Tuesday, August 19, 2014

The Endless Summer

It's never really endless though, unless you are working hard on saving money for something you really, really want!  B and I have had an amazing summer thus far, and I am finally ready to get back on track with everything here.  I have thoroughly enjoyed my summer "off" this year, and feel confident in everything I (we) have accomplished.

School ended well, and we immediately left for our annual trip to HHI (that we have missed the last two years due to saving for IVF two summers ago and buying our house last summer- all in all, good reasons to miss vacation, but still sad for us!).  We had an amazing time with my parents and brother, SIL, and nephew.  It was well worth the two year wait, though we are hopeful we won't be missing vacation again in the future! After vacation, I went right back to work with Summer School- ESY.  I had a lovely summer working with my favorite people and children.  We had some wonderful visits with friends and family and even did some more work on the house! Our guest room and guest bathroom have been repainted (thanks for the help mom and dad!!), and we are having the furniture refinished for a more updated look.

So, onto the IVF front.  In July, I met with my doctor again, and we came up with a plan after an ultrasound revealed another cyst had formed on my right ovary.  Previously, the cyst on my right ovary led to laparoscopic surgery to remove it (back in 2008), so I have been pretty worried about that stupid cyst. The doctor wanted me to do Day 3 blood work and a saline sonogram somewhere between cycle day 5 and 15. So I had my blood work done last week, as well as my blood draw for the HIV test (relax, we get it done every time I have IVF, it's just a precaution). Then yesterday, my mom joined me for my saline ultrasound as moral support since last time the pain was pretty intense.  I won't get into the fun of a speculum, ultrasound wand, and catheter shooting water up your hooha, but it was a BLAST! The really cool part was watching everything on the computer screen, even mom was impressed!

The doctor declared my uterus looked perfect- finally some good news- and then took a look at my ovaries.  The cyst is still there, but is shrinking, so she is confident it will not cause any issues with starting IVF.  YAY!! I had a bunch of follicles on the right ovary, while the left side was chilling this week.  Under medication, the left side always seems to pop up for action, but on a normal basis, it is lazy as crap! All in all, the appointment went really well and we are very pleased with the outcome.

On another note, we have fully funded our account for the IVF portion.  B and I were so excited when the last payment from ESY came in and we were able to put the money in our IVF savings fund.  We still need to save up for the ICSI portion, which is another couple thousand, but it feels great to know that we are paying for everything completely out of pocket and not charging anything or creating more debt.  This is HUGE for us, and I am very proud of how hard we worked to make this happen.  So, hopefully, in a couple more months, we will be planning our next round of IVF and paying for it free and clear!

Thank you to everyone who has continued to follow this blog, even though I have been slack as my left ovary.  I am working on more posts, though many may not be about IVF because I truly do not want to be defined by this struggle.  There is so much more to me and my family than this journey, though this journey has been a huge part of our life.  I really appreciate the responses and even the comments about why I haven't updated!  I'm sorry, and I will do better! Have a lovely Tuesday and best wishes to everyone.