Saturday, January 31, 2009

Trying Again

Many people know my struggles w/ fertility. We've been trying to conceive for two years now, to no avail. I was seeing a fertility specialist, but didn't get anywhere. He was not the kindest of men, nor did he share much information with me. The staff seemed incompetent and I was scared just sitting in one of their offices because of the area and the clientele. Apparently, the accepted any and all forms of insurance. Another issues, my insurance doesn't cover anything under the "fertility/infertility" umbrella, so I was paying completely out of pocket. The whole process became an impersonal, scheduled chore. So, last March when we decided to start looking for a house, I decided to stop seeing the specialist.

When you're trying to get pregnant, everyone in the world has opinions and suggestions. I can't tell you how many times I've heard, "It will happen when it's meant to be", "As soon as you stop trying and forget about it, you'll get pregnant", "Don't think about it". It really gets quite frustrating. Not to mention that it seems to also be the time when all of your friends seem to get knocked up accidentally. It's not that you're not happy for them, because you really truly are ecstatic, it's that you're haunted w/ thoughts like "why not me? what's wrong with me?"

Since we were purchasing our first house and I was starting a new job I did have a glimmer in my mind. Everyone says you'll get pregnant when you stop worrying about it. Well, now I have two new things to worry about: House, Work. How inconvenient would it be if I got pregnant when I started a new job and needed extra money to make a new mortgage payment?? How inconvenient and yet PERFECT!!!! This would serve as the perfect distraction and thus I'd get pregnant, like magic!

NOT! This is indeed not how it worked out.

Back in the fall, a former coworker of mine informed me that her daughter had finally got pregnant. She'd been trying with no luck as well. She had even gone through several rounds of IVF. My friend gave me the titles of two books her daughter recommended, both of which are about how traditional Chinese medicine helps with infertility. They get into the internal weather of your body and how to create balance through the systems using diet, herbs, acupuncture, and exercise. I read most of one of the books. It seemed very interesting, until I got to the foods suggested. They were a bit extreme and out there for me. Many of which I wouldn't even know where to find. So, I put it down.

I ran into this former coworker again yesterday. Her daughter is due at the first of April and also mentioned that I should call her. My friend said that her daughter swore by the woman she saw. During her first visit, the Dr. placed a finger on her forhead and one on her abdomen. She then asked if the girl was in the water a lot because she has a cold womb. Turns out that she is always in the water, has been on the swim team and is an avid scuba diver. She received acupuncture and herbs from the dr. and continued to see her for 3 months. She had the girl rubbing castor oil on her tummy to help warm it up and she was drinking a tonic nightly. When my friend's daughter went in during the third month, the dr. told her that was the month she'd get pregnant. Sure enough she did.

This had intrigued me yet again. I explained to my friend that I had seen an acupuncturist once, but he wanted me to come a few times a week for several months. At $70 a visit, that was way too much for me to afford. But, when I heard her daughter only went every other week, I decided to look into it again. Last night I spent quite a bit of time online researching local acupuncturists and practioners of traditional chinese medicine. I found one in South Tampa who seemed promising. There was an article in the paper about her and also a story on one of the news stations. I also found another which is located much closer, near work, and slightly less money. Both doctors emailed me back within twelve hours of my email to them. I think I'm going to try the doctor who's closer first because it's more convenient and slightly less money. I've asked to book an appt. for next week. I'll see how I feel after my initial consultation and acupuncture treatment. If I get a good read from her, I'll continue to see her. Her website does say that she specializes in women's health, which makes me feel good. If it all doesn't work out, I'll visit the other practitioner in S. Tampa.

Here's to crossing our fingers and hoping all goes well. I've also decided to start making healthier choices. Not necessarily to aid in conception, but because I'd really like to slim down my figure like it used to be. I've cut out soda's and most of my snacks. Meals this week have consisted of fruit and hard boiled egg whites for breakfast w/ my morning coffee, mixed nuts for snack, yogurt and lunch meat for lunch, maybe another piece of fruit for snack, and then whatever Randy makes for dinner (it's always something healthy). We've been taking the dogs on long walks and I even dusted off the treadmill. Today we'll go geocaching which helps get in many miles of walking while having a blast at the same time. I know I can do this, I used to be a personal trainer afterall. It's just a matter of being disciplined enough to stick with it.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Lazy Sunday

I'm still combating this damn sickness of mine. My poor head has been so clogged. It truly is a wonder how my body can produce so much mucus! But, anyway.....

We've had a rather laid back weekend. We were planning on attending another Pits Pound the Pavement walk on Saturday. This one was to be held near Macdill Air Force Base in recognition of the troops. Unfortunately though, with my cold still persisting, I didn't want to go out there and walk w/ a cough and runny nose. Also, the Gasparilla Children's Parade was taking place nearby at the same time and we feared traffic would be a bear. Instead, Randy came w/ me to his sister's salon while I got my nails done and then we went driving around to different shops. Had a rather filling lunch at Vallarta's, played w/ the puppy's at the puppy store and checked out Pier 1's latest sale. By the time we got home, I apparently needed a nap. I sat on the couch in an attempt to read my book, Dead to the World, one of the Southern Vampire series, but only managed to fall asleep. Later that night, we hit Borders for chai tea lattes and the chinese ssotre for take out. Then we sat around some more watching The DaVinci Code. An overall relaxing day.

Today, I'm home alone. Got the house all to myself. Randy was meeting up w/ Ant and Ant's grandfather to head out to the NFL Experience. That was pretty much going to be an all day affair. I'm going to enjoy the quiet while it's here. I started by watching The Grudge 2 on cable. I watched the whole thing, but I really can't tell you what it's about. I didn't get it at all. Perhaps that's because I never saw the first one. Oh well. Once that was finished, I took Janie and Roxy for a nice long walk. One would think that when you're almost home after a 3.5mi walk that your dogs would be nice and pooped, right?? Well, apparently NOT! We were so close to the turn for our street when I noticed one of our neighbors w/ her French bulldog. Janie and Roxy both went nuts pulling, Janie especially! I've never been yanked so hard! It was quite embarassing. Luckily the neighbor was really nice and didn't mind. Randy and the girls have met her before, so she had an idea who I was. Still, damn dogs, I couldn't believe it. I'm so glad I didn't decide to put on my rollerblades.

So now, I've gone to the grocery store, started laundry, and have dishes in the dishwasher. Only thing left to do~ sit on my ass and knit!

Thursday, January 22, 2009

I have an excuse....

I know one of my goals was to blog more. But, seriously, I have an excuse!

I was having issues w/ my iBook. The battery/charging icon was alternating back and forth between the two and my monitor was flashing. Then on random occasions the whole dang thing would just shut off. We believed that maybe the power adapter cord was loose and jiggly. We would daily try finagling the cord just so, wrapping it around the laptop, nearby coasters, or whatever else we could manage to place the cord just right to make a secure connection. It was bad enough that I even ordered a new Macally power adapter from amazon. Wouldn't you know, same damn problems. I did some investigating online and concluded that it was the DC-in board, which is where the adpater plugs into the acutal laptop. There is a rather detailed, picture by picture, tutorial on repairing it yourself on ifixit.com and the part online is only $35. But, I couldn't bare try disecting my laptop. With my luck, it would surely result in disaster. I ended up taking it to the Genius Bar at our local Apple store. They had to order the part, which came two days later and they had my laptop back to me two days after that. I was quite impressed. AThe whole repair was $100, most of that labor, which I expected because I read how much of a pain it is to take apart these laptops. So, that was last week.....

Then I was hit with the ICK! Last Friday I could tell I was coming down with something. I was exhausted, achey, and extremely congested. Didn't stop me from seeing Hotel for Dogs (funny movie, btw, cute!) and visiting the horse track w/ coworkers again (but only for a short time). I got worse as the weekend and the new week went on. Yesterday my ears started to feel funny. When I tilted my head to the right, I could feel pressure moving in my ear, in the same manner as water in a bottle would shift when tilted. At that point I decided to make an appointment for the doctor. This morning, I woke up feeling somewhat normal and considered cancelling my appt. Tara, though, being the concerened BFF that she is, insisted that I keep my appointment. Luckily I did. I feel like crap because I for good reason~ sinus infection as well as double ear infections! I am now under orders to take an antibiotic, mucinex, nasal spray, and use the neti pot!!! Could it get any worse?? Well, yeah, I guess it could have had I not gone in when I did.

So, that's what's going on. My knitting has gone on the wayside since Christmas. I'm still stuck on Clue 3 (or is it 4) or my Mystic Ice. Not because it's hard. Just because its taking longer and longer to finish each row! I'm also going to frog my Mystic Earth. It's been hibernating and I already have a rectangular stole in a similar color green. I needed something a little simpler and quicker to work on, so last night I cast on a drop stitch scarf using old Lime and Violet sock yarn from back when they only had an etsy.com shop.

This weekend we're supposed to attend another Pits Pound the Pavement dog walk. It's to be held outside the airforce base to support our troops. I'll have to see how I'm feeling by then though. Right now, I don't even want to think about it.

On that note, I'm off to do some mindless knitting.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Goodbye 08, hello 09

Holy Cow! What's wrong with my blogging?!? Have I been a slacker or what? Perhaps my new year's resolution should be to blog more. No promises.

2008 has come to a close and I must say that the year proved to be successful:
  • After ten years of teaching at the same school, I finally got a new job. My BFF and I left together and are continuing to do our thing at the new school We absolutely love it! While it was hard to leave our other friends behind, our new friends have been fabulous and we already feel like we've been there forever.
  • This summer, Randy and I bought our first house. The whole process was an exhausting roller coaster and it's been quite a bit of work, but we are HOME!
  • Our family grew! No, I'm still not pregnant. But, we did rescue/adopt our pitbull Janie. She's brought great love and joy to the rest of us. Roxy took a bit to adjust, but loves her big sister all the same. Roxy is the adorable lil' sister trying to keep up w/ Janie while running through the yard. Too Cute!
  • In July, I was able to visit our nation's capitol as part of a social studies training program through the school system. It was a short, and jam packed visit, but I loved D.C.
So, what are we aiming for in 2009???
  • I'm hoping to get my etsy shop back up and running. I still have skeins of yarn here that need to be listed. I'd also like to start dying roving top for you spinners out there.
  • Speaking of spinning.... I'd like to dust off my wheel and get back to my neglected fibers.
  • We'll continue to try conceiving. Hopefully those efforts will soon pay off. I'm thinking the time is right since we now have a house and I have the new job.
  • Home, Home, Home. There are still many things we need to get done around our house and yard. That list is too long, so I won't go there.
  • Be positive and appreciative. 'nuff said

So, that's a start. I think it's a good start. If I do blog more frequently, as intended, we'll be able to see how much progress I'm making on the list. For now, at least it's in black and white.