Our first vist

Today was our first visit to the RE.
I was so nervous this morning as we headed out for our hour and a half drive. We meet up with a cousin of mine in Chattanooga and had a late breakfast with him and his beautiful almost 2 year old daughter. We had decided to see them before the appointment because I knew without a doubt I wouldn't be in the right frame of mind afterwards. No less than three people mis-identified me as her mommy at the restaurant. So much so in fact that even after being told twice what meal went on what ticket somehow my husband's got separated from mine and my meal wound up on my cousin's tab. So very glad I had the foresight to do our little meet up before instead of after, as those are the little things that sting. However it was still nice seeing them, I haven't visited in almost a year. The wee little one is growing up beautifully and is so smart and advanced in comparison to my niece. She can count to 5, sing Old McDonald and the Itsy Bitsy spider, identify her colors and shapes, and sing the first part of her ABC's. Just a brilliant little girl.
After breakfast and our little visit we headed down to the clinic and waited for them to open back up, because it was apparently lunch time. The clinic wasn't quite what I expected but the ladies at the front desk were really nice. I thought it was pretty cool when they took our pictures to put on the charts. After a little paperwork the nurse got my weight and blood pressure which was apparently perfect. Surprising considering I had sweaty clammy palms. Dh kept trying to make jokes and be chipper. I just wanted him to be quiet while we waited for the Dr.
After a little while they ushered us back to Dr. Murray's office. He seems friendly, very personable, not at all rigid or stiff. He went over the testing we'd already had done and said that it seemed like everything was okay with me so far. Little sigh of relief there. But of course he wants to redo some of the testing and add in a few more of his own, which I understand since all those tests are already over a year old now. We talked very in depth about DH's issues and his hormone levels and his previous SA's and about how the male body works. He explained how IUI works and IVF which honestly yeah I didn't need that little refresher course. He very briefly glossed over the costs for a Natural Cycle IVF and for a Conventional IVF. I mean briefly. NCIVF would be 4,500 a cycle. IVF we're looking at 15k. Ugh. A little higher than I originally anticipated. But before he would go into any kind of depth with me about their IVF programs he wants to rule out retrograde ejaculation as the cause of our MFI. Retrograde ejaculation is where all or a portion of the ejaculate goes into the bladder instead of out into the world like its supposed to. He said that all the hormones are there and he should be at peak sperm making capacity right now. And that, ooo something I didn't have a clue about!, if they found alot of semen in his urine that it could be washed and used for an IUI. Also that retrograde ejaculation is highly treatable.
The plan as of this moment.... Dh will be taking sodium bicarbonate tablets (isn't that just baking soda?) to alkalize his urine to get it the correct ph for sperm to live. Then using test strips (I find it mildly funny that DH gets a turn at peeing in a cup, lol) he'll check to see when it gets there. Then he'll schedule an SA. Travel down to the clinic. And give them two samples, one of semen and the other of urine. They will wash them both and get the results. As for me I'm supposed to call in at CD1 and schedule my next slew of blood testing. FSH, Estradiol, and AMH and an ultrasound for antral follicle count. We've also decided to do the Counsyl genetic testing on both of us at this time.
If Dh does have retrograde ejaculation we'll start treatment for that in hopes of 'getting pregnant at home' as the doctor said several times. If he doesn't, the Dr. recommended we do karyotyping on DH to rule out a chromosomal defect which would be hereditary and untreatable. Not sure if we'd go that route or not.     
But at any rate that was it. We were there for about 2 hours. I was surprised and little disappointed that we didn't get to cover all my questions but oddly enough at the same time a little bit relieved that Dr. Murray didn't push IVF immediately. He did say that if we choose that route we could cycle in as little as two weeks, after the decision depending on the arrival of Cd1. So there's that.

It's official ...I'm an old lady :0

So my appointment with the foot doctor went well, surprisingly well actually.
I liked him. He listened well. Was firm but not rough. And he explained himself well without dropping too deep into the technical jargon end of the swimming pool.
The pain on my bunion (which by the way definitely isn't your run of the mill bunion if my freaky looking xrays are to be believed) is, he thinks, get this, gout! I just about dropped through the floor when he said it. I mean really...really!? A. I'm too damn young to have gout B. I don't eat hardly anything on the list that causes gout C . I'm pretty darn active and  D. I'm too damn young to have gout! Sorry that one deserved reiterating. He said that it was very rare for a woman my age to have it, but all signs, pictures, etc pointed in that direction. Bleck.
He dubbed the worst of my current pain as peroneal tendonitis and the stiffness as soft tissue/muscle damage. He gave me two options. Wear this little padded bit under my foot for two weeks to see if that helps at all or wear The Boot. Guess which one I chose? Apparently the little padded bit will tell him if I am a good candidate for orthotics which would take the work load off that tendon which would in turn help with the other damage since my foot and ankle wouldn't be over compensating anymore. He said there was a 60% chance that a simple orthotic would work.  He said that the boot would definitely help but once I took it off I'd likely go right back into pain.
So here's the current plan. Wear the padded bit for two weeks, pay very close attention to my pain levels. Then if it has helped at all, get casted for orthotics. If it hasn't helped or it hurts worse, it'll either be the boot or an AFO. He thinks an articulated AFO would be best for me at the moment. If that doesn't work, surgery. Honestly I'll quit my job before I get that far.
He did say that I needed to prepare myself for surgery probably one way or another. He expects that by the time I'm 40 or 50 it'll be a necessity. I really really hope he's wrong, and I can beat those odds and live a nice long active surgery free life.
One doc visit down, one to go. Now that its out of the way I can feel myself getting really nervous about our RE consultation.

I love my kitty but...

...Seriously this morning I could have killed her.


She looks sweet and innocent but don't be fooled, she's plotting her nefarious deeds as we speak.

Picture this it's a little after 6am. I wake up for work after hitting the alarm clock a few times and drag myself into the laundry room to get my clothes out of the dryer. Before I ever begin I feed the cats. I know they're hungry. They flood in and get to eating. I start pulling clothes out the dryer. I get about halfway through when suddenly out of the blue Claire goes absolutely freaking spastic. You know how when cats get surprised on hardwood floors their little legs just go everywhere as they try to take off. You know that scrabbling sound as the claws dig into the floor. Okay imagine that on my bad f-ing foot. The pain was pretty intense, more so than it probably should have been. And that early in the morning as soon as I looked down and saw all the blood I started bawling. Just out right huge crocodile tears as I pitifully and somewhat stupidly ask her why why would she hurt me like that. As if she's going to open that fuzzy little mouth and go, 'Well Cindal it's like this..." After I calmed down enough to stop sobbing I got angry. She knew it. She went into the bedroom and hopped up next to DH and started purring, "Look at me I'm cute, I'm innocent, see?" Uh-uh wasn't buying it. So Dh got awakened by Claire getting a rump swat by a crazy crying lady in the wee hours of the morn. After that Claire gave up on the innocent act and did what she should have done in the first place, hide. I cleaned the gouges, put ointment on them, but couldn't get them to stop bleeding before I had to put on my shoe and go to work. Ouch, ouch, ouch.
She would of course pick three days before I'm supposed to go to the foot doctor to do this. It's like she freaking knows. It's my wedding day all over again in that aspect. To make sense of that here's a short flashback.
 2 Days before my wedding. Playing video games trying not to stress, Claire's asleep on my chest. She wakes up and decides to move to the bed, but instead of hopping down and hopping back up she takes the short cut. Up my chest and over my shoulder. Her foot slips and cuts a 7 inch long slice from my collarbone into my cleavage. My wedding dress had a corset top. I managed to mostly cover it up with makeup but it stung like a mother since it hadn't completely scabbed over by the day. I wasn't that mad then. I knew it was an accident. This morning...there was no rhyme or reason for behavior, no excuse.
So now I'm sure the foot doctor is going to be concentrating on my 'mauling' instead of what actually needs attention and I'll have to explain what happened and get lectured on the proper way to take care of a wound blah blah blah. As if this situation wasn't difficult enough. As if I didn't have enough foot pain. Stupid Cat.

Check it, the damage as of this evening. Small cut on my big toe. Puncture in the middle upper area. Three very long cat gouges from the center to the edge, the middle one is pretty darn deep. On the up side just a little bit of bruising left on the outside of the big toe, and on the knot(which rebruised on friday thanks to a 14 hr shift)