Putting On The Polish

I stepped on the scale this morning and was pleased with my progress.  I won't make the 5 pound goal this week but I'm still headed in the right direction.  So to continue to lose the weight I'm adding extra effort to my house cleaning this weekend. 

Yesterday I moved furniture, vacuumed and mopped the floors.  I spent 2.5 hours on the lawn care and did some light cooking.  Today I'm again moving some furniture around so that I can polish it up.  It needs the furniture polish bad.  My bird's-eye Maple furniture is so parched I've now gone over it twice with the solution.  Next room to go is modern 50's furniture from my grandmother.  Two more rooms after that of furniture, mostly antiques and I'll be done.  I've already changed out the linens in bed and bath and have one load now in the washer.  Oh and its barely 1030 hrs here.  I've been busy.

Still I need to bake that cake.  It will get done.  Tomorrow is an easy day planned for me.  I'm putting off the cleaning of bathroom until tomorrow because I'm doing the furniture today.  With fibromyalgia I still need to pick and choose carefully what I plan to do with the spoons I have in my drawer.  Maybe you'll recall my posting about the spoon theory, maybe not?  But I don't want to wear myself out so that I'm too tired to do squat the next day.

Weekend Cleaning

J is coming home soon which means that I have to finish cleaning his castle.  Today my plans are to vacuum and mop the floors.  I detest dusting because I always break out in welts when I dust.  But its got to get done.

I'm hoping that doing some extra housework this weekend will help with the weight loss.  I'm still losing weight though its getting to be slower.  I actually spoke to J last night, twice, and he remarked that maybe he isn't so healthy for me as I tend to lose weight when he isn't around.  I assuaged his fears by telling him its not him, its me.  I have no will power.  None.  Not one bit.  Okay maybe a tiny smidge if I tell my mind that what he is eating is just plain gross but that is hard to do when I know for a fact it tastes darn good.

Part of my cleaning this weekend will involve laundry.  I won't have time to put it all on the drying racks to save energy.  I'm going to plug in my dryer again and use it.  One load will normally fill three drying racks and I've got sheets to wash this weekend besides my normal clothing.  If only I had a clothes line outside, but then again it rains a lot here so I'm not sure that would be such a good idea.

Some where in this weekend's time line I need to bake a cake.  A birthday cake for my J.  We'll see when that gets done.

I wish I had a self cleaning house.  I wonder when they will invent that? 

Well blogging is just procrastinating and I'm going to need time today to get those floors done.  Sighs...off I go to clean.

Saline Infusion Sonogram Results

Well I've got good news and bad news.  I would normally share any of the news with my spouse first but its not like I can call him and well where he is right now he doesn't even have the internet.  So he'll have to find out after everyone else.

Good news is that the catheter passed through easily with my full bladder.  Nurse M said that this has to be a record with how fast the catheter went into my cervix as she's never seen it done so quickly.  Dr. C. knows what he's doing.  So I'm good for the embryo transfer as far as the tubing goes.

Bad news is that the transvaginal transducer showed that  I still have cysts on my left ovary.  They've shrunk to about 2 cm each but are really close together forming what looks to be about 4 cm across.

More bad news.  They aren't functional cysts.  They are chocolate cysts.  I knew things were going too easily to have it all go my way.

Chocolate cysts form when the endometrial lining of the uterus decides to migrate to the ovaries.  Okay so we suspected that I had endometriosis and now its confirmed.

So now I'm going to have to get them watched and hope that they resolve further with the birth control.  They might cause me to miscarry again if I'm lucky enough to get pregnant.

Here is a bit from the link above for your reading pleasure:

The symptoms of endometriosis include:

1.) Painful menstrual cramps that may get worse over time.

2.) Lower back pains linked to the pelvis.

3.) Recurring miscarriage – Any pregnancy that ends before 2 or 3 months, resulting in severe stomach cramps, vomiting and some bleeding.

4.) Chronic pelvic pain – usually attended by lower back pain and/or pain in the abdomen.

5.) Painful sex.

6.) Painful bowel movements.

7.) Nausea, vomiting, and/or diarrhea – especially during PMS and during the period.

8.) Frequency, and sometimes painful urination.

9.) Infertility.

10.) Frequent menses flow or short menstrual cycle.

11.) Heavy and/or long menstrual periods.

12.) Some women may experience mood swings and fatigue.

13.) If the endometriotic lesions bleed, which usually occurs during menstruation, blood may be found in the urine or stools or in secretions from other organs affected by endometriosis.

14.) In addition, women with endometriosis may have gastrointestinal symptoms that resemble irritable bowel syndrome.

When an endometrial Cyst ruptures, the material floods the pelvic region, spilling onto the surface of the uterus, bowel, and bladder as well as the spaces between these organs. This type of event is a medical emergency.

Here is a great website to find out more on endometriosis if you know someone that has it, me, or think you might have it.

http://endometriosis.org/endometriosis/ 

Well that's all I have for today.  Two blog posts today is plenty.  At least I now know why I bleed so much and so darn often when I think I shouldn't be and why I have extra pain beyond the fibromyalgia.

Nervous

I've got so much to do in the next few days. I'm not prepared.  I like the idea of J coming home early but all the same I'm finding that I'm running out of time.

Today is the saline infusion sonogram, actually in about an hour.  I'm nervous as hell about that.  First I don't like pain, I'm not sure most sane folks do like pain unless pleasure is the promised end.  Ie:  a virgin's first time pain.

I'm scared that they might tell me that I'm not a good candidate for the IVF.  I'm scared that they might tell me that the reason I've been bleeding and spotting when I shouldn't be is because there is something wrong and I'm not meant to have a biological child.

I'm going to this alone today.  If my husband can't be with me I can't think of another person I'd actually want in that room with me.  Seriously its him or no one.

I was planning on walking over to the hospital for the procedure but my foot last night, the one I tore the deltoid ligament in a few years back, was acting up.  Of course today it looks like its going to rain.  Figures my foot would know about the fog and possible rain.  It might still clear up by afternoon but I'm not wanting to be walking in the fog and risk becoming a hood ornament.

Next, my J is coming home soon.  This means I've got to go grocery shopping.  Seriously there is just nothing in the house he would want to eat.  He's a meatatarian.  Pull a cow up to his table and he'd be happy.  I think if you gave him a magic marker he'd mark the cow into the proper cuts of meat and mark which one he wants.

Speaking of cow, I need to get J half & half and milk too. Whey protein allergy for me means that I don't keep it in the house while he is gone.  Why bother?

Oh and I need to make a birthday cake.  I'd order one but I'm not sure if he is going to be here in time for his birthday or a day later.  If I make one of my own I know it will taste good and I can decorate it how I want too without the extra cost.

So with some deep breathing exercises I'm trying to relax.  I've still got to vacuum and mop the floors before he gets home.  I doubt he'd notice but still I'd like it all clean for him.

You've Got To Have Faith

Now its time for me to make some decisions before I create a baby with my husband.  I realize that we've yet to even get my husband home to create said baby but its still nice to think ahead, to plan if you will.

Many of my friends who follow one path raise their children in another and find that it cause conflict at home.  My husband was raised in a different faith than that of mine.  I was raised Roman Catholic.  No longer do I follow that path.

Perhaps it can be blamed on college, being a rebellious teen, or in general just being dissatisfied with the Catholic church's strict views of women.  To them we were the sinners and are to blame for the downfall of men.  Okay, sure.

I chose to become a Unitarian.  I believe in many different religions.  I chose to incorporate them into my own practice.  Some call me a Wiccan others a Pagan but I feel that my religion is more than that.  Its far from being organized.  Its personal and with it being personal I can't really put a label on it except for the label of Unitarian.

So when my husband gets back home we are going to begin a discussion on what faith to raise our child in.  I know his mom would probably prefer the religion that she knows and brought up her two sons in.  My dad would prefer the religion that he brought us up in.  My mom, well she would also lean towards Christianity because she is all about the ceremonies from birth through death, but she would understand my choice as long as she gets to make the christening gown.  I hate to tell her there might not be the "christening" gown but she can call it what she wants and still make one but we get to chose what ceremony its used in.

For my friends out there that are of differing faiths from your spouse and now have children or plan to have children which path did you chose for your offspring?

Weekly Weight Update

Well the good news is that I didn't gain.  I didn't lose a lot either and I'm far from my wishful goal of -5 lbs a week. 

I lost a whopping 2.6 lbs this week.  I know that isn't to be sneezed at and I should cheer myself up.

But, I wanted to lose 5 pounds this week.  I need to lose 5 pounds because I still have a lot to lose.  (insert a whining voice).

So far, in three weeks, I've lost 12.2 lbs.  That would make it an average of 4.06 lbs a week.

Maybe next week I'll get 5 lbs off.  Who knows.  We all have slow weight loss weeks.

Now its off to go exercise.  Yes, I've really started exercising now.  I actually burned just over 500 calories in exercise yesterday.  Not bad at all.

Okay I'm happier now.

What My Gynecologist Didn't Know

Last month when I had my well woman appointment, at my local Army hospital, my husband and I discussed various things of importance to us with my male gynecologist.  I was surprised to learn that my gynecologist didn't know that the uterus elevates and contracts much as would the human male penis.

"The process of orgasm in females is basically similar to that in males.  It is a series of rhythmic muscular contractions of the orgasmic platform.  The contractions generally occur at about 0.8 second intervals; there may be three or four in a mild orgasm or as many as a dozen in a very intense, prolonged orgasm.  The uterus also contracts rhythmically, with the contractions moving in waves from the top of the uterus down toward the cervix.  Other muscles, such as those around the anus, may also contract rhythmically."  Janet Shibley Hyde PhD., Understanding Human Sexuality, 3rd edition p.204

How did he get through med school without learning something I learned in my freshman year of college?  I pulled the diagrams directly from one of my textbooks. 

I'm not a doctor by any means but I've taken a lot of science classes.  This concerns me greatly that my own gynecologist would be so ignorant. 

I'm also wondering if many of the male gynecologists decide that a woman should have a total hysterectomy without giving consideration to the role the uterus, cervix and ovaries play in a woman's sexual response.  I come from a family of women that have had to have hysterectomies or so they were told.  Now that I think back I wonder if some of their female reproductive parts were just yanked out to save time.  My mom didn't have cancer, she did have fibroids in her uterus.  She was told after they took her uterus that in a few years they'd have to take her ovaries because of a possible risk.  She didn't care she said since she was done with child bearing.

Well whether or not a female is done with child bearing is no good reason to take out the reproductive organs.  Would a male who is done with child bearing opt to have his reproductive parts removed?  Would a doctor even recommend the removal of the male reproductive parts if he had say a cyst on one of his testes?

I plan on keeping all my reproductive parts as long as they don't become cancer ridden or need to be removed to save my life.

I wonder, how many of you have had to have your reproductive organs removed and how has it changed your sexual response?