who don't have medical coverage but cannot conceive children on their own.

34. Volunteer on my future children's school and be an active member of the PTA.

35. Learn to paint a picture that is nice enough to hang in my house

36. Work in the nursery or with the children at church.

37. Visit Hoonah in the summer time and go fishing (and actually catch something)

38. Go to Eagle, Alaska and show Brett where I use to spend a lot of my time growing up.

39. Learn to snowboard

40. Take our future children to Alaska for the summer to explore, go to the cabin and see where we grew up.

41. Learn to wakeboard

42. Take dancing lessons with Brett

43. Ride a mechanical bull

44. Go white water rafting

45. Visit the Grand Canyon

46. Tour France

47. Be able to save enough money for our children to go to college with no worry financially.

48. Visit Sam in San Fran and see the Golden Gate Bridge

49. Go to Pike's Market in Seattle

50. Go to Hong Kong with Brett since I didn't take the opportunity while we were dating.

51. Go on a vacation to the Caribbean .

52. Learn to play pool

53. Rent a cottage on the beach for the week.

54. Learn to sew and eventually learn to sew things that are useful.

55. Make a picture quilt for each of my children.

56. Do volunteer work with wounded vets.

57. Go to the Ellen Degeneras show during her 12 days of Christmas giveaway

58. Make a difference in at least one person's life.

59. Join the big brother, big sister program.

60. Spend the weekend at a 5 star spa and get VIP treatment

61. Sleep in a castle

62. Go on the honeymoon Brett and I never had.

63. Move close enough to family that our children can be raised around their cousins.

64. Swim with dolphins

65. Have a lake house.

66. Remodel a home to make it exactly what we want.

67. Have a peony bush in our yard

68. Go to Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.

69. Go to Time Square for New Year's.

70. Ride on the back of an elephant.

71. Go on a long road trip with Brett with no destination in mind... just to explore

72. Learn spanish

73. Give a heartfelt surprise to someone I love.

74. See the Northern Lights.

75. Host Christmas dinner at my house.

76. Learn to make an amazing Thanksgiving dinner.

77. Buy a motor home and take our children on summer vacations to various parts of the United States.

78. Visit the Redwood Forrest.

79. Fly a kite at the beach.

80. Go on a picnic

81. Ride in a helicopter

82. Become debt free.

83. Go to Pink's all out with Brett.

84. Do a trash my dress session at the beach.

85. Learn to fold fitted sheets, perfect. Now, I roll it in a ball because it never folds right.

That's it for now. I'll add more later...

Just getting thoughts out.

Just wanted to get my feelings down, not much of an update. I have surgery on Thursday, pre-op on Monday. I have to get an appointment letter from my doctor stating I am having surgery otherwise they won't let Brett off to take me Thursday. A little ridiculous but such as life in the Marine Corps.

We are both getting pretty excited. I used an IVF due date calculator (you calculator it different then if it were a normal cycle) and if we do everything has planned, I'd be due at the end of May. May seems like a good month to me. My birthday, Mother's Day and our anniversary are all in the May.

Brett made me smile earlier this week (well, more then once but one thing in particular made me smile). He is part of a forum for Trailblazer SS's where they talk about their SS's and everyday life stuff. So he told me he started a forum about IVF and other guys responded they had done it or were in the process of doing it. I'm not sure why but it just thought it was cute that he was sharing things with them. I think it's a good outlet for him to talk about it. I know all the guys at his work know about it and it shows me he is excited. He said, well you post on a forum about it, what is so different for me to post on a forum about it? I just love that guy. I know he is going to be the type who is so excited, he brings every ultrasound picture and gives every update to his co-workers. That's why I love him so much. He has such a passion to be a dad and I know he is going to be an awesome dad.

I've started getting things ready somewhat. Well, as ready as you can get things. They said you have to wear warm socks to embryo transfer and if you know me, you know I hate socks. I rarely, rarely ever wear socks. In fact, when I was living back home during Brett's deployment, my mom bought me socks because I kept taking her's when I would go to the gym because I didn't pack a single pair of socks to move up there. Anyways, I bought a pair of really warm, cozy socks. They are actually the same type of socks my mother in law wears all the time and I know she loves them. I also bought myself a pair of loose sweat pants. We have to go out and buy a heating pad this week for my surgery because I guess you get bad cramps following the surgery. Also they said it's good to use before doing the progesterone in oil shot in your rear (like your butt cheek). Aww, the joys of IVF!

I pray every day that this works. We are freezing embryos so we can do a frozen embryo cycle but it wouldn't happen anytime soon because of finances. They've told us they give us a 79% chance. He said we are ideal candidates. But I know other women have heard that and had to do multiple cycles. I am confident in our clinic and their abilities. They have great success rates and are very thorough. We never thought we would have to go this far to have a baby. Both of us have always dreamed of having a family and thought it'd just happen. That wasn't the case but we are glad we found this clinic because they've made us feel like family and are very supportive. It's like they are rooting for you too, not just doing their job.

Calendar!

We got our calendar today from our IVF coordinator. To say the least, I am very excited. It's nice to have dates written down, even if it's tentatively. I am so ready to start this and be pregnant!! We are just so ready to move forward and have our family. Lately, Brett has been talking about "our kids". I keep saying, what kids? Our imaginary kids? He said our soon in the future kids. I know he is so excited and if you know Brett, he doesn't show his excitement.

I attempted to copy my calendar onto here but it didn't work out so well so here is a rough idea:

8/10 - Start Lupron (7-9am)

8/14 - Last day of Birth Control

8/19- SE2 Appointment (ultrasound, blood draw, and medication teaching)

8/20 - If all looks well with labs, start Menopur (7-9am) and Follistim (7-9pm)

8/22 - 8/24 - Appointments for E2

8/25- 8/29 - Appointments for E2 and Ultrasounds

8/29 - Tentative HCG

8/31 - Tentative Retreival

9/1 - Start Progerstrone and Estrace, Medrol and Doxcycline.

9/3 - Tentative 3 day transfer (and 48 hours of bedrest)

9/5 - Tentative 5 day transfer (and 48 hours of bedrst). Our goal is to make it to day 5 transfer.

9/9 - Appointment for D9P4

9/16 - Pregnancy Test (now, I am going to consider this a sign. 9/16 is my mother in-law's birthday and to call and tell her I am pregnant would be the best present.)

So, that's about it in a nutshell. The next 2 months are going to be a little crazy for us with my surgery, Brett is going to the field and IVF but we know the outcome will be great.

Surgery finally scheduled!

After a month of waiting to hear back from the surgery coordinator, I finally was able to schedule my surgery today. It's July 22nd at 11:30 am. I have pre-op on the 19th and post-op on the 29th. Hopefully this means I will start my meds the second week of August. I emailed my IVF coordinator so I am waiting to hear back as to when we will get to move forward. This whole waiting thing is driving me crazy...even though it's such a short amount of time compared to the 3 years we have been trying to get pregnant.

In other news, we had such a great 4th of July! We went to a car show with fireworks and a parade. A kind gentleman gave us tickets to a suite with free food and drinks and an amazing view of the fireworks show. Plus, it was air conditioned! We had so much fun and it was so nice to see how much the people around us support their troops. I was amazed during the opening ceremony when the Mayor of Fontana came out and said a prayer for our troops! I mean, we are in California...I didn't know they prayed at events. It really touched my heart until it was ruined when 2 14 year old girls in our suite talked the entire prayer. I told Brett it made me so sad to see these girls lack of respect. It makes me happy to know that I was raised to respect God and prayer to know that you do not talk during prayer. Brett got upset when they asked for a moment of silence during the passing of the colors (flags) and the ladies in our suite kept talking. Maybe it's just us, but we take that stuff seriously. But all in the all, it was a great day!

Brett is part of a paintball team for his battalion that is in a tournament right now. He is very proud that they are in first place and completely kickin' butt. He has some more games this weekend and if they win, they get money for the Marine Corps ball in November. Which will be our first ball and I am VERY excited to get all dolled up!