Tag Archives: Match.com

Twas The Night Before Retrieval – The 411

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keep calm - just one more day

This morning, I arrived in Albany and the car service picked me up and delivered me safely to my hotel.  I checked in early and then the hotel staff took me to the grocery store.  I picked up a few groceries to get me through my stay, as my suite has a kitchen in it.

I came back, made a few burgers to get me through today and tomorrow, whipped up a baked potato, ate and then sat down to rest.

After a few hours, I met a guy for coffee at Starbucks across the street that I met on Match.com.  He is really cute, from Austria, and is 6’4.   He is a financial advisor and is pretty laid back.  We sat and talked for a few hours and then he walked me back to the hotel, had a glass of wine in the lobby and then he went home.  I came in and did my neupogen injection and took my prednisone.

We agreed to meet again for dessert and coffee in a day or so.

This dating thing is not as awkward as I thought it would be.  Well, I guess when you are hanging out with someone who has something in common with you, it is not too shabby.

My clinic sent me a message today that a production company contacted them about casting me for a show about SMBC.  The production company also sent me an inbox on FB.  I reached out to them and am awaiting one of the producers to call me to discuss.

I am very excited about my procedure tomorrow and am praying for good healthy mature eggs and an awesome fertilization report !

I will update tomorrow after I get in as to how many eggs they aspirate.

IVF #3 Stim Day 10 – The 411

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baby - IVF3 stim day 1

Today is stim day TEN !   I feel like I have two water balloons where my ovaries sit.   I feel pretty good and am excited about this cycle.

Today, I went out and got all the stuff I will need while I am in Albany.  I got my gatorade and all my meds together and will start packing tomorrow.   I have in my head what I will take with me, especially since the Fall has come to visit in full force.

Tonight, I mixed my meds and did the injections and just popped the last two prednisone for the night.

I am going to relax after eating a great dinner I made and spend an hour on Match and EHarmony while I wait for Scandal to come on. 🙂

IVF #3 Stim Day 7 – The 411

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baby - ivf 2 stim day 2

Today is my 7th night of stims.  I am happy to say that I have been doing well and am not bruised up yet !  Maybe because they do not have me taking Lovenox until after transfer this time.

I mixed all my meds and did the two injections and am finally starting to feel the ovarian swell.  My estradiol is only 123 today.  I emailed my doctor about my concerns and asked if we needed to adjust anything to get that E2 up because I am not going through another cycle and peaking at 148 and ending up with immature eggs.  My E2 during my first cycle was almost 400 at this point.  I still have a full week of injections before trigger so I am hoping by Wednesday that it goes up some and that by Friday it is in the 1000’s.

I am starting to become weepy !  UGH !!   I am not sure how much of it is the stress of my mom’s illness and undergirding fear that something could go horribly wrong in a few months… With cancer, you never know.  A lot of that is stimming from my friend Joanne’s passing at the age of 32.  WHY ???   She did have a rare cancer, endometrial, which went to her chest pretty quickly and then ended up in her brain.  I am completely heartbroken that she did not get to have her dream wedding… have children with her fiancee… live her life !!  But who is to say she did not live it?  God, this is soooo unfair !!  My soul cries for her !

I have been having a rough couple of days.  Not sure if any of you have ever had to deal with the elderly, let alone the elderly with alzheimers.  Enter my grandmom !  LAUD JESUS UP ON HIGH !!!

I have BEGGED my sister, who lives in North Carolina to PLEASE come get her.  No one understand what it is like.  I feel saddled once again by my family.  That is the reason I moved to NYC to get away and live a life that did not require that I give up so much of myself. There was no one there depending on me and for the first time, I felt FREE.  I came back last summer to help my mom out with my grandmom who she had to move to VA from NC because she fell ill and it was discovered that she had alzheimers.  The burden of dealing with someone who has dying brain cells, is clinging to a past life they are incapable of now living, and being resentful, sneaky, bitchy, and down right pissed off, is HARD.

With me, I am a more take no prisoners type.  My grandmother is a weak woman.  Still caring the scars of child abuse at the hand of her father and the ignorance of it by her mother.  By the time my mom and her siblings we here, my great-grandfather had found Christ and became a preacher.  He left behind unhealed wounds which he inflicted on all six of those children and they are all broken, hurting people in their old age.  Nothing you say can change their experience.

I have two sisters, both of whom are married.  One lives 50 miles from my mom and she comes to help out when she can, but has two teen daughters.  My other sister moved to NC last summer and has an adult son in CA, and with her a teen and a two year old baby and her husband works out of the country.  Being that the one in NC is a nurse, I felt it would be fair of her, while I am stimming and a complete emotional mess, to come get my grandmom for 2 weeks so that she is not on my heels every freaking minute wanting to HELP me… help me cook… help me clean the kitchen… wanting to check the mail (which she will hide if you let her check it and her bills won’t get paid)… wanting to inject me with my meds (she was a nurse)… she wants to be helpful, but I do not want nor need her help.  It is down right ANNOYING !   Imagine having about 12 pre-teens following you around all day !   That is what it is like with ONE alzheimers patient.  They want to be grown and exert their “grown-ness” but they can no longer do anything.   You let her cook, she doesn’t remember what goes into anything and will make a nasty mess and will leave the gas on the burner and burn the house down.   Dying brain cells coupled with yet ANOTHER UTI !  UTI’s in the elderly cause psychosis !  She becomes beligerant, argumentative for no reason and even more paranoid that she is already !  I find her plundering through things, peering over the catwalk at me for prolonged periods to see what I am doing in the family room  ( I am WORKING!!), or constantly coming in to the kitchen when I am in there and being in my way.  It gets to the point, I have to turn off what ever I am making and just wait for her to finish washing the dishes, putting them away, or what ever other busy work she finds to do.

My sister in NC gave me the ” I am busy… working a 9-5… have a teen and a baby… etc.” bullshit.  People assume that because you do not have children or a husband, you are free to pick up all the slack and I am tired of it. I feel like the dumping ground sometimes.  I work harder and longer than anyone in this family.   Do you have ANY idea how long it takes to write a script, polish it, do a business plan, plan out the film production and then chase down money to make it?   On top of that branding and developing new projects.  I am in the middle of film festival submissions right now and also developing a stage play and a new screenplay.  I need to focus.  I can not do that, cook, keep an eye on my mom, be hell hacked by my grandmother sans the time she is at day care for 4 hrs, and do my work.   I have barely had time to sit and go through possible dates on Match.com let alone EHarmony I am paying $45 or so a month for.

My other sister will be coming out here at the end of the week to sit with our mom and entertain my grandmom.  My mom’s brother is tied up with his daughter who has an eating disorder, so of course, I get stuck with having to be superwoman.

I will be sooooo glad when I am finally pregnant and have these babies.  I planned to move away sooner, but I lost my daughter who would have been born in December on Christmas… so I stuck around the East Coast to be closer to my doctors and clinic and to help my mom.  Now my mom is ill, so I guess God had a way of putting me where I was going to be needed.   I am just ready to do something for myself.   I never get to be as selfish as my sisters and live in my own cocoon.  I get stuck having to pick up everyone’s slack.

Prayerfully, this is MY cycle and I can get this show on the road, have these babies, and MOVE to the West Coast.  Eventually, I want to relocate to Europe.  At least part of the year.  It would nice to spend time in different places before I get too old to enjoy life.

IVF #3 – Pre-Stims – The 411

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baby - lupron for cycle 3

For three weeks, I had to take 2 mg of Estrace twice a day and during the last week, I had to do the Endometrin progesterone support vaginally.  I fully expected to be a hormonal mess, but I felt no different.  The last five days, I have had to add in 10 units per day of Lupron injections.  The insomnia started almost immediately.

I finished the Estrace and Endometrin doses and am now awaiting my period to start so that I can go in for a baseline and get instructions to start stimming.  My period should start on October 9th or 10th.

In the middle of this next cycle, my mother will be having surgery to remove the remaining breast tissue and cancer from her right breast on October 15th. She will start radiation and possibly chemotherapy within six weeks of the surgery.  After she completes treatment, she will go back in for surgery to have a tummy tuck so they can remove enough skin to make the flap for her breast, insert a temporary implant, and then in another surgery, they will put in two new implants and reduce and lift the left breast.  So now she will have a flat tummy and perky boos !  I told her I am officially hating ! lol

My mom is very tired but she has all this nervous energy.  She has rearranged her closets, sorted clothing to donate, rearranged her sewing studio, and re-did the stuff in the kitchen cabinets.  Oh… and she rearranged and organized the garage !  She has WAY too much nervous energy.

In regards to my mom’s cancer diagnosis, I have been a bit reflective and very nervous.  There are never any guarantees in life and anything could go wrong.  I fear getting pregnant and having babies and she not being around to get to know then and for them to get to know her.  I worry about meeting Mr. Right and her not being there to walk me down the aisle.  My father and grandfather have been gone 14 years and 9 years respectively.  So many thoughts rush into one’s mind when faced with mortality.  There is this quiet voice that keeps saying all will be well.  I have to trust that and focus on staying calm through this cycle and being supportive of my mom.

My sisters and I are planning a tea for her the weekend before her surgery.  We started this tradition of doing a tea when she had breast cancer 8 years ago and we started a foundation called Tea For 2 Foundation to educate and support persons affected by breast cancer.

With everything going on, I am looking forward to going on a short trip this weekend!

I am still trying to learn the ropes for EHarmony.com.  That website is so confusing.  I get a little ticked that they keep sending me matches that are 5 ft 6 or 5 ft 8…. I AM 5’11 and I wear ridiculous heels !  Once I am more familiar with the site, it may go a bit easier.  With Match.com, I am chatting with a few guys.  I will make an effort to go out on a few meet and greets next week when I get back.  This is all so nerve wrecking.  A few guys have asked me for my number, but I do not feel comfortable giving out my number just yet.  It is so hard to get rid of people once they have your phone number.  At least my phone has the block feature, but that will not work if they call from other numbers !  UGH.  I guess I need to loosen up a bit, but I swear I do not want to meet Chester the Molester and then have to change my phone number.  Maybe a burner phone will work?