Happy Summer!

It's amazing how Summer flies by so quickly when you're a grown-up. Whatever happened to those long, lazy days filled with Mom's homemade popsicles and playing on the swing set until dark? I'm already getting the back to school butterflies, and it's only the middle of August (and I don't go to school!).

One thing I'm actually looking forward to this coming "back-to-school season" is finding out if the course of medication I've been on for three months has been effective. I was treated for a condition called "endometrial hyperplasia" which is the thickening of the uterine lining, which if left untreated can become cancer. This is caused by having too much estrogen and not enough progesterone. On Friday Aug 20th, my doctor at OHSU will be doing an endometrial biopsy to check the tissue and see if I'm better. Please pray that I'm done with the pills and able to move on!

The question is...if I'm all clear, what's next? The plan right now is to continue saving up for the Attain Program at OHSU (3 fresh IVF cycles and 3 Frozen). In the meantime, I'm planning to take a natural approach including herbs and acupuncture and pray for a miracle. I'm really thankful to have found a wonderful acupuncturist in Portland named Taya. I was recommended to her by several of the ladies in Hannah's Hope. She is such a thoughtful person and I feel so blessed to have found her. My hope is that perhaps she can help my body become more balanced and also help me with the stress of the situation. Here's her website: http://www.hawthornewellness.com/practitioners/index.php?p=acupuncturists

Also coming up this Fall is a super cool PLANT SALE at my mom and dad's to help us save for Baby Ruth! As many of you know, they are avid perennial gardeners and one of the perks with perennials is that you can divide them up into baby plants. I'll post more information when it gets closer.

Thanks friends and family for reading my blog and for your prayers! I'd love it if everyone would get a Google user-name and password so you can sign up as a "follower" (that's how you get your picture up that says you read this if you didn't know).

The Baby Ruth Library

For a little one who hasn't even been conceived yet, Baby Ruth sure has a lot of reading material. Check out our new kid's book section in the bookshelf! On Friday, we spent the day with my parents and grandma in Hood River. My mom just retired from teaching second grade for over 30 years and she gave us loads of these gorgeous children's books! I can't wait to test them out. Thankfully we have nieces and friends to help "tide us over" until we read to our own munchkin.

Round 2

As I type, there's a little buck with just the start of antlers laying in the grass right outside my window and a cute baby bunny is chomping on some grass. It made me think of Bambi and Thumper. I love Spring!

This month, I'm going to make every effort to "betrol myself" as Hallie would have said. I really don't want the progesterone to take control of my emotions again. I'll be starting round 2 tonight and take pills for the next 12 days. I'm thankful that I don't have to do them as shots. This can be very painful, as some of my friends have experienced during thier IVF treatments. One of the gals had so much pain that she couldn't walk or lay down for a stretch of time.

I've been working on an application for an IVF scholarship from the organization INCIID the last few days. I'm waiting to connect with the IVF coordinator from OHSU since they will have to write me a letter of referral. If we win the scholarship, they will pay for 1 free IVF cycle. We would be required to fundraise $3000 of it, which has already been saved in the Baby Ruth Fund thankfully.

I can't beleive it's June and school just got out. It's freezing cold--just had to turn on the heat. I think I'll cozy up in some pj's and watch the show 24 with my hubby.

Good Night!

Correction to two things and a Congrats

I am not just a little irritable. It has progressed to REALLY REALLY irritable (I'm blaming progesterone because there's no other reason for it). Poor Samir--my dear business "partner-in-crime". He nicely reminded me to make calls today and I bit his head off. Ugh--I hate hormones.

Also, I had my friend's blog address a little off. It's www.paulandgretchen.blogspot.com
I'm not telling her results here, because I'm trying to bite my tongue and let people tell thier own stories!

Lastly~ Big CONGRATS to my mom Carolyn for retiring in 10 days. She had a really nice, well attended party tonight at Tommy O's. I hope she felt loved and supported.

Goodnight!

Hello friends and family!

Nothing really new to share with me~ just thought I'd let you know that after one month of progesterone treatment, I feel pretty normal. I have been a little on the irritable side, but other than that, I have not had side effects. I am getting anxious to be done though! I'm ready to find out what's next!

Thursday night we celebrated with my friend LS from Hannah's Hope. She is 4months pregnant and is now one of our "alumni" gals. I'm so excited for her as it's finally feeling more real! We've been through this together for the last two years and it truly encourages everyone to see someone have success after waiting such a long time. Her attitude has been amazing through the thick and thin lining(haha little infertility joke).

Wednesday, we'll find out how my friend GM's frozen embryo transfer went. She had two put in and I'm so hopeful that this is it...Changes are in the air! Check out her amazing blog and be prepared to grow in your faith just be reading about her journey:paulandgretchen@blogspot.com

I'd better get ready for the day now! I'm going to do a garage sale and see how much of our junk I can get rid of. Have a great Memorial Day everyone.

New Diagnosis

Today was my post-op with Dr. Amato. Since I didn't have any difficulty with the surgery, I expected a very brief, "nothing" kind of appointment. WRONG! It turns out, I have something she did not expect. It's called endometrial hyperplasia, which is a thickening of my uterus that has pre-cancerous irregular cells. They take it seriously, because left untreated, it can eventually become cancer of the uterus. It is also something that can contribute to infertility. To treat it, I have to start taking 12 progesterone pills per month for 3 months. At the end of this period, they will do a biopsy and make sure it's gone.

Here's a link with more info about this issue:
http://www.uterus1.com/edu_ctr/clinicaloverview.cfm/20

I'm sure most people would be appalled to have a diagnosis like this. However for me (and anyone who's ever been infertile), it feels really good to find out more about my body and why it's not doing what it's supposed to do. On the spiritual side, it also makes me grateful for this journey I've been on, because if I wouldn't have had the hysteroscopy, they never would have found this condition so soon and been able to catch it. Who knows, I may have had 3 kids by now, but died of cancer by age 40.

Updates

My meeting a couple weeks ago went ok with Dr. Amato. She was very conservative about how she spoke regarding the polyp, which kind of annoyed me, but I guess she has to be careful what she says or people get too hung up on things. She said she thought it unlikely to be the primary cause of our issues. She said that endometriosis is probably the main issue. However, I asked her if it was in a place where implantation occurs and she confirmed that it was. So, I'm still hopeful that removing it will give us another chance to conceive naturally. She also thought that was fine to wait a few months and see what happens. Please pray for the surgery to go well tomorrow and that a miracle could take place in the next couple months!

As for Weight Watchers, I'm doing great. I've lost a total of 5 lbs and have not felt all that different. It's been good for me to journal my daily food intake and keep track of points online. I know I'm making better choices and limiting my portions, which is a good change for me.

That's all the Baby Ruth updates for now. Happy Cinco De Mayo~ Cheers!