Let's Catch Up

Sorry, I am really bad about keeping up with blogging.  I guess I would blog more if I actually had anything to report.  A lot has happened since I have last written on here.  So let me catch you up with everything that is going on.

I think it was almost 2 months ago when we went to our IVF doctor.  We were finally going to get the results from all the blood work I had done in July.  After a very long wait and I mean LONG WAIT our doctor came in and went over everything.  My FSH levels are not where they need to be but they aren't super low that we need to be concerned with at this point.  My levels read at a 10.6 at the moment I can not find the average FSH level for a "normal" 30 yr ord female.  I was able to find it like 2 months ago when we left the doctors office but today I can't.  For those of you who don't speak fertility FSH stands for follicle stimulating hormone.  FSH is a hormone produced by the pituitary gland.  FSH levels tells my body to produce eggs for ovulation.  At this time I was also suffering pretty bad back pain that I thought might be because of my endometriosis coming back.  At this point it had been a year since I had my last surgery to remove my cysts and endometriosis.  I had hear of people who have to continue to have to have surgeries to stay on top of the growth.  So we asked our doctor about his thoughts on having another surgery to stay on top of everything and his suggestion is that I should not have any more surgeries and in fact get pregnant as soon as we can.  He is very concerned that if I have any more surgeries it might hurt my chances of getting pregnant with IVF.  My last surgery where Dr. Swanson removed the last bit of my cyst there was quite a bit of scar tissue on my right ovary and he believes if I have another surgery it could do harm to that ovary.

I am going to take a break from this doctor visit and explain some other news.  Preston has decided to get out of the Navy.  He has been contemplating this move for quite some time now.  After many talks of the pros and cons of getting out we decided that it would be the best for both of us.  I can finally pursue a career and start making some money at a non dead end job and he could use all the skills he learned in the Navy and do the same.  With that being said we had to make a decision about IVF.  Our doctor said we could do IVF in January but all 3 of us decided that would be a horrible idea.  I would literally be getting the treatment done the week we moved.  There is no way I would be calm and relaxed for this.  When we do IVF I need to be completely STRESS FREE.  If you know me you are probably laughing right now.  Kate stress free??? HA HA HA!  But for real to be stress free and relaxed as we drive across country and start all over again is not in the cards.  This does make me sad that we are putting our family on hold yet again but I believe it is for the best.  I need to get out of the valley with its horribly water and air.  So our doctor said to call him once we know where we are moving to and he will help us find a new doctor.

As of today we are not 100% sure where we will be moving to.  Preston went to a job fair last week with a head hunter company and has gotten a lot positive responses from everyone he interviewed with.  Hopefully tomorrow or Tuesday we will know more.  We will be moving at the end of January.  Even though it will be winter when we move which is not the ideal time to move cross country it is for us.  A lot of friends are either getting out or transferring stations at that time.

One thing I am really struggling with here lately is the holidays.  It's always hard to be away from family at this time but this year I am having an even harder time.  I think its because its another year without children.  I really thought that we would have a baby or be pregnant this year.  It is getting harder and harder every year not being able to start traditions with our children.  Or seeing everyone posting pictures of kids with santa or decorating their house.  I haven't even decorated for any holidays this year.  We didn't even carve pumpkins for Halloween and if you know us we absolutely love Halloween.  Christmas is a close 2nd for me and that comes from my mother and her love of decorating the whole house.  Christmas music instantly makes me in a bad mood.  I've been called a grinch at work all month but it's just so hard to get in the spirit.  I just told my mom yesterday day that I haven't even put up a Christmas tree this year.  So to everyone that has had to deal with my bad mood I am sorry but its just hard this year.  The holidays are almost over and I will go back to normal soon.

I'll try my best to not lack in my updates.

-Kate

HSG test

Well my projected timeline of getting my HSG test done was surprisingly faster than I thought. I called the OBGYN clinic when I was 10 days out from my cycle starting and magically they were able to book my appointment. I honestly thought that this was going to be a battle.

On the 26th of September I had my procecure done. By no means was it a pleasent procedure or smooth day. I decided to not take time off from work to get the test done. My thoughts were since I wasn't going to be on any pain medication I should be fine. Boy was I wrong!

My day at the clinic started at 8am to take a pregnancy test. Then I had to come back an hour later for the procedure. I met Preston in the hall of the hospital and we both walked down to radiology to check in. As I am checking in the front desk tells me that they are pretty sure the HSG test was never ordered. They ask me to sit down and wait and they will double check. Big tears start to form in my eyes and I start getting upset and I begin to tell Preston that if I have to reschedule for next month I'm going to loose it. After 30 minutes they were able to scramble everything together to make sure that I was able to get my test done. I thanked the corpsman for being able to do this for me.

Once I was in my awesome gown and finally in the room I had an awkward moment with a female corpsman. We were both waiting for the doctor to get there. So I made the mistake of making eye contact with her. She then smiles and then asks "so your trying to become pregnant?" (Insert awkward laugh)   My response: "yes."  Corpsman: "oh I have two children." (Insert awkward laugh)  From that point on I avoided eye contact until the doctor came in.

Once my doctor arrived he informed me that we are going to have to get creative. Reason being there were no leg stirrups. So he had me lay down on my back and put my legs like I am doing the butterfly stretch. At one point he was trying to get me to have my knees touch the table and tells me to lay like I'm at the beach. My reply was I don't ever lay like this at the beach. By now my legs are bouncing because one I never lay like this and two I'm a ball of nerves.

I won't go into more details about what happed because thats a tad bit too much. But what I will say is if you are going to have this procedure done I highly recommend speaking to your doctor about some pain medication epically if you don't have a high pain tolerance. If you want to know all the details about the procedure feel free to google it. (http://www.advancedfertility.com/hsg.htm)

I tried my best to not cry or let anyone know I was in pain. But at one point it was too much and I yelled and I also yelled a few curse words. Hands down that has been the worst thing I've had to endure through the past 4 years. The sad thing is I've had it done 2 other times. In my defense the 1st time I was on pain meds and the  2nd time I was knocked out because they did it during one of my surgeries.

Fast forward one week and I had to call the clinics Lt nonstop all morning to get her to pick up the phone. After the 11th attempt I was able to speak with her. I asked her to read me my results from the test. Everything came back normal.

-Kate

Jumping through the hoops yet again

As promised here is my update from the past two weeks of doctor visits and phone calls. As much as I wish I could say that things went smoothly they of course didn't. I swear everything I do always has to be difficult. Even in my everyday tasks I somehow make things more difficult than they need to be. Must be my theme in life lol.

Back to my visit to the base clinic. I was given the new navy doctor to the clinic. I swore they were messing with me because his name is Talc and my last provider was Ta. So at first I heard Ta and not Talc and I was pretty confused until they said his name again.  His last duty stat was in VA and he worked witn a lot of infertility patients there so that made me feel a lot better having him as a doctor. We jumped right into where we were currently with our journey and gave a super quick summary of all the medications, surgeries,  tests, and procedures I've done in the past 4 yrs. I explained why I needed the HSG test done again and why I needed it done by the base.  He agreed that it was a great idea to get it done for free instead of paying $350 out of pocket.

In the same breath he suggested we contact San Diego to see if I could get into their fertility clinic for the simple reason of how much money we would save. We explained that last year we were told that they weren't seeing dependents patients at that time. He suggested that we try again. Preston and I instantly began to get excited that maybe something good was going to happen to us. The doctor gave us the phone number and Preston planned on calling as soon as we left.

The next step was for me to call back to the base clinic when my cycle started so we could schedule my HSG test. Which at that point was going to be in a few days. Surprise surprise I started 2 days early and it was after hours on Friday. So I called on Monday morning and I was told they would call me back after checking my doctors schedule and radiologists schedule. On Tuesday afternoon I received a call asking if I was on day 5 of my cycle which I was.  Can you guess what day of my cycle this test needs to be on??? You guessed it day 5! So this month is shot and after giving them a prediction of my next day 5 cycle my doctor will be in surgery that day. And apparently it won't matter what day cycle day 5 lands on he will be busy. So my suggestion was to send me out to Fresno to the place I did my 1st HSG test done. Nope not a choice because the clinic is able to do it in house.

So I am frustrated because yet again I am going to have to wait for them to have a free schedule. Which at this point won't be until at least October. And let's face it they are going to find something that will need to be fixed and that will push back the possibility of IVF. And if we don't do IVF soon we might not be able to do it until next year. Preston's command is getting ready for work ups for their big deployment next summer. So the more we put things off the less likely we are to be able to try for a family any time soon. If I haven't mentioned that I am freaked out by my age and trying to have children. So if we have to wait till his work ups and 10 month deployment I will be 32 and during in the mix of all that we will hopefully be at a new duty station which means finding a new base doctor and then a new fertility clinic doctor as well. So there could very well be another birthday in between that time which means I would be 33. I know people have babies in their 30's but I didn't want my 1st to be that late in life because I know of all the risks that come with having children once you hit your mid 30's.

Okay enough of my ramblings about my weird obsession with numbers. I just wish I was done jumping through the hoops. I think 4 yrs of heartbreak is enough. On a side note I feel beyond blessed that our families and friends have donated $800 so far!! I am shocked each time I receive an email giving me an update when we get a donation. Our page has been shared 63 times also. Every time we get a donation I feel like a weight is being lifted off my shoulders. Thank you to everyone who have donated and have shared our story.

My plan is to contact the clinic tomorrow to see what they have came up with for a solution in order for me to be able to get an HSG done. Fingers crossed they actually pick up the phone and we don't have to play phone tag.


-Kate

My mission

I don't really have any big updates that I need to blog about. Right now we are continuing the process for the foster to adopt program. We have taken 3 out of the 9 classes we need for the foster pride program. So currently every Tuesday evening we spend 3hrs learning how to be a foster parent.   Mostly the classes are a crash course on child development and how to understand diversity.  For me it has been a refresher from all my education classes I took in college.

As for my ivf process I have gotten my blood work done that they requested. With this blood they are going to be able to see if my right ovary is still functioning. My next step is another hsg test to see if I healed properly from my septum surgery last fall. I am trying to save us $350 by getting it done on base. So I am jumping through the hoops and being patient. I have an appointment next week with one of the providers in the OB clinic.

Preston and I are considering using a website called Go Fund Me. If you haven't heard of the site it is essentially an online fundraiser. In the 4 yrs we have been on this journey we often get asked "How can we help"?  When Preston first brought up the idea of using this page I immediately shot him down. My fear is that people will view this like we are asking for a handout. I always worry about what others think even though I know I shouldn't.

One of the things that is pushing me to go ahead with the site is that I will be able share our journey. When I first started blogging it was a good outlet for me to express my feelings. I have been slightly selective on who was able to read this blog. At first I announced on Facebook that I started a blog and if you wanted to read it you needed to private message me. Then I would again announce that there were updates. And as of recently I have been blogging and not announcing about updates for privacy reasons. If we were to share our story on that site I would attach a link to this blog. My new goal is to educate people how common infertility really is. I cannot tell you how many of my friends have messaged me and shared with me about their infertility struggles. I want to inspire others to share their stories and have a voice. I find it crazy that 90% of insurance companies don't offer any coverage for infertility. Or that 1 in 8 couples are suffering with infertility. No matter what the outcome of our story is I will never forget how empty and incompetent I feel each month.

So if we do end up going public with everything I encourage you to share the page. Even if somehow you stumbled upon the site or my blog please share it. No one should feel like they are the only ones dealing with this.

Okay enough of my ramblings.

-Kate

What next?

Well its has been a few months since I've written an update. It partly had to do with the fact that I have been trying to keep things private and it also had to do with the fact I forgot what Preston's password was on here.  Honestly there really hasn't been anything worth blogging about.

I have completed 3 iui cycles which have not been successful at all. I was going to do a 4th cycle but my left ovary was loaded with cysts and I was put back onto birth control to help shrink them. On the visit I found out about the cysts it started off on a weird note. I was simply going in for a baseline scan to get approved to take my meds for the 4th cycle. Since it was a simple scan I told Preston he didn't have to go. I was greeted by the receptionist who I'm fairly certain things I am crazy with a "our policy has changed for scans and you will need to pay $100 upfront. Will this be a problem?"  I am dumbfounded that such a policy wasn't mailed to me or I wasn't given a phone call to let me know before I came in. So I pull out my credit card to find out they only take cash or checks. Really?!?! Who carries $100 in cash around with them? Clearly not this girl!  So I just had a gut feeling that this visit wasn't going to go well. Sure enough our favorite nurse was not working that day and it was the nurse who has no bedside manner. Long story short after finding out about the massive amount of cysts and having to go back on BC I ask why nothing is working for me. She looks at my chart and looks blankly back at me and tells me that I should be pregnant by now. Cue the water works from me. With no emotion hands me a tissue.

A few weeks later we met with doctor Swanson to go over everything since January. He agrees that I should be pregnant by now also. We find out that he will be referring us out to an ivf fertility specialist and good friend of his. He also orders a blood test to check my thyroid and my prolactin levels. Both of those tests came back normal.

We both have came to the agreement that we should consider adoption. Well to adopt a infant from a non profit agency out in California starts off at $25,000. For those of you who have seen the movie Juno I call bullshit because there is not such a thing of some teen who can't take care of her infant and just wants to give her baby up to a loving couple for free. So adoption is out of the question. We started working with the county but you have to foster to adopt. Which means you will get a poor baby who is drug exposed and hope that the family doesn't get their stuff in order so you can have a chance to adopt their baby.

Today we went to our 1st ivf appointment in Clovis. The facility was beautiful and the staff were very kind. Right off the bat I knew we were in trouble because they did not accept our insurance. I knew TriCare didn't cover ivf treatments but I didn't know they won't even cover office visits. Just for our consult today it was $130 and if we do ivf I will have to be seen any where from 5-7 times a month. Our new doctor was kind and spoke to us about what further testing he wants us to get done and how ivf works. I need to get another blood test done to see if my endometriosis surgries have done any damage to my right ovary. Our doctor seems to be concerned that during the surgeries my right ovary may have had been damaged. The 2nd test I need to get done is yet another hsg test. This will be the 3rd time getting this test done. He wants to make sure my septum healed correctly.

Here is when our day went from being optimistic to feeling defeated. In order to do ivf we will need to have either $15,000 or take out a loan for $15,000. We both know neither of those options will happen. I don't want to be in horrible debt and have a child or twins and not be able to provide for them like we should.

We are both mentally and physically drained from this whole process. It has been 4 yrs ans I feel like we haven't progressed at all. We have been very short with each other today and I had to leave work early because I snapped at a patron and didn't even realize it. My other co manager told me to take it down a notch and at that moment I asked if I could leave early. I know this is a very negative post but its so hard to stay positive anymore. We need something good to happen to us for once! We are constantly fignting this battle and I know it has made us stronger and more educated about infertility but we need a break!

With all that being said we are completely lost and have no idea what direction we will go with. Maybe we will walk away from all of it and learn to be a family of two and love our fur baby even more than we already do.

-

No IUI this month

I feel like the months are starting to blend together. As Preston and I sat talking on our drive up to Fresno yesterday we couldn't believe how fast the months have been going by. We couldn't remember if the last time we saw our doctor was in December or January. Normally this would be a good thing if you are looking forward to something. But in our case I feel like its a bad thing. The further and further we go on this infertility journey it is hard to stay positive that something good is going to come out of all this heartbreak and stess.

With this being said we have decided to seek held from a therapist. I will be calling one today so we can start this process. We need help with coping when we see babies or announcements of pregnancies. Like I said in the past I am genuinely happy for everyone but deep down inside I die each time and reminds me that we are no where close to even having that.  I think what a lot of people who haven't struggled with infertility don't understand how deep the pain really is for us.  We want things to be as normal as possible. This is why we have started to become more private about everything. This is just a place for me to express my feelings and helps relief stress as well. We want to be a normal couple who gets to surprise our famlies when we are pregnant and see the pure excitement on their faces. We want to make one of those cute announments you see on Pinterest.  We aren't becoming more private because we are being selfish or mean. We just wish everything was normal for us.

Okay enough on that rant. This month was pretty depressing. We ended up not doing iui because my follicle isn't really growing very much. The doctor would like us to have one that is in a 18-20 range. This month on my 1st scan I had a 16 on my left ovary and a 1 inch cyst on my right ovary. Both not very good stuff for trying to get pregnant. So we did a scan on Monday which was CD 11 for me and I was to come back on Wednesday for another scan on CD 13. Well I tested postive for an ovulation surge on Tuesday. My crazy self called the doctors office Tuesday afternoon after 2 tests to make sure I was seeing what I was really seeing. Left a message for the nurse to call me back. I never got a call. So we drove all the way to Fresno the next morning to see what we should do. I called the minute they opened and told them no one called me back only to find out that they did and left me a voice mail. So now I was the crazy lady calling. They were able to squeeze me in for a quick scan. We weren't sure if we wanted to do the iui if my follicle didn't grow much more. The scan showed that my cyst started to shrink on its own. But my follicle only grew 1 more mm. We decided that it was a waste of money to try this time.

So next month we will try the same game plan because I will not be able to come in on CD 1 or 2 to check on my cyst. They want to make sure it goes away. Then the following month( in June) if the iui doesn't work we will take all the letrozole on CD 3 because there has been some research that it really helps boost follicle growth.

That is all I have for now.

-Kate

Quick update

Sorry I've been quiet the last few months but we have decided it is easier to not talk about things lately. This whole experiance has been so excruciatingly painful and sometimes it's hard to write about or even having to talk about it a million times. So for now if I get the urge to blog I will but I will not be posting an update on to Facebook. So if you are reading this you are a smart cookie or a great stalker.

As of today we have completed 2 rounds of unsuccessful iui. Although I don't know if you can count roun 1 or not considering how small my follicle was and my cycle was super crazy. I'll get into that later.

 I have decided that we will give iui 2 more tries before I throw in the towel. After that I don't know what our next step will be. But whatever we choose please respect our choice. One thing I cannot and will not stand for are for others opinions. You have not been in our shoes and have no idea of the pain we have experienced in the past 3 plus years. We don't want to hear about a friends friend who was dealing with a similar situation and after they stopped trying they became pregnant.  Yes I still have people who say these things to me. I think this is why I don't want to be so open about our infertility journey any more.

So round 1 I was on 2.5mg of letrozole and I was able to produce a 15 mm follicle. I was told to go home and test for ovulation and if I ovulate before our next appointment I should call. Well much to our surprise I was ovulating that day. So we had to come back the next day to do iui. During a very long 2 week wait my cycle started 4 days early. I didn't cry I was just pissed that I was early.

Round 2 I was prescribed 5 mg of letrozole which proved to work much better because I produced a 17 mm follicle. I made sure I was testing before my appointment and I hadn't ovulated yet so at 6 PM that evening Preston had to give me hsg shot in my stomach. Well at 6PM I am at work so we got to do that in my break room. Well that took a whole 20 minutes for me to work up the courage to allow Preston to give me the shot. My coworkers reaction to seeing my husband holding a needle and me panicking was not the best. I had to give them a quick answer that I'm not on drugs and this was for iui. I had quite audience and people offering to give me the shot or to hold my hand. I really don't need to get into more detail about round 2 because as I stated already it was unsuccessful.  I was devastated when I took a pregnancy test. I cried in the shower and on the way to work.

I know it's important to stay positive or to envision our lives with a child. I really don't want to give iui another 2 tries because every time I die a little inside when it doesn't work. It's one of the worst feelings ever. I am beyond empty and numb. I am ready to start seeing a therapist because I know deep down inside that we won't be parents. I am going to need a lot of help in order to cope with this reality and help me from the depression I will have. I hope I can shake this mood I've been in and get back to being positive.

-Kate

A minor detour

Thought I would give you and update on our doctor visit from yesterday.  Well you can add not producing follicles to my list of reasons why we haven't become pregnant yet!  At this point its almost humorous what my body is or isn't doing to allow us to start a family.  It wasn't a big blow this time when we were told here is another hoop you are going to have to jump through.  I didn't cry or deem yesterday as a bad day.  I just think I have the expectation that there will be something wrong ( I know, I know that isn't me trying to be positive but its the truth!) at each doctor visit.

I guess I should explain what all went down at this visit.  I had a scan done again on both of my ovaries and uterus.  My uterus looked great and my walls were thick and healthy.  My ovaries didn't have any cysts or abnormal growths on them which was great to hear.  But the one thing that was missing was the growth of my follicles.  I guess I had two follicles that she saw last Friday and was hoping to see some improvement in them by Monday.  Sadly they hadn't changed at all.

So our new game plan is to start taking some fertility meds to see if I can get my body to stimulate proper follicle growth.  I am being put on the lowest dosage with the thought of my history of cysts.  I don't have the name of the medication in front of me at the moment but next month when I start taking it I will write about it for you all.  I didn't have any luck with Clomid so they aren't making me take that again.  I will be getting scans this time to make sure I am not developing cysts!!

Here is our game plan for next month:

-Start medication in hopes that it stimulates follicle growth
-On day 11 get a scan to see if there are any changes from last month
-If day 11 doesn't look good I will come back in on day 13 for a scan
-If I have great follicle growth then we will start the IUI process this month (as in February)
-If there is no change in follicle growth from last month (January) then we will up the dosage as long as there are no signs of cyst growth
-Start the same process over in March

We will do this cycle for 3 months.  We did not discuss what the next step would be if we didn't achieve anything during those months.  I am hoping that we wont need to discuss that at all.  This month is pretty much a waste but our tech told us we can still try to time our intercourse if we want.  But it is very unlikely for us to become pregnant this month according to my scans. That is all the info I have for now so like always I will keep you all up to date with my posts.

-Kate

The Follicle Search

So we had our doctor visit on Friday and we did our scan on my ovaries and uterus.  Unfortunately there was nothing to see during the scan.  We knew that there might be a chance of this because of the day of my cycle I was on.  I needed the scan on day 9 or 10 and of course on Friday it was day 8 of my cycle.  With this in mind we scheduled a 2nd appointment for Monday just incase the tech couldn't see what they were looking for.

Which leads to the question: What are they looking for during these scans??  The tech and doctor are looking for follicle growth.  When I think follicle I think hair and so I was envisioning a hair or line in or around my fallopian tube.  Yeah not so much!  I still don't really understand what I am looking for (thank goodness the tech does!) even after googling ultrasound pictures.  Here is a link that explains what follicle growth is and why its important. http://www.advancedfertility.com/anovulat.htm
I need to add that on this site it talks about PCOS and I DO NOT have that! It just shows the difference between what it looks like when you have healthy follicle growth and what it looks like when it does not happen.

At this point we do not know if I am having any issues with my follicle growth or not.  Dr. Swanson just wants to cross that off the list of reasons why we still haven't become pregnant yet.  But if that is the issue he can prescribe some medication to help with developing better follicle growth.

Best case scenario for Monday is they see follicle growth and its proper length they will prescribe a trigger shot for me to pick up at the pharmacy.  Depending on the scan I will be instructed to take the shot either on Monday or Tuesday.  I will have to give myself a shot in my belly (not too pumped for this one!).  The point of the trigger shot is to allow me to ovulate earlier or on time.  Why is time such a big deal?  Well Preston leaves for Key West for two weeks right around the time that I will ovulate.  And there is no sense in wasting this month if things are looking up for us.  Here is some more info on what a trigger shot is:http://www.justmommies.com/getting-pregnant/fertility-medications-and-natural-supplements/hcg-trigger-shot

I will update you all again next week what happened at our visit on Monday.

-Kate

Keeping Positive!

We had our doctor visit yesterday and it wasn't a bad visit but it wasn't an outstanding visit either.  I was going in with the thought that we could get the ball rolling for IUI.  Preston and I are both very frustrated and ready for a break.  I have all my info gathered for the appointment and pictures taken of all medications we have at the house for IUI (we have the medicine at our house from when we thought we were going to start IUI last spring).  I figured it would be helpful with our appointment if I was able to tell and show him the meds we already have.

So when I started giving out the info about the cycles since I have had since last time we saw Dr. Swanson.  He was very concerned that my cycles have been out of whack.  The 1st cycle after my surgery was 1 week early because of the medication I was on right after the surgery.  Then cycle number 2 was 22 days long.  And cycle number 3 was 28 days and we are still not sure what this cycle holds for us.  He wants to make sure everything is working correctly and there isn't another underlying issue that we have not seen until now.  So we hare currently having a waiting game right now to see if and when my cycle will start.  Right now it is looking like I will be having a regular 28 day cycle.  When my cycle does start this month I am supposed to call the doctor's office to set up and ultrasound appointment.  Dr. Swanson wants to make sure my eggs are looking good and that my uterus lining is thick.  If he sees any issues he will more than likely have me start taking fertility medicine again to help with any issues.

So now the game plan is to see what the ultrasound shows and if I have 3 successful cycles (meaning eggs and uterus looks good on top of a normal 28 day cycle) and we are unsuccessfully able to become pregnant then we will start IUI.  

Also we found out some interesting information about what we have been doing wrong when it comes to of ovulation plan.  We have always been told we are to have intercourse every other day until I have ovulated.  From what we understood was the reasoning behind this was to make sure the sperm count would be good and the volume would be good as well.  Dr. Swanson basically told us that holds no real truth.  He said anytime we have intercourse before I ovulate is just practice.  The only two days that really matter are the day of ovulation and the day after.  So we will be sticking to that plan from now on.

I also have been trying to keep more positive thoughts this month.  One of our new girls at work and I have spoken about why its really important to stay positive and not negative.  Basically it was broken down to me the more negative I am about my situation the more stress I am causing on myself.  I have never thought of how a negative attitude could cause stress on my body.  So I have really made sure that I let things roll off me and not dwell on things.

-Kate