Loooong Recovery-

I am 75% back to normal at this point. It’s been 12 days since my surgery. I have to say that this time around really put me on my ass. I've had a lot of concerns but Dr. Hands off doesn't seem concerned. I've been bleeding this entire time. And we're talking heavy bleeding. Dr. Hands off says it's from the hysteroscopy, not the laparoscopy. So that is why I didn't have this problem during my first lap. Heavy, continuous bleeding is not fun when you're not allowed to use tampons. I am so NOT a pad type of girl. I was expecting my period 7 or so days after my surgery and it came... but it's hard to know when I started since I've been bleeding from the start. So much for having a day 3 FSH test this month. I debated on doing one on what I thought was CD 3, but I finally decided not to put myself through that. I'd like an accurate test for once... and I want a break. A true break before IVF. If I do the FSH test on my estimated CD 3 and it comes back bad again...then I'll be devastated all over again and what good is that. And if it comes back good then I'll figure I screwed up the dates and went in on CD 1 or something. This surgery has already eaten up a good portion of what is supposed to be my off time from cycling and worrying about IF. So- I just want to have my consults this month and do nothing else regarding testing, appts, etc. After my consults I'll get on the ball again. Now that I think about it, my first consult with Big Guns clinic #1 is this Saturday. Our consult with Big Guns #2 is two weeks after that. This break is looking shorter by the moment.

Okay..back to my recovery-
I spent pretty much the first 5 days in bed, the next few on the couch and now I am able to do some chores and my basic daily routine except for the fact that I tire very easily. This is frustrating to me b/c I'm the "can't sit still" type. My parents are coming for 5 days next week and I have a lot to do before they arrive. I tend to over do it when I'm not 100% well, as evidenced by what happened this past weekend.

J and I went to Lowe's to buy a microwave. Ours caught fire internally and the top "inside" was completely melted when we opened it up. I wanted to get out of the house and this seemed like it would be a relatively short trip. When we got to Lowe's we waited forever for someone to help us, and once they did they took forever to find the box of the model we wanted in the back. Once the box was brought out, we opened it up and did some measurements b/c this is a build in Microwave and needs to fit our exact space. It was the perfect size so we should have been on our way, but nope... the saleslady brought out the wrong model. They look the same but are different models. By now I was feeling extremely tired and somewhat dizzy. I was hot and flushed and ready to go home. We waited while they searched for the correct model and I ended up telling J that we needed to leave. We'd been there 2.5 hours. I got up from a chair I was sitting in and had horrible blinding pain in my pelvic region. I doubled over, clutching my stomach and was trying to breath through the pain. At this point I had tears running down my face and couldn't stand so J was supporting me. We were also drawing a crowd to my mortification... in fact a very nice lady with good intentions rushed over and got me a chair. She kept asking me if I was okay and what could she do. J told her I just over did it after having surgery. She then proceeded to say over and over that she had thought I was having a baby. She said she couldn't see me very well since J was holding me up but she saw that I was bent over and it made her think I was about to give birth. She didn't say this once. She said it at least 3 times throughout this ordeal. I would have laughed if I hadn't been in such pain. At one point I told J that I just needed to get out of there. We headed towards the exit and the pain hit me once again. Finally they had J get the car as they wheeled me to the entrance of the store in a wheelchair. I still have no idea what happened or why I had such intense pain. But once we were home I felt much better.

Warning: TMI
Another not so fun aspect has been in the bowel dept. I had my first bowel movement today since my surgery. YES- that's right- 12 days of no action in that area. I was even on stool softeners that my RE told me to take. Does the word toxic come to mind?

So lets just say that I'm glad to be over the worse of this and hope to hell that I don't need a 3rd surgery anytime soon.

Even thought this is my break from ART treatments... I still plan to dig out the OPK's this week... that's right... I will be having sex before I'm officially allowed to b/c I’m going to end up knocked up this month via natural conception just like my good friend Alli for Secondary Infertility. (Congrats Alli!!!) This would make perfect sense too... b/c we'll be committing to a Flexible Spending Acct next week. We're putting in the maximum amount allowed for 2007 so that we can use pre tax dollars for our IVF. Once you commit you're stuck. If you don't use the money for medical needs by the end of the year, then you lose the money. If you're paying out of pocket for you're treatment cycles you should seriously look into this if your company offers it.