Limbo

Nothing much new here, except that limbo-land is about to drive me crazy. And, this is where Hubby would get his "short drive" sarcastic jab in. We always joke that "it takes one to know one." His family's sarcastic sense of humor was so foreign to me when I first met them. Sarcasm was just not very prevalent in my family growing up. Now, I've gotten pretty good at the sarcastic responses, though. I think I learned from the best! :-)

Anyway, so...limbo-land.....
Waiting on these last five pounds (which is proving to be a bit more difficult this week).
Waiting in the 2ww.
Waiting on the IVF financing discussions.
Waiting on BFF to be induced on 12/14...Hubby's birthday, no less.
Waiting on AF which is also due on 12/14.

I'll be writing about that last one a bit more later this week, I think, because I can't seem to shake it. Back in March, the likelihood of their baby being born on Hubby's birthday was brought up as a happy occurrence. Now, it somehow just seems like an ironic, cruel reminder. And now that AF is also due on 12/14...we'll that just takes the cake!

The relationship with BFF remains strained. And, though I feel that I've done all I can and am comfortable with where we are (seasons, as it were), the pain remains, to some extent, because she is apparently much less comfortable with where we are. It's a frustrating place we find ourselves in. I don't think that we can "fix" it, though, no matter how hard we try. I think it requires time and space. I just realized that last week, though, and I don't think she's there yet. Her whole life changes next week and I think (hope) that all of this will seem a bit less serious to her after that.

So, we're just waiting here...lots of waiting. I'm not very good at waiting...or perhaps it's just the "patiently" waiting part that I'm not so good at!

Halfway There!

Pounds Lost: 5
Pounds to Go: 5
(Wait a minute...You're probably thinking, "Didn't she only have 7 pounds to lose?"  So I thought!  But, I called the clinic to get an update on the status of the trial and now they want me to lose 10-11.  So be it...I can do it!)
Amount of water per day: 4 liters (at least)
Exercise per day: 45min-1hr
Exercise equipment of choice: Stationary bike
Food plan staples: Fullbars, Sl.im-Fast (or store brands now that there's a recall), Deli turkey, Soup, and FRUIT (instead of sweets)!
Challenges this week: Christmas parties (!!) and Hubby's birthday (we usually go to The Melting Pot!!)

So, I'm halfway there and feeling good about the progress!  I'm nervous about the upcoming Christmas parties, though.  I'd rather have the weight gone and have to worry about maintaining or losing a errant pound then worry about losing the original weight plus an extra pound or two.  I'll have to be on my very best behavior this week...and I may see if Hubby minds if we move his Melting Pot celebration to the weekend following his birthday in hopes that I can get to the clinic to sign the paperwork (and do the requisite weigh-in) next week.  We'll see.  This is one week I'm definitely grateful for strong incentives to help my willpower!

Hubby and I worked out some of the financial numbers last night and have a plan for the financing.  We're hoping that gets confirmed by the end of the week.  The sooner, the better as far as my psyche goes...I'm on pins and needles.  However, we're both really beginning to feel like this IS actually happening.  Hubby even said yesterday that "it was beginning to feel real" to him.  We're nervous about the same things (the money, the emotional and physical toll, the chance that it doesn't work), but hope for our family trumps those things.

We spent Saturday celebrating the first birthday of friends' twin boys.  I met this friend and another who was also at the party via iV message boards.  In many ways they share similar stories to our own.  One dealt with MFI and required ICSI.  The other battled low ovarian reserve and required IVF.  Despite having only known these ladies in real-life for a relatively short time, we felt that we already knew each other so well.  And, it's amazing how supportive women who've already been down this path can be.  I'm grateful for their insight (and yours)!  And, for the hope that they give us.  It's hard to not look at those handsome twin boys and not be filled with hope!

We had a wonderful weekend in almost every way!

Believing

Feeling much better today...more hopeful.  I'm much more able to believe that this is really happening today than I was yesterday.  After our October appointment, I felt hope at first, but then quickly started to feel like we couldn't really make it happen.  Since then, we've realized that this opportunity has been placed before us for a reason and we need to make the most of it.  The "what ifs" if we don't at least try to work out the financial aspects, so that we can take place in the study, will likely eat us alive.  At least if we try all the avenues and hit dead-ends, we will know that there is another path on the horizon that is meant for us.

I wrote a few days ago about my necklace.  Even before yesterday's appointment, it was a great source of hope and support for me.  Now, it is even more so.  It's a constant reminder to believe...believe it's real, believe it can happen, believe in our family feeling whole again. 

So, my new mission is to 1) lose the last few pounds, and 2) BELIEVE!  There is wonder in positive thinking.  I'm determined to harness it.  I've been researching sample IVF calendars today.  I found this online IVF cycle calculator that says that we may be looking at an egg retrieval as early as 3/5/10.  Three months from today, we could be a few short days from our very first BFP!  And, nine months away from having the ultimate gift to give thanks for...our Thanksgiving baby(ies)! 

My brain struggles to imagine what the feelings that accompany those events might feel like, and yet I can see them in my minds-eye, too.  I can imagine a highchair or two at our Thanksgiving table next year...a stocking or two extra on the mantle at Christmastime.  As scary as it is to let go of this distance I've put between myself and those wonderful imaginings, I feel like believing that they are truly possible is of paramount importance right now.

I'm still feeling overwhelmed, nervous, even a bit scared.  But, I am hopeful, and the hope is building.  We are prepared to walk down this path and now it is my job to believe that it can happen...believe that the many pieces yet to fall into place will do so.  Right now, believing is my biggest role to play. 

My first mission is to lose 7 more pounds (annoyingly, I called the clinic today and they want me to lose a total of 10 pounds versus the 7 or 8 they said last time).  Believing that we really can make this happen, and that it really can result in a baby at the end, is a key component in making that weight loss happen in the short timeframe it needs to occur.

For me, today, belief and hope win out!

Close, but Not Quite

So, we have a plan...sort of.  The plan is basically what it was before we went to the appointment today.  IVF is our best option.  He said that he's not concerned with my AMH enough that he would be against 3 months of Clomid IUIs, but he wouldn't recommend injectable IUI for us.  If we do 3 months of clomid IUIs at a 3-8% chance (new ballpark based on recent SAs) without a BFP, we'd then do IVF, but the clinical trial wouldn't be available to us then.  And, it turns out that the savings from the trial is more than we officially heard.  Kind of becomes a no-brainer at that point, I guess.

The big frustration is that they can't tell us how much it will cost until after January 1 (when my new insurance takes affect).  We're 99.9% sure that we can make this work, but it's hard to know for sure until we really know the cost.  So, we almost have a plan...but not quite.

I'd like to try to get a general understanding of how much the meds will cost.  They told us to ballpark $3-4k without insurance.  With my insurance, we're looking at closer to $1,500, but I can't make the math work out to $3k to begin with based on the Freedom Pharmacy phamphlet they gave us.  What am I missing? (I should say that I don't have any actual protocol yet, so I'm just trying to get a better understanding of the meds and general costs.)

All in all, I'm excited and I do feel much closer now that I've calmed down a bit from the initial frustration.  But, I'm still feeling monumentally overwhelmed by the financial pieces, especially since we can't get answers on that for another 30 days or so.

Today is "Plan Day!!"

Well, hopefully it is, anyway...

We go back to the RE today after our month of diagnostics.  In my mind this day is "Plan Day," the day we walk out of the RE's office knowing what treatment(s) lay before us.  My brain needs this plan so that it can obsess about only one path.  However, I think that my soul is already prepared and aware of the path we're meant to take.

It is my hope that we've done enough research, educated ourselves enough and talked about this enough that when Dr. K gives us his opinion on our best odds, we're ready to take it.  I feel that the appointment could go one of a few ways:
1) Dr. K comes up with more tests for us to do that spill over into December.  This only equals more waiting.  This is bad (for my psyche, anyway).

2) Dr. K sees something in the results that isn't inherently obvious to us (after all, the SA results from early November were not in the IUI range he discussed with us in October...and he cancelled the second SA later in the month) and encourages us to start with IUI.  Theoretically, we could leave the office with an IUI on the books for January.  But, this would take quite a good sales pitch for Hubby to go for it.  He's pretty anti-IUI at this point; wants to put our effort, money and emotion where we'll have the highest odds of success.

3a)  Dr. K confirms what we've suspected for awhile now, IVF w/ ICSI is our best chance.  By some miracle (seriously, because based on my scale I have another 3 pounds to go), I've dropped the remaining few pounds I need to qualify for the IBSA clinical trial and we officially enroll for IVF #1 in January or February.

3b)  Dr. K confirms IVF as the best route.  I'm still a few pounds away from the IBSA requirement, so I keep chugging Slim-Fast, eating sensible meals and exercising like crazy.  We have more time to talk this out...more time for me to obsess about the money...and more time for me to drive Hubby crazy.  Sometime next week, I go in for the "official weigh-in" and the IVF ball starts rolling.

Of these choices, I'd say that I think that 3a or 3b are most likely.  So, given that we feel pretty strongly right now about moving on to IVF and focusing our efforts on best case chances, I've been struggling a bit with perception.

I know that there are many (some that I've talked about here before) that might say that we're moving too fast....that we should start with IUI or just be more patient.  Often these are the people who have never experienced this island, but it doesn't seem to hurt any less when they say it.  We have thought (actually, I have probably obsessed) about starting with IUI just to check that box and say we did it...just to be sure that it wouldn't be all we need.  We've also thought about the emotional toll of thinking that we had a real shot, when it really wasn't much more of one (Dr. K told us last time that he gave us less than 7% odds of a Clomid IUI working for us...and an injectable IUI seems risky with my AMH numbers if we're going to end up at IVF soon anyway).  And, then there's the fact that we'd be spending the money we're saving for IVF on an IUI with much lower odds. 

We're also in the extremely fortunate position to have access to the clinical trial (which includes a discount), health insurance (which covers 50%) and Hubby's HRA (which covers the rest).  In the end, we will owe very little...the problem, of course, is with fronting the large sum at the beginning, but that's where all the blessings of last week come in.  The availability of the reimbursements, and lack of debt at the end, is quite a blessing in itself. 

Since we were "lucky" enough to have known long before we were TTC that there would likely be a problem...And, "luckier" still to have known from 5 months in that there really was, in fact, a big problem, we've both had awhile to come to terms with the need for ART.  Likewise, we've had enough doctors tell us that the odds of us needing IVF were high, that we've had time to accept that likelihood.

I took a stroll through the Stirrup Queen's blogroll yesterday...the MFI room, in particular.  Have you ever noticed how many of the MFI bloggers now currently pregnant or parenting got there through ICSI?  Or, how many of the still TTC'ers are currently doing or nearly pursuing ICSI?  When we got the first SA results back, I took a stroll through the blogroll and remember being grief-stricken at how many ICSI's I saw (though, hope-filled by the number of ICSI BFPs).  I still held onto the notion of natural conception back then.  I've since let that go (not the hurt at the loss of it, yet, but the idea).  We go through the motions every month because miracles happen...but, my soul seems to know that our baby will join our family through a slightly different path.  And, I also believe that amazing opportunities and blessings find you when they're meant to find you.

So, here we sit at this crossroads today where we finally begin to walk down that path.  Diagnostic poking and prodding moved aside, we embark on whatever plan has always been laid out in front of us.  It took us time to find it, but it was always there.  And, in our heart and soul, we both always knew this was the path meant for us.  I think that's why, despite the fact that our journey is sometimes comparatively short, we are comfortable...scared and overwhelmed by the process, the money, the possibility of more BFNs, but nonetheless sure that it is the path we're meant to be on. 

I hope that after today, the specifics of that path become much more clear.  I also hope that there is understanding, from those that (secretly or not so secretly) hold those views, that the path we're on is the path we were always meant to be on.  And finally, but definitely not least, I hope that I can learn to care less about what these "other" people think!

I will update this afternoon...

Show & Tell: Wishes

It's been awhile since I've stepped to the head of the class to share.  This week, though, I had a tough time choosing between things to share, so I'm set for at least a couple weeks!  Glad to be back and looking forward to sharing and reading with all of you.  Please, don't be shy...surely you can find something to share with the class over at Mel's, too! 

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I've always known that I had wonderful in-laws.  Long before I was truly family, they treated me like the daughter they never had (Hubby's side seems to have a genetic predisposition for boys!).  I've spent almost every Thanksgiving with Hubby's family since we started dating.  This year was no exception, though it was the first time I hosted the festivities.  At the end of the long holiday weekend, my mother-in-law surprised me with a gift (as if they hadn't already given enough!)...she said it was a gift for being such a wonderful hostess on my first Thanksgiving "running the show."  I opened the beautiful golden box to find this, as MIL hugged me and said that they'd be wishing everyday, too:

This beautiful little necklace says so much.."the more you believe, the closer you'll be...peace and trust." 

You all know what my wish is.  Peace on the journey, trust in the path, hope that our wishes for a baby will come true...these are the things I'm reminded of each time I put this necklace on.  There's one more thing that the necklace brings me each day...a reminder that we're not the only ones wishing.  I have taken comfort in these sentiments every morning since and will continue to do so until our wish becomes a reality.

Moments of Clarity

Many of you who have been following my blog for awhile know that I've been struggling with my relationship with my oldest and dearest friend, BFF, who also happens to be nine months pregnant. I've always considered her to be the sister I never had...one of the few friends I've known that transcended the term.  Over the course of the last nine months, though, I've come to realize many things about our relationship, in particular, and the dicey nature of pregnant and IF relationships, in general.

Up until this week, my realization has been that both IF and pregnancy are rather all consuming. Sometimes people can't appreciate anything outside the particular bubble that their in. That’s often the case with the friendships between those who have moved on to motherhood and those that remain left behind on the IF island.

It sort of feels like boats leaving for the mainland sometimes, as more and more IRL friends move off the island and on to "the rest" of whatever is next. I'll admit that it's a hard feeling for me to process. And, that the things I have spoken over the last nine months have not always been perfect. Likewise, I imagine it's particularly difficult for those on the boats, especially those who never had to stay a day on the IF island, to relate. I get that and it explains it all, to a point.

Looking back, though, I realize that BFF has never done a particular good job of walking in other people shoes. It's just her nature, I suppose. It's a personality flaw that she struggles with, just as we all do our own. That's not to say that she hasn't been an awesome, amazing friend over these many years. God put her in my life for other reasons (and moments) and I'm grateful for her. She will always be my oldest and dearest friend. And, when this storm passes, I'm sure we'll seek out a new "normal" and move on to make new, more friendly (and less painful) memories.

However, my moment of clarity this week has been the realization that I've been avoiding the obvious. That old saying "God puts the right people in our lives at just the right times” feels particularly poignant this week. I finally understand it thanks to the contrast of BFF and our other very dear friends A & K.

A & K spent Thanksgiving Day with us. It was amazing to me, yet again, how spending time with these friends came more effortlessly than with BFF. Perhaps it was because they had spent quite awhile on the IF island having suffered many miscarriages before E was born. Somehow they understood what we were feeling without us even saying a word. When K realized that I had recently taken to calling the room I had always called the nursery "the purple room" instead, she just nodded and said ”We've been there, too," in a quiet, reassuring way.  They've been there, found a way to the other side, and are now beginning to cotemplate a second trip to the island.  Not only that, but they're willing to do all they can to help us get off the island, too.

These are the kind of things that I could beat my head against a wall for days trying to get BFF to understand. She still wouldn't, and would likely end up just silently rolling her eyes or thinking through her own nursery plans in her head. She would likely be worried about me...that I was obsessing again. Why couldn't I just be patient and wait for it to just "all work out?" As if it were that easy...but, it didn't matter how many times I said that to BFF. Her ship had long ago sailed off the island and she had no concept of what it might be like to still be there.

Not only does God put the right people in our lives at just the right time, he puts them there for just the right moments, too. I now realize that I was probably never meant to help BFF understand even an inkling of what this IF world is like. She's not the one who God put in our life to share this particular journey. I've fought against that reality for nine months. It's a hard thing for me to accept. I don't know how to disconnect from her in bits and pieces like that. It's recently felt sort of all or nothing because I just don't know how to leave the IF part out…I guess because it’s such an all consuming part of where I am at the moment.

But, now I realize that God put other wonderful friends in our lives long ago so that they could be our beacons now. No one person can be all things to another. And, that's ok. I've struggled just as much with the idea that I couldn't be the friend BFF needed me to be as that she wasn't being the one I needed. Now I see that I'm not that person for her right now either. That's an equally difficult struggle, but I just have to trust that when Hubby and I make it to the other side it will become clearer.

In the meantime, I see both that relationship and the others in my life (A & K, supportive coworkers, iV friends, and bloggie friends) in an entirely different light. I normally have a small, tight-knit group of close friends. At this moment, however, I have an extremely large, supportive group of friends at various levels of closeness. Some of the people that I once held close, I now hold a bit further back. And, others are closer than I ever imagined. It's a bit of a departure for me, but one that I welcome and appreciate so much right now. More than that, though, I am learning (slow but sure) to trust that it's all according to plan