Where We Are At Now

There have been family issues - that have been remedied, I think.
Friends are having family issues.
A series of almost-really-bad occurrences ALMOST happened.

There was a big money fight with C, during which I was called a liar (he then took it back because I didn't lie, I just was not forthcoming with certain information).

We had to make the decision to cancel IUI #2, which came after much discussion of options, money, and possible scenarios. Unfortunately, it also came after I took all of that psychotic medication. Which my body is now paying for.

IUI #2 got rather complicated anyway, with both of us slated to be out of town on the day of the follicle scan. So the clinic said we could do an ovulation predictor test everyday starting at CD 10 or 11. Which saved us a couple hundred dollars in follicle scanning, but also means that the IUI was not scheduled and instead was going to happen the day after I had a positive OPK. My initial worry was that I wouldn't be able to read the OPK - they are seriously subjective. Where pregnancy tests are positive if there is so much as a watermark of a line, OPKs are only positive if the test line is as dark as or darker than the control line. Two lines mean nothing in OPK world. And quite frankly, I have never seen a positive one (because I don't regularly ovulate). But, it turns out all the worrying was for nothing, because the first morning I took an OPK, it was positive. I had to ask both AM and C, but it was positive. Also positive the next afternoon. What OPKs detect is an LH (lueteinizing hormone) surge that theoretically occurs 24-36 hours before ovulation (which is why IUI #2 was going to be scheduled the day after the first positive). Whereas before, the follicle scan preceded the HCG shot, which forced ovulation and preceded IUI #1 by 24 hours, this second one was going to be more of an on-call process. Which is stressful and probably not worth the money saved from the scan. Besides, I want to know how many follicles I have in any given cycle. Something to be proud of. And monitoring is very good . . .
Especially in the case that you begin experiencing pelvic pain and start thinking about OHSS (google it - we pay for infertility in so many ways). I did not have OHSS, but the pain yesterday was not fun and I became informed about the various symptoms of OHSS and helpful hints. Anyway, like I said, circumstances arose that made us decide not to do IUI #2. So I get my break early and now get to focus on coming down off the hormones.

I'm just surviving right now. Not really focused on anything. Maybe a little too focused on myself. I've been tired (thank you time change) and work has been really stressful. My one class left (photography) has been semi-interesting and not upsetting. I haven't really thought about where we are going to go from here treatment-wise. I figure we'll pick up the IUI game sometime in January after we (hopefully!) head to MN to see friends and family. The holidays have been a little difficult the past two years and I'm sure they will be loads of fun this year. Everyone, like me, is ready for a little bit of news to be happy about.

Sorry about the scatterbrained post - it's all I've got for now and I was more concerned about documenting the decisions and protocol and keeping those of you that care in the loop.