A place of reflection

This blog is a place to report all that has been going on and my hopes for the future. I try not to be a downer most of the time, but as is my life, I have as many downs as ups.
Now everyone can follow along with what is going on in our lives here in the house behind the 'jungle.'

Saturday, February 14, 2015

The waiting game

I HATE WAITING!!!!

After going to my ultrasound and getting ready to get out of town I waited (mostly impatiently) for a call or note from my doctor about when and what kind of meds we were going to start. I emailed a couple times to remind him and became one of those really annoying patients that won't shut up. Oh well, I was excited and in a rush to get my meds. I mentioned numerous times that I would be leaving town and would like to have the meds in hand by the time I got on the plane... no such luck. They finally got back to me the day after we got to Vegas. 5 emails and 2 phone calls later they were figuring out how to get the prescription to a pharmacy out there for me to pick up. I told them which one I wanted (quite literally right outside the hotel), when I got there to pick it up they told me it was sent to the other one on the other end of the strip... Fantastic... I got them to move it over but that caused another hour or so delay. Lots of work for 10 freaking pills.

Got the meds, took them all as directed and followed up with an ultrasound and OB appointment last Friday 2/6. Got some good news that even I could read when they were doing the ultrasound. The meds WORKED! That has never actually happened before. They actually matured one follicle to the point of release and released it on it's own! My doc was at another clinic so I had to follow up with an OB I'd never met before. That seems to be the theme of this round.

She said to keep on the course and we will see what happens.

It's been barely over a week since that appointment and it's killing me. This is the waiting part I hate. My mind plays tricks on me and tries to convince me that I am having encouraging symptoms. I'm not supposed to test for another 4-6 days. That hasn't stopped me though - I can't take the waiting even though there isn't much chance of things coming back the way I want them too. At least not at this point.

I will continue to drive myself nuts and try to wait it out. I will try...

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Return the the Jungle

Welcome to 2015!
We at the Jungle House took a bit of a hiatus for a couple years but we are back!

I am starting this up again to keep my spirits up and keep a log of all the things that have been happening now that I am going back to Dr. Kopher.

I called in mid December to make an appointment for January. The very nice lady at the appointment center informed me that I was just in time since Dr. Kopher is not taking any 'new' patients and is retiring in the spring. 'Great,' I thought, I'll get in to see him at the beginning of the year and we will start fresh. She says, 'he just had a spot open up on Tuesday. Are you available on the 23rd?'
Well, I guess we are starting earlier than we thought.

The appointment with Kopher went well, everything seemed to be right where we left off. Great news, right? We had labs drawn and everything came back good. So he put me on meds to start the regulation process and told me to come back for an ultrasound on 1/13.

Jumping to 1/12, I still have not been 'regulated' so I had to cancel my appointment. Sure enough, I cancel it and then my body cooperates 5 hours later. Figures...

20 emails with the clinic staff later and another week of waiting, I was able to make an appointment for 1/20. Of course, this appointment is not available at a clinic near me, I even tried to get them to do it at the hospital facilities before I went to work, but that was a no go. (I should say that I've been working like a dog for the last 3 weeks and driving myself crazy trying prepare to go on a little vacay to Vegas with Mark this week. I'm really looking forward to it as I realized today that it is the first time he and I have gone on a trip where we haven't been staying with family or been with friends for a wedding. This will be a lot of fun. I can't wait!) So, I had to schedule an appointment for the 0740 slot at the Riverside Clinic... for those of you that don't know, Riverside is in Minneapolis and I live in St. Paul. Not over all a big deal except that I am by habit an evening shifter and don't usually fall asleep until 0330 or so. Getting up for the appointment was difficult to say the least, and then I had to leave extra early to fight traffic all the way there.... Grrrrr #2.

Enough whining for now. The ultrasound tech I was working with today, Amy, was AMAZING! She was so sweet and kept asking if I needed anything or could make me more comfortable in any way. This was a complete 180 from the last time I had to go through this process. Even though she knew I had had the procedures done in the past she made sure to explain them to me in detail and kept informing me that the Dr that would be reading the ultrasounds didn't usually arrive to work until 0800 but that she would page out to the nurses station when we were done to see if she was there. She was not, but when Amy was done with the exams she told me she was going to go out and wait for her and bring her in as soon as she got there. That she did. I couldn't have been in the room for more than a couple minutes before they both came in to review the images with me. It was such a nice experience. I might just have to go back to the Riverside Clinic for all my ultrasounds in the future despite traffic and everything else.

Ok, maybe one more whine... in the middle of all the emails with the clinic, I asked if I would have results back and a message from Dr Kopher about what steps we were going to take next by the end of the day today, I received a yes response but did not end up getting a message one way or the other. This is frustrating me since I leave for vacation in 36 hours and would like to have time to pick up my meds if I need to before I go.

Alright, that's it. I think...