MilSpouse Friday Fill-In

Thank you Wife of a Sailor for coming up with this!

This week’s questions are:

1. How did you and your spouse/significant other meet?
I picked him up in a bar

2. What is the best thing about being a MilSpouse?
To me there are so many great things about being a MilSpouse. I love getting to move to different places and experience different parts of the country. Another perk to the moving is that I have met friends that I never would have met if I wasn’t a MilSpouse.

3. What is the hardest thing about being a MilSpouse?
I think the hardest thing is the lack of communication (especially for submarines) and the constant worry. But the good BY FAR outweigh the bad.

4. What is your favorite dish?
It depends on my mood. Overall I am a huge fan of Mexican food and could literally eat chips and salsa every single day. I also love fresh seafood and local fish. A good fish and chips rocks my world when served with a good beer and let’s not forget my love of buffalo wings.

5. If you could change one thing in this world, what would it be?
I wish that people would appreciate and protect the environment to a greater degree than what’s currently being done. Protectly the environment and finding alternative energy sources would help improve quality of life for all of Earth’s inhabitants.

Ok, now it’s your turn If you’re a MilSpouse (that includes significant others) take part in this wonderful thing that Wife of a Sailor has started.

A Wonderful Sunburned Weekend

P and I have enjoyed a wonderful, beautiful weekend. Friday night we did our normal thing-watched movies and drank at home. I normally go to Zumba on Saturday mornings but P asked me to please spend the whole day with him, so we went fishing We got up, got breakfast, bought supplies at Dick’s and then headed to the Skaguay Reservoir for a day of fishing.

On the way...

LOVE fishing in the mountains

Pretty flower

The master at work

Beautiful clear water

We didn’t catch any fish but spending quality time alone, with no cell phone reception was great. We both got sunburned and then went to a local Mexican joint for food. I think that we are going to do some river fishing next weekend. Hopefully we’ll catch something so that we can have fresh fish for dinner

Today we spent much of our day helping our friend, Sarah, move to her new house. Most people might like consider that fun but it seriously was fun. So happy for her that she bought a home and I can’t wait to spend time over there with her painting and having girl time when P deploys. After helping her we grabbed lunch at Red Robin’s and went to Whole Foods. Yes, heart Whole Foods so much. Sundays have traditionally been our days to run errands and spend time together. They will be very hard for me when P leaves.

In other news, my therapist is awesome and has volunteered to take me to the egg retrieval and embryo transfer when the time comes. When I mentioned going to BWW while P is gone, she also said that she would go there and to SB with me if needed. I could not be happier about her being my therapist and firmly believe that I would not be able to make it through all of this without her. If you are going through fertility challenges or deployment, I highly recommend therapy.

Now I’m off to watch the series finale of The Tudors with the best husband in the world.

It’s All Really Happening

We had an IVF consultation today with Dr. G from CCRM. Seriously love this RE. He was full of smiles, information and laughed at my husband’s twisted sense of humor. He and the nurse also wrote out notes for us so that I didn’t have to take my own notes So here is what it going to happen in the monitoring cycle:
-Call the office on CD1 to schedule testing.
-CD2 or 3, have tests for the following levels: estradiol, FSH, LH and AMH
-Between CD5 and 13 I’ll have the following tests: baseline u/s (resting follicle count and looking for any abnormalities), hysteroscopy, dopplers (to check the blood flow to my uterus; no caffeine for 72 hrs prior); more blood work; meet with RE and IVF nurse to discuss the protocol for me (already told me that I can use my left over Follistim).
-Also, I’ll need to have a pap smear, annual exam (with breast exam), CBC, TSH, rubella, varicella and blood typing done locally. Yeah, I need to find an OB/GYN like tomorrow.
-P will having a repeat SA, including a check for antisperm antibodies and a culture. He will also be freezing his swimmers on 2 other occasions.
-I also have to be tested for cystic fibrosis and spinal muscular dystrophy.

After the monitoring cycle it’s GAME ON! I’ll stim for 9-14 days and undergo monitoring during that time (like I’ll be driving to Denver every 1-3 days). Next will be the egg retrieval and ICSI with P’s frozen swimmers (he’ll be in the sandbox). We will be doing a Day 5 transfer and we will be transferring 2 and then freezing the rest (yes, I am being optimistic that we will have several good embies). They use a “flash freeze” (my words, not his-can’t remember exactly what he said) which improves the FET pregnancy rate (NOT live birth rate) to 70%, which is the same pregnancy chance we’ll have with the fresh IVF cycle. By transferring 2 on Day 5, we’ll have a 70% chance of pregnancy and a 30-40% chance of twins (YES!)

Now, for the things that I can’t do once I start stimming No caffeine, alcohol, smoking (I’m only occasional now), high impact aerobics (no running-only walking and have to modify Zumba. I also have to cut out the protein powder (since it’s not regulated) and of course keep taking the prenatals. P also has to quit the supplements, nicotine and alcohol before he does his part.

One of the reasons that I really like Dr. G is that he was optimistic but realistic and spelled out all the risks involved to me and baby(ies). He didn’t promise a miracle but said that based on all of our records we have a good chance of getting pregnant with IVF. I feel much more optimistic and relaxed now. I am actually excited about doing IVF, even if I’ll be doing it while P is away. Now just have to find some friends to accompany me to and from the egg transfer and actual IVF procedure.