The LD

There hasn't been much going on in our lives (as always) but instead of making everything about the elusive child I can post about a few other things.

Lennie....
Lennie. We got a cat. Why? you say? Why? I say!!! Fish's cat had kittens and the poor mother went missing one day so she and her kids nursed them daily to keep them alive. Bless their hearts. The father of those kittens happened to be a cat the Dustin found in the desert and nicely gave to them. For some reason they end up with random animals and half of them come from my husband. So they kept joking that one was ours. Dustin kept talking about getting one, I kept telling him he was crazy and finally one day he said "Pantala wants a kitten. She told me" I told him he's crazy but whatever. So he runs out and gets the last kitten. Save the best for last was not the case with this thing. The first day we had him it was true, Pantala LOVED him. She licked him and layed with him and followed him everywhere he went. Well that was when he was still scared and timid. It didn't take him long. By day 2 he was a wild child. This SOB bites constantly and you can hardly touch him.You can't walk by without him attacking and tearing you apart. Both the dogs hate him and all they do is fight. I would post photos of the little bugger but i don't have the download cord for my camera and believe or not I don't even own a card reader at my house. Funny, i know.

Nashville Tennessee
So my sister, Trisha, and I were invited out to Nashville Tennessee to present a photography program....to other professional photographers...YIKES!! I'm terrified. I can be comfortable teaching anyone who doesn't know much or knows very little, but to teach other professional's who potentially know more then me scares the living crap out of me. We'll be gone for a week and doing 4 stops in 4 different cities. The good thing is that now days there are so many photographers out there who may have a good eye and potential but really don't know much about photography or what they're doing and need a lot of help to improve...so I PRAY the room is full of those people :). Also, because of that same reason, I'll be covering the basics that every photographer needs to know before 1. they really should call themselves a pro and 2. need to know in order to start having fun breaking the rules. Trisha is going to teach how anyone can paint their own backgrounds with some easy techniques and tips because she's a dynamite artist and does backgrounds for me all the time.

I've gone to years and years of programs and a lot of them are brag fests vs. good usable information so I hope I can present some good usable information. My theory on any program is if I can come away with one thing I can implement in my business it was worth it so hopefully I can do the same for others. I'm excited at the opportunity but really really really scared. It's a month away so I'll post how it goes!!

Operation IVF: 1 down. 2 to go.
Ok back to the only thing that I ever really post about. The elusive child. So the latest is we've done one IVF that was unsuccessful. Again it put me at rock bottom. I mean if IVF doesn't work that means I'm seriously screwed up!!! There is a lot that goes into it and a lot that can change a single IVF cycle so I'm really happy we have 2 more tries to try to get it right. So this time there were goods and there were bads. As the story goes...

The meds were reacting well. I was producing plenty of follicles. We were getting to the Egg Retrieval point and the Dr. had me do a blood test to check my progesterone. It was WAY out of control and too high. He called one Friday afternoon and said we have a few options, retrieve Sunday (which he really doesn't want to do...who wants to really work on a Sunday?) Cancel it and start over next time or something else. Well he didn't want to cancel me so Sunday it was. We got to the office at 7:00 and they put me out completely for the retrieval. Really nice for me :). I wake up Dr. said things went well, we'll call you tomorrow to let you know what the status is. (the reason i say all this is only to get to this one story) I am of course 100% out of it so the Dr. helps me to the car and Dustin opens the door and gets me in and I'm out. I woke up in Globe slightly while in the Jack in the Box drive through. Dustin asks if I want anything, I mumble get me tacos & water. I'm out again before he even gets the order. Over the Res I'm trying and trying to wake up so I can eat. I just couldn't do it. Finally outside of Bylas I think, "I can do this." I reach down for the bag and Dustin laughs and says "I ate them" What?! For real? I look at him as pissed as I can look and say as pissed as I can say "What the hell is wrong with you?" I was furious! I'd been waiting and putting forth some serious effort for those tacos. Right on cue my mom texts asking me if we needed food when we got back and I told her yes because my bastard husband ate my tacos. It is very funny now but I was soooooo mad. I blame lots of it on the drugs. I was still pretty out of it and slept most the day. He will never live that down.

Ok onto the real stuff. We had opted to pay extra for what they call the 5 day blastocyst and ICSI (the sperm is injected into the egg instead of it finding it on its own. Better chance of fertilization) So Shaheen (the lab tech) called the next day to tell me the results.

Day 1 post capture: They gathered 15 eggs. 11 of them were mature. GOOD! 9 of them fertilized. GOOD!! I was very pleased with the results. From that point he continues to monitor daily to look for the correct growth that must happen.

Day 2 post capture: Shaheen calls and say all split correctly and are moving along. GOOD!

Day 3 post capture: Still moving along as they are supposed to.

Day 4 post capture: 6 of them have seem to stop moving...there is a small chance they may have moved by morning. Not Good.

Day 5 post capture/Embryo Transfer day: 6 have stopped completely and aren't an options. 3 are left. The 3 left look like crap. They are not nearly as developed as they should be. They should make a pretty nice circle and these are all blotchy. Almost like they are trying to get there but didn't quite make it yet.

At these point we do transfer with what we have. We potentially can use 3, but at my age there are guidelines to only use 2. Dustin and I had agreed we were comfortable doing 3 and I wanted 3. The Dr ALMOST wanted 3 but talked himself out of it and I wasn't pushy enough. Basically if he gave me 3 and I got preggers with trips then the rath of the FDA would come down on him as to why he did it and it wasn't so much about that, he wasn't worried about the FDA...what it came down to is he's seen uglier embroy's implant and end up in a healthy baby. Anyway, we did 2 and it did not work. The 3rd crapped out as well and wasn't good enough quality to freeze. So what's next? We start all over again with a new cycle, new ideas and hopefully success!!! I really am sick of this and even sick of talking about it...believe it or not :)