The Game Plan

If there are any boys reading, I'm going to go ahead and give you the option to stop reading right now, as the following may be a little too much information.

I had my first visit with my Reproductive Endocrinologist (what the general public would call a fertility doctor and what I will call the RE for the rest of this post), this past Monday. I've been debating all week on whether or not I really wanted to post this for all the world, (or all 40ish something people who actually read my blog), to read, but I do know that there are a few ladies who read who are going through some of the same things, and have emailed me questions in the past so I thought I'd go ahead and spill everything we talked about.

I know I mentioned a few months ago, here, that we were planning on starting Clo.mid in June, but once again I chickened out. Sort of. I had a couple of people email me about Fertilaid and people they knew that had success with it, so we decided to go that route for a few months figuring it couldn't hurt, and it seemed like a little less drastic step to start off with.

Well, unfortunately, the Fertilaid didn't work for me. I've read lots of success stories for it, and I'm glad we tried it, but no dice. Hence the visit to the RE Monday.

This visit was mainly to meet, go over my charts from my other doctors, (since I've had so many tests run already), and develop a game plan of sorts. I'm going to try and relate everything he said here, but I'm working mostly off my memory, which can be a little crazy at times, so please don't take what I say to be an authority on anything. Also, this is the plan for me that my RE developed for me, I'm sure there's no one-size-fits-all method that will help everyone, so it may differ a lot from what your doctor does/says.

Continuing on. RE says definitely have PCOS, (no big shock there). A lot of my blood tests reveal levels that are within the normal range, but they're at the super high end of normal. There are several characteristics of PCOS and RE said it's extremely rare that anyone ever meet all the criteria. So while my testosterone and blood sugar levels are technically normal, the fact that they're on the high side of normal in addition to the fact that I do not have regular menstrual cycles, (if at all), definitely puts me into the PCOS category.

The normal blood sugar and testosterone levels are the ones that have really been the reason that my OBGYNs have been reluctant to treat my PCOS by any other means accept to achieve pregnancy. When a woman has PCOS she is to a certain extent insulin resistant (some more so than others). Her body is producing insulin with the purpose of breaking down food and sugars properly, but the body isn't correctly using the insulin. Instead, the insulin is being turned into excess testosterone. The excess testosterone prohibits the body from ovulating, can cause acne and excess hair growth. Additionally, because sugars are not being broken down properly women with PCOS easily gain weight and have a very hard time losing weight.

To help combat the insulin resistance the best diet, (I'm using diet in terms of long-term lifestyle change, not a quick lose 10 lbs to fit in a dress way), for someone with PCOS is a diet low in carbohydrates and sugar since those are the hardest for the body to breakdown when the insulin is not working properly. RE said that in many ways people who are insulin resistant have to think a little backwards in terms of what they eat. For a normal person a big, thick steak would be more fattening and detrimental than a plate of pasta with a low-cal sauce or veggies. However, for a person with PCOS this is backwards because our bodies cannot properly process carbohydrates.

One treatment for PCOS is to take the drug Metformin/glucophage which was originally used as a diabetes medication. In women with PCOS Metformin can work to regulate their insulin levels and hopefully ultimately induce ovulation. I asked my OBGYN about Met.formin last year and she was reluctant to put me on it considering my blood sugar levels were so normal. The RE said that he is not considering Met.formin an option for me now because I have had not had any non medically assisted menstrual cycles in over a year. Met.formin can induce ovulation, but in most people in will not truly regulate ovulation. Meaning someone on Met.formin can go from having no menstrual cycles to several a year, but they may be hard to predict and seemingly erratic in their occurrence.

For that reason, we are bypassing the Met.formin and going straight to Clo.mid (clom.inphene citrate). Clo.mid is the most commonly prescribed fertility treatment. It has been around since the 1950's and is often the first round treatment for infertility caused by anovulation. It is usually taken for 5 days a few days after starting one's period. Thousands of families have been successful at getting pregnant through Clo.mid.

Because I do not have periods naturally, I have to first take Pro.vera (me.droxy.proges.terone) for 10 days to force my body to have a menstrual cycle. This is about 5th or 6th round of Pro.vera in the past few years, so I'm very familiar with it and not too fond of it. It typically makes me sick starting on about the 4th or 5th day, then super bloated and nauseous, then extremely hormonal and irrational, then I have a super period. Tons of fun let me tell you. I started the round of Provera Tuesday and haven't had any side effects yet, but I'm sure they're coming.

I take the Pro.vera for 10 days, and usually 2 days after that I start my period. The day I start my period I have to call the RE's office and let them know and they'll call in my prescription for Clo.mid and let me know when to start taking it. I think he said I would start the Clo.mid 5 days after I started my period.

This is where the details start to get a little fuzzy and I may have some things out of order, but I'm going to try and remember them correctly.

After the Clo.mid I have to go into the office and have an ultrasound done to see if I'm going to ovulate. If things look good I get a shot of estrogen and we have a 39 hour window of optimal baby-making time. Romantic, huh? I think there's something else I have to take in addition to the estro.gen also.

If the Clo.mid did not make me ovulate things really start to get fun. First I have to have a hysterosalpingogram, a procedure where they do an x-ray of my uterus and fallopian tubes after injecting dye through my cervix. This allows them to check the shape of my uterus as well as the condition of my tubes to make sure they're not blocked. If they find anything that doesn't look good during the HSG they'll move on and do laparoscopy. In this procedure they'll insert a narrow telescope in through my tummy and examine the reproductive organs. They'll be checking for endometriosis since I have a family history of it. After all that's done we get to start the Clo.mid process again, this time with double the dosage of Clo.mid. Sounds fun, huh?

So that's the status of my reproductive organs as it stands, and the game plan for the next few months. Right now I'm just really hoping and praying that the first round of Clo.mid is successful and I won't have to go through all the other tests. I'm pretty tired of tests. If you could, just say little prayer for us as we go through all of this. I say us because I'm sure with all the hormones that I'm going to be on in the next couple of weeks/months, Jonathan will surely need your prayers too.

Jennifer

The Chair

I mentioned at the end of my last post that I would have to tell y'all about the chair in the photo in front of the updated bookcases.


A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that we were on the lookout for a pair of new chairs in front of the bookcase and weren't having much luck. That's pretty much an understatement. I tried to count how many places we'd looked for new chairs, and lost count somewhere around 20 stores. Exhausting!

After looking so many places around town and on the internet for a new chair, I was beginning to think we were just going to have to wait a while, stockpile a little more money, and up our budget in a few months. Blah.

Last Monday my lovely husband suggested to take a look at Williams Sonoma Home.

Honestly, I did not feel like going. Don't get me wrong I absolutely LOVE Williams Sonoma Home. Probably a little too much. I feel like I could live in the store. Except that the majority of things in their are not even close to being in our budget. $128 for a throw pillow, no thank you!

So, while I love everything in there, it pretty much depresses me to go into the store and look at all the beautiful things that I can't afford. I'm not a fan of window shopping, if I can't buy anything, it's just not fun!

Well, wouldn't you know that we actually found the chair there!

It was a sample in the store and on clearance for 70%! It had been in a shelf in the store, and not really sat on, so it's in perfect condition, and we got it for less than $300! I was super excited!

Since it's a little larger than all the other chairs we were looking at putting in front of the bookcases, we decided to just go with one chair instead of a pair.

Ideally I would like to find a vintage/antique bar cart or tea cart to put beside the chair. I found one in an antique store in Denton a few weeks ago, and could just about kick myself now for not getting it then. I'm sure it's gone now. :(


Restoration Hardware has one and it's on clearance for 1/2 off, but I'd really rather have a vintage one if I can find it.

So, there you have it, the story of how we found the much-sought-after chair for in front of the bookcases. My husband is quick to rub it in my face that he's the one who suggested looking at WS Home, and I didn't want to go. Thanks honey, love you too. ;)


Since the chair is a little more formal feeling than most of the other ones we'd been looking at, we've decided not to do the seagrass wingback beside the fireplace, so we'll have to do some more chair shopping in a few months, but we've already decided exactly what we want so it won't be as much of a chore this time. Thank goodness!!

Jennifer

A Teeny, Tiny Change

I feel like I've showed you all our bookcases so many times you're probably bored to tears with them...but they got a little bit of a face-lift this week, so I'm going to show them again! This should be it for a while though, I don't think I could possibly cram another book into them, and I'm out of ideas on how to rearrange the books currently stuffed in them.

Plus with the current state of our living room, I have bigger fish to fry.

After we bought 54 books at the Friends of the Library sale a couple of weeks ago, our bookcases were looking a little too full and tired looking, not very pretty.


I'd been debating painting the back panel of the bookcases for a while, just to add a little interest and depth to them, (and our whole white/beige living room). Monday night, I was tired of looking at them and decided to just go for it. If the paint didn't look good it would be an easy fix to change back.

I decided to go ahead and use black because, truth be known, that's what I had at the house, and I'm a little lazy. I'm also sick to death of trying to make decisions on colors and patterns of fabric for everything else in our living room that this seemed like an easy fix that I wouldn't have to poll the nation to come up with a conclusive decision.

After a coat of black paint I decided to put the books back in arranged by color. I had them this way last year and I got a little tired of it, because I felt like it made my books look like they were only for decoration, which could not be further from the truth. But I think it looks really good with the black background.



What do you think? Yes? No? I'm absolutely crazy and it looks the exact same?

I don't know what's gotten into me, I usually love white, but first the black lampshades and now black bookcase backs, what's next? ;)

Jennifer

P.S. Yes, we did find a chair to go in front of the bookcases! That story will have to wait for another day though, right now I have to muster up the will-power to go back into the 102 degree heat (111 heat index) to go to Sam's for some groceries. Yuck. Also, that table and pillow in the chair are not staying there, the chair just looked lonely! ;)