I must be the only person on the planet that uses the drop down portion of the address bar to peruse my favorite websites.  Why else would this not be the way that Firefox 3.0 handles the address bar by default?  I tried installing the “oldbar” add on, but that didn’t fix my problem either.

This is more than my OCD can handle.  It’s a lot of why I don’t use a reader for the sites I follow most.  I work very hard to keep my OCD in check.  So, I uninstalled Firefox 3 and went back to 2.  Sadly, all of my sites are gone from the drop down part of the bar.  Which is already causing me to have issues.

So, I’m going to step away from the computer for the evening.  Otherwise, I’ll be curled up in the corner babbling about how I can’t handle having to redo all of the sites - and in the correct order!  Which I of course, don’t remember.

GAH!

Well, the transfer was on Tuesday.  We had the two surviving embryos transferred.  One was where it was supposed to be developmentally, and the other one was almost there.  After the transfer, an ultrasound was performed, and we could see the little white dot that represented the embryos.

Now the question is: will they implant or not?

The pregnancy test will be on the 11th.

I’m a few days behind in updating…things have been craptastic at best around here lately.

The retrieval was on Wednesday.  Of the 20+ follicles, 10 were retrievable.  The majority fragmented when the needle was inserted into the follicle.  Lovely, but not really.

Of the 10 eggs retrieved, 5 were mature.  Of these 5, 3 fertilized normally.  On Saturday, two of the three were growing on schedule, and #3 was acting like dad…mellow and taking his time.  The transfer was scheduled for this morning.

Like a good little patient, I went in for the AM blood draw.  Like it so often happens when I go to the office on this side of town, there was confusion.  I got my blood drawn and left wondering if I was still on for the transfer to be happening.

The wondering was cleared up a quarter after ten this morning when the doctor called and let me know that none of them had reached blastocyst stage yet.  After answering a few questions for me, I was transferred to schedule an appointment for tomorrow.  As we’ve seen from today, there’s no guarantee that there will be a transfer tomorrow either.

I promise to try to not hold my breath until the transfer actually happens.

So, I’ve uploaded a bunch of new pictures.

Seems I haven’t done that since before the beginning of March.

There are pictures of the pants that I embellished for my older niece for her birthday in March, pictures of the shattered glass in the master bathroom, pictures of the pretty blue pool in my in-laws’ back yard (I’m dying for a swim after looking at those…unfortunately it will be a few more days before my damn swimsuit fits again), and lots of pictures of my current crafting endeavors.

I’d recommend looking at the crafting pictures using the view set feature, as I’ve still not mastered uploading the pictures in order, and some of the shots are best viewed in the sequence that they are in the set in.

The pattern for the drawstring bag is courtesy of Keeps On Giving.   I notated the changes that I made to her pattern in the comments on the pictures.  I’m making one more prior to figuring out the best/easiest way to do the lining.  Then I see two more in the near future.

The baby for whom I’m making the blanket is supposed to make his appearance in October.  I’ll be working on that blanket at work during break and lunch on the two days a week my shift doesn’t overlap with his dad’s. The other two days a week will be for working on the blanket for the husband.  The husband’s blanket will also be what I work on while waiting in the Dr’s office if I don’t have a drawstring bag in progress.  Something about it being bad karma to work on a baby blanket in the RE’s office.

I posted pictures of the wrist purse for a frame of reference.  The one in the photo actually belongs to the same niece that got the embellished jeans.  She’s still young enough that she’s been leaving it here as she’s not really got much of a use for it, so I “borrow” it when we go out for a night, as it’s the perfect size - it holds my phone, credit cards/cash, lipstick, keys, and mirror.  I’ve got some thread that I can use to make a few more in different colors.  I learned the hard way that the thread has to be larger than the typical size 10 crochet thread…it’s why I’m making myself one in black at some point as opposed to the silver that I made my best friend’s purse in.

Anyway, my belly is ovaries are complaining about how long I’ve been sitting at the computer for.  I’m off to assume a position that’s at least marginally less suck ass.  And lunch.  I need to get some lunch.

So, I had yet another appointment this morning. Much like the one on Saturday, the blood draw was the least painful part.

There are lots of eggs that meet the mature criteria of >20mm. Double fucking ow.

I see me not making it to work tomorrow. Wednesday remains to be seen…I have no idea at this point what time the retrieval will be nor just how badly it’s going to suck.

Two days ago at my ultrasound to check on the progress of my stupid ovaries, I had 8 eggs growing on the right ovary, and 9 on the left ovary. At this morning’s ultrasound, I was up to 9 on the right ovary and 12 on the left.

I have only one word right now. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!

My retrieval is more likely to be on Tuesday than on Monday, and it’s only going to get worse from here. I give my pants until Monday at the latest to no longer fit, and the pants I’m talking about are the ones that have always been loose enough to pull on and off without undoing the buttons and zipper. Until now anyway.

Well, we took the plunge on Saturday and replaced the Escort (Tracer) with a 2008 Chevy Cobalt.  In a dark metallic red.  Yes, we actually got an automatic.  No, the gas mileage isn’t anywhere near as good as what my Corolla gets.  However, the Husband realized that there was no way that he could get a Corolla with an automatic transmission in it, as he would either hose the transmission trying to get it to drive like my Corolla drives, or he’d be really sad that his Corolla is lame.

Yesterday I had a miserable blood draw at the Dr’s office.  The backs of both of my hands are bruised from it.  I’m so glad that tomorrow my blood draw will be done by the phlebotomist who is more concerned with the blood draw working the first time than whether the location I say to stick the needle hurts or leaves an ugly bruise.  I should mention that I’m not believed when I say that it doesn’t hurt to use that vein, and it hurts less than when the first stick of a different vein doesn’t work correctly and the phlebotomist stands there digging around trying to make it work.  And the bruising isn’t bad when the tourniquet is applied correctly (slightly higher than usual).  This isn’t the first time that this has been an issue at the office that I went to, so it looks like I’m going to be dreading going to that office for the rest of this cycle.  The husband’s step mom, a retired nurse, is pretty horrified by what happens every time I go to that office…

After the horror of the blood draw, I had a message to continue the Follistim at 150 and 1 vial of Menopure nightly.  My next appointment is tomorrow, and it’s another blood draw and a wanding.  I’ll keep you all updated.

Our injection instruction class was longer than I expected…we got done at 7. The in-laws returned from their trip last night, so we headed over there after the class. We ended up being grateful that traffic moved well enough to allow us to have time to grab dinner before the class.

There was lots of information, although the entire section on the Follistim Pen didn’t even apply to us as the Follistim that we got for being in the study doesn’t come in the pen variety. I’m not sad either, as it means I only get one injection instead of two each nite until the Ganirelix injections to prevent ovulation begin.

Speaking of the Ganirelix, I just read on the side of the box that the contents of the prefilled syringe have been adjusted to pH 5.0 with glacial acetic acid.  No wonder the instructor said the shot is “uncomfortable”.  pH 5.0 is only slightly on this side of acidic…

Well, we’ve been house sitting since last Thursday. As a result, we’ve been swimming 4 of the last 7 days. Which explains part of my absence. If I ever get motivated, I’ll post the pictures we took of the pool. There are no pictures of me that were taken as I look pretty horrid in a swimsuit, even if it is a one piece suit with underwires.

On Monday morning, I rode my bike from our house to the in-laws house. That was one hell of a ride! I was impressed with how fast I can tear down the side of the mountain that we live on. I’m planning on doing that more frequently. As I get better with the whole bike riding thing, I’ll start working on the uphill (return) journey. For now, that’s what the car is for.

Will sent me this link.  Unfortunately for him, it did not elicit the response he was hoping for.  I told him I was planning on getting the game right after he got it.  Maybe one of you will indulge him on that front.

We’ve officially started the quest to replace the husband’s car. There was even a trip to a dealership for test driving yesterday (Tuesday). We’re finding that there’s not much available in the price range we were aiming for, and it’s likely due to the current gas prices. An article in the paper last week said that the local Hummer dealership hasn’t had a sale in like four months. The sales guy yesterday told the husband that they gave some dude $28k for trading in his Hummer. Ouch if you consider what he paid, but not surprising given the probability of them being able to sell it.

Tomorrow is my baseline ultrasound, blood work, injection instructions, and first injection(s) in the babyquest. Wish us luck!

Yesterday was my first official IVF appointment.  Due to my estrogen levels being uncooperative the last two months, I scored a free wanding (as in it wasn’t scheduled, but the doctor didn’t want any surprises in a week). The good news is that there are no cysts.  The better news is that at 1mm, the lining of my uterus can’t get much thinner.  Which is fairly impressive given that I’ve been on the “active” pills for right about 20 days now.  The bad news is that the phlebotomist who didn’t want to draw from my one cooperative vein (it sits on top of my bicep) left me with a knot and a bruise.  Both of which don’t feel very pleasant right now.