Hence the title, today was filled with lots of walking and lots of sweating! Its HOT here!!!!
So when we first skyped Ruth, we asked her what the weather was like and what clothes we should bring, and she said "wear as little as possible!!" We laughed at the time, but goodness gracious - she wasn't joking. Holy crap it is hot here. I think we drank all the water today to replace the sweat we lost while walking!!!
We started out today on a train ride. We were told by someone who lived her that Polyvsetos has the best gyros and so we decided to check them out. On the way there, we passed the metro station that goes by the Olympic Stadium that they used in 2004 and that was pretty cool to see. We didn't go there because based on reading, its all abandoned and not kept up, so there isn't much to see. When we got off the train station, this gyro place was really hard to find! We walked in circles, more circles, asked someone, asked another person and finally found it! The gyros were good, but we actually liked the first place we found better. This shop did have better french fries on them though, so that counts. At least we tried it out.
Then we went on a LONG train ride to the other side of town (literally) to the port with all the ferries to the islands. We wanted to schedule and 3 island tour that people have said is awesome and totally worth it. We went down there yesterday to see the options and how much it cost and the agency said each person was 60 euros - not bad for a full day excursion. So we went back today to buy our tickets, we went to the closest agency (thinking they were the same), they had the same brochure for the trip we wanted and so we went up to the counter. 89 euros each. Wait, what? So we go down to the one we went to yesterday - its the exact same trip, same boat, same departure time and island tour and its only 60. The other travel agency was just charging more. Ha! 60 euros we paid, so much better than 89 each.
On the way back, we had seen a baby store many times in the passing and I made Brian stop so that we could find a onezie! Well, the walk there turned out to be a bit more interesting than we bargined for...we look to our left, and on the other side of the street, there is a naked man screaming random things in Greek. He keeps squatting down to do only God knows what and keeps yelling. We are laughing histerically and keep walking. We make it to the baby store and we find onzies! We find a cute pack of two and now Nemo has its first item of clothing! We head back to the train and our friendly, neighborhood naked man is still doing the same thing. We continue to laugh and get back on the train. Well at least it was an interesting stop for sure.
Next we headed to the Acient Agora, back in the day, it was the main shopping, visiting, offices place to go in Athens. Now its a ton of ruins, a temple, and a museum. It was actually pretty cool to explore and look around. The temple was awesome because it was pretty much in tact after all this time. We did kinda get lost of the way to the Ancient Agora and found the Roman Agora which was the replacement for the Ancient Agora. So we saw it in backwards order, but that's normal for us. :)
We were going to try to make it to the War Museum, but that didn't happen. We need to wake up earlier and get into town earlier...but we like sleep. :) Maybe tomorrow. We did decide we wanted to hit up the Running Man statue and so we went and found it! Took some pictures of it and then headed back to the station. We stopped in at the bakery and picked up some ice cream. It was delicious and probably the best waffle cone I've ever had. Then it was time to come home. The taxi driver got lost again, but its a good thing Brian and I are recognizing where to turn because apparently the road the house is on "doesn't exist" in GPS. Oh well, we've made it home every time!
We cooled off (trust me, we needed a cooling off period!) and then Brian cooked dinner. Time for some relaxing and TV before we start all over again tomorrow. Brian is currently planning out the rest of our days because even though we have a week left, we want to make sure to hit everything that we wanted to before it's time to come home!
Thursday, July 30, 2015
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
Lazy Days - Day 19 & 20 - July 29 & 29
Tuesday
Well...there isn't much to say about today...we slept in, moved to the couch, ate, watched TV, hung out, and were bums. Thats pretty much it. It was a rest day for me after the transfer and we really didn't do much at all.
Brian did make a run to the store to get more eggs (I'm STILL eating 5 egg whites a day and my last day is tomorrow...thank goodness). He brought back ice cream. We tried it. That wasn't ice cream. That was gross. That shouldn't be sold to the public. Cue in drinking lots of water to get the nasy taste out of our mouths.
On a positive note, we did finish all the Walking Dead episodes that are on Netflix. We want to know what happens in Season 5...but it doesn't come out until september. Of course. Oh well, staying up until 2:30am was worth it!
Wednesday
Because of the late night with zombies last night, we slept in even longer today. By the time we woke up, it was practically lunch time - I REALLY didn't want another plate of egg whites this morning, so we opted out of breakfast and just decided to go to Hard Rock Cafe for a good ole American lunch! We thought we needed to have a good burger since we had the gross burger the other day at Goodys. So we got around and headed into Athens.
We got off the train station for Hard Rock Cafe and we started walking around trying to find it. This place was loaded with tons of shops!!! So we did a little looking too. We finally found the restaurant and soon found out that it had only been in business for 2 weeks. So they just had cocktails and appitizers. Good enough for us, we are hungry! Yummy American food!!!!!!! We walked around the shops a bit and then head back out to the shopping. We really didn't have any plans for today because hitting up some of the metro stops that have exhibits of things they found while they were creating the metro lines, but that's about it. So we walked around and looked in the shops, it was more local things - kind of like an outdoor mall. We finally found onzies!! Well, 4 of them to be exact. And we didnt' like any of them, so we are still onezie-less.
We did hit up a bakery and tried baklava and macoroons. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Brian liked it all, but I liked the mini baklava rolls the best, the big thing of baklava tasted like pumpkin pie to me.
We also went into a toy store. A four story toy store. Holy cow. It was huge. We were trying to find a thing for the baby without much luck. We did find Disney stories in Greek! So...back story first -
Last night, I was talking to Ashley and she said her and Johnathan had thought of a nickname for our baby. (We have lots of nicknames for the kids - River is E or Bug and Miles is Squishy). They came up with Nemo because we have fought really hard for our kiddo and we traveled all across the ocean to get him/her! We loved it, so Little One, AKA Nemo, needed a present at the toy store. What better than Finding Nemo in Greek??? Heck yes!
The rest of the day we really just walked around and played it by ear on what we wanted to do. We just went from train station to train station and got off, looked around, walked in shops and then hit up another train station. It was a fun, relaxed, exploring day!
When we finally got the home station, we struggled getting a cab...and then the guy got lost. We finally recoginzed where we were and directed him to the house. He tried to put me on the phone with a guy that could speak English and that was an utter disaster - but we finally made it home. We relaxed, I ate my egg whites (that now makes 45 egg whites in 9 days) and its time to watch some TV before bed.
Well...there isn't much to say about today...we slept in, moved to the couch, ate, watched TV, hung out, and were bums. Thats pretty much it. It was a rest day for me after the transfer and we really didn't do much at all.
Brian did make a run to the store to get more eggs (I'm STILL eating 5 egg whites a day and my last day is tomorrow...thank goodness). He brought back ice cream. We tried it. That wasn't ice cream. That was gross. That shouldn't be sold to the public. Cue in drinking lots of water to get the nasy taste out of our mouths.
On a positive note, we did finish all the Walking Dead episodes that are on Netflix. We want to know what happens in Season 5...but it doesn't come out until september. Of course. Oh well, staying up until 2:30am was worth it!
Wednesday
Because of the late night with zombies last night, we slept in even longer today. By the time we woke up, it was practically lunch time - I REALLY didn't want another plate of egg whites this morning, so we opted out of breakfast and just decided to go to Hard Rock Cafe for a good ole American lunch! We thought we needed to have a good burger since we had the gross burger the other day at Goodys. So we got around and headed into Athens.
We got off the train station for Hard Rock Cafe and we started walking around trying to find it. This place was loaded with tons of shops!!! So we did a little looking too. We finally found the restaurant and soon found out that it had only been in business for 2 weeks. So they just had cocktails and appitizers. Good enough for us, we are hungry! Yummy American food!!!!!!! We walked around the shops a bit and then head back out to the shopping. We really didn't have any plans for today because hitting up some of the metro stops that have exhibits of things they found while they were creating the metro lines, but that's about it. So we walked around and looked in the shops, it was more local things - kind of like an outdoor mall. We finally found onzies!! Well, 4 of them to be exact. And we didnt' like any of them, so we are still onezie-less.
We did hit up a bakery and tried baklava and macoroons. Yummy. Yummy. Yummy. Brian liked it all, but I liked the mini baklava rolls the best, the big thing of baklava tasted like pumpkin pie to me.
We also went into a toy store. A four story toy store. Holy cow. It was huge. We were trying to find a thing for the baby without much luck. We did find Disney stories in Greek! So...back story first -
Last night, I was talking to Ashley and she said her and Johnathan had thought of a nickname for our baby. (We have lots of nicknames for the kids - River is E or Bug and Miles is Squishy). They came up with Nemo because we have fought really hard for our kiddo and we traveled all across the ocean to get him/her! We loved it, so Little One, AKA Nemo, needed a present at the toy store. What better than Finding Nemo in Greek??? Heck yes!
The rest of the day we really just walked around and played it by ear on what we wanted to do. We just went from train station to train station and got off, looked around, walked in shops and then hit up another train station. It was a fun, relaxed, exploring day!
When we finally got the home station, we struggled getting a cab...and then the guy got lost. We finally recoginzed where we were and directed him to the house. He tried to put me on the phone with a guy that could speak English and that was an utter disaster - but we finally made it home. We relaxed, I ate my egg whites (that now makes 45 egg whites in 9 days) and its time to watch some TV before bed.
Monday, July 27, 2015
Embryo Transfer - Day 17 & 18 - July 26 & 27
Sunday
Well...today was a rough day. Brian and I were exhausted from the past two days of being in the sun all day and we really didn't want to do much. But...we knew that we would be apartment bound for the next two days because of the embryo transfer and me needing to rest to allow the embryo to implant. So we forced ourselves to leave the apartment today.
It took a while to get out of bed, we didn't end up heading into Athens until noon. We decided to walk around the Plaka and then go to the Acropolis museum that we didn't go to when we visited the Acropolis because Brian had his knife on him the last time.
Plaka up first. The plaka is basically a large area of town that is just filled with shops. We got off the metro and started walking around. The directions we had made it feel like we were going in the wrong direction. So we just kept walking. Follow people, turn, walk, turn, etc. Suddenly, we arrive! ha! I told Brian I knew where I was going the whole time. :) We walk around the shops, but really they have a lot of the same things over and over again. We weren't really there to shop, we wanted to find something for the baby, but we don't really need anything else. We don't buy little trinkets/statues/paintings unless we know exactly where it will go in the house, otherwise it will just sit there useless - we were more walking around for the experience. We are looking at all the shirts and decide we want to find a onezie for the baby. Can't find one. Keep looking....nope. Can't find one anywhere. Where do the people of Athens get clothes to cover the kids??? We finally decide that all the babies must just walk around naked all the time because onezies do not exist.
As we are walking, we soon realize that we made it to the Acropolis on accident! Go us! We are hungry and all the cafes at the Plaka district are charging an arm and a leg for food that should be a lot cheaper so we ended up going to the same food place that we went to our last time at the Acropolis. Pretty sure the cook recognized us because he didnt put the lettuce on the gyros or maybe it was just a happy accident. Either way, they were delcious.
Then we headed up to the Acropolis museum. They would yell at anyone who took pictures, so there aren't very many pictures - but we did what we could. It was really need to see how they reconstructed things that had been destroyed over the years. We decided as we were walking through and reading the plaques that we should have went there first and we would have had a better understanding of what we were looking at when we visited the actual Acropolis. They had a video that was really interesting to watch and we learned quite a bit. We did conclude that our historical knowledge of Europe was pretty lacking. No matter what, we still enjoyed looking at all the historical artifacts.
After the museum, we came home and crashed. We were both wiped, a really long vacation sounds great - but man, sometimes you just need a day off to recoup from the vacation! Especially with this intense heat and sun! When we we relaxing, we heard from a previous tennat of the apartment with Ruth who went through IVF and she gave us the key to netflix!! I investigated, got a VPN and voila - WE HAVE ACCESS TO NETFLIX!!!! So freaking exciting. Now we are back to watching The Walking Dead. Yay Zombies! So we spent the rest of the night hanging out with Rick, Daryl and the gang. :)
Monday
It's embryo transfer day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I get so caught up in this, that I forget that a lot of people who would read this, don't really know IVF and the process we go through...but this is the day that we all look forward to in an IVF cycle. Its when the embryo has been growing in the lab for 5 days and now its time to put it back in me and hopefully it attaches, stays, grows and we get a baby!
So I woke up this morning and I was thrilled. In a few hours, I was going to be pregnant! Throughout our whole journey with infertility, I've always hoped to be pregnant. I've dreamt about it and I've spent a lot of time thinking about it. There have been times that I've thought I was pregnant if my period was a day or week late (thanks to irregular cycles) and I'd be hopeful, but I was never able to see a positive pregnancy test. I've never been pregnant.
Until today.
In the infertility world, there is an acronymn that is PUPO which means Pregnant Until Proven Otherwise. That's where I am right now! I have an embryo inside me and hopefully it is thinking that it likes its new home and it would like to stick around until its a healthy baby ready to meet the world. But no matter what the outcome is, the fact that I am currently pregnant is something that I will always have. And its a pretty damn good feeling.
So little one, I saw your picture today and I already love you. Please decide to stick around and meet your Dad and I in 9 months. We are SO hoping this works so that we can all be a happy family. You have a lot of people in the world who are anxious to meet you one day, so if you could just remember the process of mitosis and keep it going, that would be great! I know at least half of you have heard me teach it about a million times, so you should know the process pretty well - you got this! Keep growing little one, keep growing!!!!
Well...today was a rough day. Brian and I were exhausted from the past two days of being in the sun all day and we really didn't want to do much. But...we knew that we would be apartment bound for the next two days because of the embryo transfer and me needing to rest to allow the embryo to implant. So we forced ourselves to leave the apartment today.
It took a while to get out of bed, we didn't end up heading into Athens until noon. We decided to walk around the Plaka and then go to the Acropolis museum that we didn't go to when we visited the Acropolis because Brian had his knife on him the last time.
Plaka up first. The plaka is basically a large area of town that is just filled with shops. We got off the metro and started walking around. The directions we had made it feel like we were going in the wrong direction. So we just kept walking. Follow people, turn, walk, turn, etc. Suddenly, we arrive! ha! I told Brian I knew where I was going the whole time. :) We walk around the shops, but really they have a lot of the same things over and over again. We weren't really there to shop, we wanted to find something for the baby, but we don't really need anything else. We don't buy little trinkets/statues/paintings unless we know exactly where it will go in the house, otherwise it will just sit there useless - we were more walking around for the experience. We are looking at all the shirts and decide we want to find a onezie for the baby. Can't find one. Keep looking....nope. Can't find one anywhere. Where do the people of Athens get clothes to cover the kids??? We finally decide that all the babies must just walk around naked all the time because onezies do not exist.
As we are walking, we soon realize that we made it to the Acropolis on accident! Go us! We are hungry and all the cafes at the Plaka district are charging an arm and a leg for food that should be a lot cheaper so we ended up going to the same food place that we went to our last time at the Acropolis. Pretty sure the cook recognized us because he didnt put the lettuce on the gyros or maybe it was just a happy accident. Either way, they were delcious.
Then we headed up to the Acropolis museum. They would yell at anyone who took pictures, so there aren't very many pictures - but we did what we could. It was really need to see how they reconstructed things that had been destroyed over the years. We decided as we were walking through and reading the plaques that we should have went there first and we would have had a better understanding of what we were looking at when we visited the actual Acropolis. They had a video that was really interesting to watch and we learned quite a bit. We did conclude that our historical knowledge of Europe was pretty lacking. No matter what, we still enjoyed looking at all the historical artifacts.
After the museum, we came home and crashed. We were both wiped, a really long vacation sounds great - but man, sometimes you just need a day off to recoup from the vacation! Especially with this intense heat and sun! When we we relaxing, we heard from a previous tennat of the apartment with Ruth who went through IVF and she gave us the key to netflix!! I investigated, got a VPN and voila - WE HAVE ACCESS TO NETFLIX!!!! So freaking exciting. Now we are back to watching The Walking Dead. Yay Zombies! So we spent the rest of the night hanging out with Rick, Daryl and the gang. :)
Monday
It's embryo transfer day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I get so caught up in this, that I forget that a lot of people who would read this, don't really know IVF and the process we go through...but this is the day that we all look forward to in an IVF cycle. Its when the embryo has been growing in the lab for 5 days and now its time to put it back in me and hopefully it attaches, stays, grows and we get a baby!
So I woke up this morning and I was thrilled. In a few hours, I was going to be pregnant! Throughout our whole journey with infertility, I've always hoped to be pregnant. I've dreamt about it and I've spent a lot of time thinking about it. There have been times that I've thought I was pregnant if my period was a day or week late (thanks to irregular cycles) and I'd be hopeful, but I was never able to see a positive pregnancy test. I've never been pregnant.
Until today.
In the infertility world, there is an acronymn that is PUPO which means Pregnant Until Proven Otherwise. That's where I am right now! I have an embryo inside me and hopefully it is thinking that it likes its new home and it would like to stick around until its a healthy baby ready to meet the world. But no matter what the outcome is, the fact that I am currently pregnant is something that I will always have. And its a pretty damn good feeling.
So little one, I saw your picture today and I already love you. Please decide to stick around and meet your Dad and I in 9 months. We are SO hoping this works so that we can all be a happy family. You have a lot of people in the world who are anxious to meet you one day, so if you could just remember the process of mitosis and keep it going, that would be great! I know at least half of you have heard me teach it about a million times, so you should know the process pretty well - you got this! Keep growing little one, keep growing!!!!
Saturday, July 25, 2015
Boat Day! - Day 16 - July 25
First up, how the embryos are doing!
Same report as yesterday, 5 embryos are beautiful and growing great, 3 are doing okay! We won't get a report tomorrow on Sunday, they will just keep them in the incubator to keep growing! Then we go in on Monday for the transfer to put one back in! Keep growing little ones, keep growing!
Today was boat day! When Simon and Ruth picked us up from the airport on Monday they asked if the liked boats and we said yes! The forcast and waves were great today, so we decided to go for a boat ride on their boat!
We slept in, ate breakfast and then headed up to the main house to meet them. Went to the boat yard and got on the boat, got all the supplies and got the puppy (ini) on as well. The boat people towed us across the road and put the boat in and off we went.
We went over to an uninhabited island across the way and there is a cove over there with a beach and really nice water. When we got over there, we unloaded and tried out their "easy breathe" masks for snorkling. Those things are epic! You can see a wider view of the water and you can breathe out your nose and mouth! They rock. We saw seaweed, coral, sponges, little fish and sea urchins! We just swam round and round and then came back in for a bit.
Simon cooked his burgers and they were delicous! Ini was having the time of his life. He would go out, swim and then come back to the sand and practically burry himself in it! Then repeat. Beg for food, chew on his bone, swim, cover in sand, swim, cover in sand, eat a burger, chew on bone, etc. He had a fabulous day! We hung out on the beach for a while and introduced Ruth to Nutter Butters! :) Went back out with the easy breathes and looked around some more. It was a relaxing, fantastic day!
We loaded back up and tried to get in some deeper water to use the easy breathes to try and see bigger fish, but the sea had gotten a bit more rough by the end of the day. We got out anyways and we ended up seeing two sunken boats! They were small, but it was fun to be able to see how the organisms just take over as their new home! Then we packed up and headed home.
We really were proud of our selves with the amount of sunscreen that we used today - but I guess it wasn't enough for me. I was already burnt from our acropolis trip, but now my face, neck, and shoulders are fried. I didn't add to the area of the sunburn, it just feels more intense. I guess a night of aloe vera and standing in front of the air conditioner is in order for me. Brian isn't bad, just a few splotches here and there.
It was a really fun day and we are beyond grateful for Ruth and Simon's hospitality! They are more and more amazing every day!
Same report as yesterday, 5 embryos are beautiful and growing great, 3 are doing okay! We won't get a report tomorrow on Sunday, they will just keep them in the incubator to keep growing! Then we go in on Monday for the transfer to put one back in! Keep growing little ones, keep growing!
Today was boat day! When Simon and Ruth picked us up from the airport on Monday they asked if the liked boats and we said yes! The forcast and waves were great today, so we decided to go for a boat ride on their boat!
We slept in, ate breakfast and then headed up to the main house to meet them. Went to the boat yard and got on the boat, got all the supplies and got the puppy (ini) on as well. The boat people towed us across the road and put the boat in and off we went.
We went over to an uninhabited island across the way and there is a cove over there with a beach and really nice water. When we got over there, we unloaded and tried out their "easy breathe" masks for snorkling. Those things are epic! You can see a wider view of the water and you can breathe out your nose and mouth! They rock. We saw seaweed, coral, sponges, little fish and sea urchins! We just swam round and round and then came back in for a bit.
Simon cooked his burgers and they were delicous! Ini was having the time of his life. He would go out, swim and then come back to the sand and practically burry himself in it! Then repeat. Beg for food, chew on his bone, swim, cover in sand, swim, cover in sand, eat a burger, chew on bone, etc. He had a fabulous day! We hung out on the beach for a while and introduced Ruth to Nutter Butters! :) Went back out with the easy breathes and looked around some more. It was a relaxing, fantastic day!
We loaded back up and tried to get in some deeper water to use the easy breathes to try and see bigger fish, but the sea had gotten a bit more rough by the end of the day. We got out anyways and we ended up seeing two sunken boats! They were small, but it was fun to be able to see how the organisms just take over as their new home! Then we packed up and headed home.
We really were proud of our selves with the amount of sunscreen that we used today - but I guess it wasn't enough for me. I was already burnt from our acropolis trip, but now my face, neck, and shoulders are fried. I didn't add to the area of the sunburn, it just feels more intense. I guess a night of aloe vera and standing in front of the air conditioner is in order for me. Brian isn't bad, just a few splotches here and there.
It was a really fun day and we are beyond grateful for Ruth and Simon's hospitality! They are more and more amazing every day!
Friday, July 24, 2015
Adventures! - Day 15 - July 24th
Today was all about new adventures! Before I get into today...an update on the embryos because Mom wasn't too happy with that not being the first news... :)
Yesterday we thought we had 6 fertilized eggs...today they called to say two more popped up and we actually have 8!! The doctor said that 5 of the 8 are "beautiful" (her words) and the other 3 are "okay" YAY!!! I will very hapily take 5 beautiful embryos! Grow little ones grow!!!!
Now, for the day - We started off sleeping in (do you see a theme yet?) and then got around. Brian was a bit confused on what to wear today because we were going scuba diving!!!! It was entertaining to have him question over and over and I just got dressed and sat and waited. :) He figured it out rather quickly.
Simon and Ruth had mentioned to us that scuba diving was an option for us to do while we were here. They offered the full certification which lasts a few days or we could do an introductory dive for just a few hours to get the experience. We thought about it...and decided to go for it! This year is all about new things, we've finished our biggest remodel, gone skydiving, made embryos and now scuba diving!
So we let them know last night that we wanted to do the intro course and they set us up for a 1030 appt. Simon (our rockstar driver) took us to the dive place and it was awesome to drive along the cost. So freaking prety!!! We arrived, introduced ourselves, watched an intro video (which Brian then turned to me and asked "is it weird that I'm more nervous for this compared to skydiving??") haha. Then we filled out our paperwork and started to gather supplies.
Suits first. Make sure they fit and then take them down to the hips so that we don't burn up waiting. Then flippers.
The guy asked our shoe size and I told him and 8
...he looked really confused.
Euro size??
No, no, no - american.
Ahhh!!!
That makes more sense because an 8 in euro is itty bitty!!!
He hands me a pair and my feet are swimming in them. They are huge! Trial and error until he gives up, gets Brian his and then comes back to me. Finally gives me booties and we find some flippers that work. Then comes the mask, we each get one. Time to head outside.
Brian didn't have booties with his flippers, so his feet were burning on the pavement. We get geared up and weighed down with equipment, then head to the beach. Once we hit the water, an O ring on Brian's tank gives out and air starts going every where! Scared a little kid next to us, poor guy! So Brian has to go back in and get a new tank and they switch out his flippers to give him booties too.
As we are waiting on them, we are just floating in the lovely water - it felt great! We finally get all ready and do practice excercises. We have to take out our regulator and put it back in, use the purge button, signal for and use another divers secondary regulator (called an octapus), clear out our mask under water and such. We only struggle with clearing out our mask, but other than that - we are good to go and we finally get a hang of it.
We spend about 40 minutes under the water and looking at the coral, sponges and little fishes in the cove, we go about 6 meters down and it was super neat seeing it all. It was fun to look at the swimmers from below too! Overall, it was a really neat and cool experience. We get done and head back to shore to pack up and get our certificates for our first dive. Go us!
Call Ruth and her and Simon are on their way to pick us up. When they get there, we go to lunch at the 1 restaurant. The restaurant is T_____ 1, but I couldn't tell you the T word for the life of me. We all order and share a platter of greek food, a salad and french fries. It was delicious! We had a great time just hanging out, eating awesome food and enjoying the great company.
On the way home, we stop at the supermarket to get supplies for the boat trip planned for tomorrow with Ruth and Simon and then head home.
Once home, Ruth gives us a tour of the main house. We are staying in the apartment that is like their basement with its own separte entrance. We have seen the sitting room/dining room/kitchen many times but not much else. Holy crap. Their house is amazing. Absolutely amazing. Breathtaking. You should see the views from all the balconies. Wow.
We hang out for a bit, facetime with Mom and then relax in the cool air conditioning. Once the pharmacy opens again (around 6pm after their seista) we head there to get some more meds for me. Ruth gave me some she had on hand after egg collection, but I needed to replace her stock and get me more. I give myself props for taking pictures of the med boxes and then just showing it to the pharmacist because it made it MUCH easier. Crazy thing was, my bottle of aloe vera was more expensive than a box of meds. Wow. How meds are so different in the states.
When we got back, we opened the gate and Dippa (a puppy) escaped out the gate! So Brian got his run in while chasing down the dog. :) All puppies are accounted for and safe inside the gate! Time to just relax, eat dinner and sleep before a day out on the ocean tomorrow!!!!
Yesterday we thought we had 6 fertilized eggs...today they called to say two more popped up and we actually have 8!! The doctor said that 5 of the 8 are "beautiful" (her words) and the other 3 are "okay" YAY!!! I will very hapily take 5 beautiful embryos! Grow little ones grow!!!!
Now, for the day - We started off sleeping in (do you see a theme yet?) and then got around. Brian was a bit confused on what to wear today because we were going scuba diving!!!! It was entertaining to have him question over and over and I just got dressed and sat and waited. :) He figured it out rather quickly.
Simon and Ruth had mentioned to us that scuba diving was an option for us to do while we were here. They offered the full certification which lasts a few days or we could do an introductory dive for just a few hours to get the experience. We thought about it...and decided to go for it! This year is all about new things, we've finished our biggest remodel, gone skydiving, made embryos and now scuba diving!
So we let them know last night that we wanted to do the intro course and they set us up for a 1030 appt. Simon (our rockstar driver) took us to the dive place and it was awesome to drive along the cost. So freaking prety!!! We arrived, introduced ourselves, watched an intro video (which Brian then turned to me and asked "is it weird that I'm more nervous for this compared to skydiving??") haha. Then we filled out our paperwork and started to gather supplies.
Suits first. Make sure they fit and then take them down to the hips so that we don't burn up waiting. Then flippers.
The guy asked our shoe size and I told him and 8
...he looked really confused.
Euro size??
No, no, no - american.
Ahhh!!!
That makes more sense because an 8 in euro is itty bitty!!!
He hands me a pair and my feet are swimming in them. They are huge! Trial and error until he gives up, gets Brian his and then comes back to me. Finally gives me booties and we find some flippers that work. Then comes the mask, we each get one. Time to head outside.
Brian didn't have booties with his flippers, so his feet were burning on the pavement. We get geared up and weighed down with equipment, then head to the beach. Once we hit the water, an O ring on Brian's tank gives out and air starts going every where! Scared a little kid next to us, poor guy! So Brian has to go back in and get a new tank and they switch out his flippers to give him booties too.
As we are waiting on them, we are just floating in the lovely water - it felt great! We finally get all ready and do practice excercises. We have to take out our regulator and put it back in, use the purge button, signal for and use another divers secondary regulator (called an octapus), clear out our mask under water and such. We only struggle with clearing out our mask, but other than that - we are good to go and we finally get a hang of it.
We spend about 40 minutes under the water and looking at the coral, sponges and little fishes in the cove, we go about 6 meters down and it was super neat seeing it all. It was fun to look at the swimmers from below too! Overall, it was a really neat and cool experience. We get done and head back to shore to pack up and get our certificates for our first dive. Go us!
Call Ruth and her and Simon are on their way to pick us up. When they get there, we go to lunch at the 1 restaurant. The restaurant is T_____ 1, but I couldn't tell you the T word for the life of me. We all order and share a platter of greek food, a salad and french fries. It was delicious! We had a great time just hanging out, eating awesome food and enjoying the great company.
On the way home, we stop at the supermarket to get supplies for the boat trip planned for tomorrow with Ruth and Simon and then head home.
Once home, Ruth gives us a tour of the main house. We are staying in the apartment that is like their basement with its own separte entrance. We have seen the sitting room/dining room/kitchen many times but not much else. Holy crap. Their house is amazing. Absolutely amazing. Breathtaking. You should see the views from all the balconies. Wow.
We hang out for a bit, facetime with Mom and then relax in the cool air conditioning. Once the pharmacy opens again (around 6pm after their seista) we head there to get some more meds for me. Ruth gave me some she had on hand after egg collection, but I needed to replace her stock and get me more. I give myself props for taking pictures of the med boxes and then just showing it to the pharmacist because it made it MUCH easier. Crazy thing was, my bottle of aloe vera was more expensive than a box of meds. Wow. How meds are so different in the states.
When we got back, we opened the gate and Dippa (a puppy) escaped out the gate! So Brian got his run in while chasing down the dog. :) All puppies are accounted for and safe inside the gate! Time to just relax, eat dinner and sleep before a day out on the ocean tomorrow!!!!
Thursday, July 23, 2015
Tourists! - Day 14 - July 23
Today was all about being a tourist!
We woke up this morning and got around. I didn't sleep much last night, I woke up about every hour - so I was wide awake to get Brian up and out of bed on time.
Ruth's husband was going to the store this morning and offered to take us to the train station so that we didn't have to pay a taxi - SWEET!
We rode to the train station, and I'm starting to kind of remember where we are at when we turn on roads. Kind of being the key word. With words of advice and armed with maps, we hit the train station for the first time. We bought our ticket and they are only 1.20 a piece! Cheap! We got on the train and headed in for Athens. At one point we have to switch train lines, and we of course went the wrong way. Totally my fault. I saw a sign that started with "A" and ended in "opli" and I figured it was the Akropoli (Acropolis in greek). Just kidding - it wasn't. Apparently the signs tell you which way the train is headed and they post the last stop on the signs. No big deal, went one train stop down and then headed backwards.
We got off the train station and our noses were asulted in the best way with yummy smelling pizza. Seriously, it was 10am and we were ready for lunch it smelt so good! We wondered down the street and got in line to get the tickets for the Acropolis. It was a long line. Like seriously long. We were not expecting that for 10am on a Thursday. As we are standing there and starting to sweat...a lady comes over and says there are two lines! No one was using the second booth! So we hurry on up and we get in rather quickly. We decided to get the combo pack which allows you entrance into lots of historical sites and it was only 12 euros each. Not too bad. We start the treck up. and up. and up. and up. There are small sites on the way up and the great thing is that they had signs in greek and english explaining what everything was. The theatre was really neat and Brian enjoyed that. I thought the seats that were carved for comfort was crazy! Thats a lot of effort back in the day!!!
Keep going up, lots of ruins that are basically big rocks at this point. The cool thing was when the sign would have a picture of what it would have looked like in it's prime. That was neat! It's amazing to see how everything changes throughout the years/centuries. I can't wait for the day of augmented reality when its all projected to what it used to be and people walking around in time period clothes then show what's left now. That will be incredible.
Keep going up. Now, when we say up - I'm not joking. Up and Up and Up. The acropolis used to be the safe haven if Athens was ever attacked and so it had to be pretty high up there...and it was!
We finally get to the top and there are tons of people! We are basically cattle hearded into the main area and then we can walk around. The huge pillars and buildings are breathtaking and then when you throw in the view of the whole city, its mind blowing. The city is huge. HUGE. It spans out in all directions and it is just amazing. We walked around all of that area and read signs. There was a lot of info on the initial reconstruction attempts about 100 yrs or so ago and they all messed up. So now they are going back and restoring again so that the structures last. Intersting history though. Once we had our fill, we headed back down.
Once we were down, we hapily enjoyed some frozen lemonade to cool down. I swear, I've never sweat that much!!! It was HOT. Then we went up this rock formation that they used to use for judgement of criminals, kind of like a prehistoric court room. Not only did you get a great view of the city, but you can see the acropolis pretty well from here too.
By this time we are starving. We wanted to try some gyros. We walked around the building surrounding the Acropolis and found a hole in the wall selling gyros. Those things are cheap! We got a huge bottle of water and two large gyros for 5.40 and they were delicious!! Yummy yummy yummy. We want to go back for more. Then we got gelato and it was just as good. Not too bad to eat a really filling lunch for less than 10 euros.
We were then going to go to the Acropolis museum for the rest of the day before heading home. While we were standing in line we saw the hold up, every had to go through a metal detector. I asked Brian if he had his knife on him and he said yes. Well crap. Guess we will have to go back later. We have plenty of time, so I'm sure we will make it in. We didn't finish our combo pack today, so we have to go back and finish walking through all the other sites anyway and it's not like we are lacking on time. By this time, we are both tired from being in the sun all day so we headed back to the train to catch one to head home.
Two stops out from home and the train stopped like usual at a stop...and then the lights flickered and then it asked everyone to get off because that train was done for the day....okay....weird. So we do and we wait for another to come through and we make it back to the station. Grab a taxi and head home.
We hung out for a bit and then decided to go to the pool and take a swim and lay in the sun for a bit. That was lovely and relaxing. Now we are just hanging out in the apartment, planning out some other activities for Athens and Brian will be cooking soon. Really, just recouping from a long day of walking in the sun.
Today was great because I felt like a tourist on vacation and not stressed about the IVF. When we did get home, we got an update on how things were going. So as of yesterday...
They collected 19 eggs, 12 of them were mature, they injected all of them with Brians sperm and they came in this morning and 6 of them had fertilized. So currently we have 6 growing embryos in the lab. Grow little ones grow!!! Right now the plan is to implant one on day 5 - which would be monday and we will get an update everyday about how they are all doing.
Today was a great day. :)
We woke up this morning and got around. I didn't sleep much last night, I woke up about every hour - so I was wide awake to get Brian up and out of bed on time.
Ruth's husband was going to the store this morning and offered to take us to the train station so that we didn't have to pay a taxi - SWEET!
We rode to the train station, and I'm starting to kind of remember where we are at when we turn on roads. Kind of being the key word. With words of advice and armed with maps, we hit the train station for the first time. We bought our ticket and they are only 1.20 a piece! Cheap! We got on the train and headed in for Athens. At one point we have to switch train lines, and we of course went the wrong way. Totally my fault. I saw a sign that started with "A" and ended in "opli" and I figured it was the Akropoli (Acropolis in greek). Just kidding - it wasn't. Apparently the signs tell you which way the train is headed and they post the last stop on the signs. No big deal, went one train stop down and then headed backwards.
We got off the train station and our noses were asulted in the best way with yummy smelling pizza. Seriously, it was 10am and we were ready for lunch it smelt so good! We wondered down the street and got in line to get the tickets for the Acropolis. It was a long line. Like seriously long. We were not expecting that for 10am on a Thursday. As we are standing there and starting to sweat...a lady comes over and says there are two lines! No one was using the second booth! So we hurry on up and we get in rather quickly. We decided to get the combo pack which allows you entrance into lots of historical sites and it was only 12 euros each. Not too bad. We start the treck up. and up. and up. and up. There are small sites on the way up and the great thing is that they had signs in greek and english explaining what everything was. The theatre was really neat and Brian enjoyed that. I thought the seats that were carved for comfort was crazy! Thats a lot of effort back in the day!!!
Keep going up, lots of ruins that are basically big rocks at this point. The cool thing was when the sign would have a picture of what it would have looked like in it's prime. That was neat! It's amazing to see how everything changes throughout the years/centuries. I can't wait for the day of augmented reality when its all projected to what it used to be and people walking around in time period clothes then show what's left now. That will be incredible.
Keep going up. Now, when we say up - I'm not joking. Up and Up and Up. The acropolis used to be the safe haven if Athens was ever attacked and so it had to be pretty high up there...and it was!
We finally get to the top and there are tons of people! We are basically cattle hearded into the main area and then we can walk around. The huge pillars and buildings are breathtaking and then when you throw in the view of the whole city, its mind blowing. The city is huge. HUGE. It spans out in all directions and it is just amazing. We walked around all of that area and read signs. There was a lot of info on the initial reconstruction attempts about 100 yrs or so ago and they all messed up. So now they are going back and restoring again so that the structures last. Intersting history though. Once we had our fill, we headed back down.
Once we were down, we hapily enjoyed some frozen lemonade to cool down. I swear, I've never sweat that much!!! It was HOT. Then we went up this rock formation that they used to use for judgement of criminals, kind of like a prehistoric court room. Not only did you get a great view of the city, but you can see the acropolis pretty well from here too.
By this time we are starving. We wanted to try some gyros. We walked around the building surrounding the Acropolis and found a hole in the wall selling gyros. Those things are cheap! We got a huge bottle of water and two large gyros for 5.40 and they were delicious!! Yummy yummy yummy. We want to go back for more. Then we got gelato and it was just as good. Not too bad to eat a really filling lunch for less than 10 euros.
We were then going to go to the Acropolis museum for the rest of the day before heading home. While we were standing in line we saw the hold up, every had to go through a metal detector. I asked Brian if he had his knife on him and he said yes. Well crap. Guess we will have to go back later. We have plenty of time, so I'm sure we will make it in. We didn't finish our combo pack today, so we have to go back and finish walking through all the other sites anyway and it's not like we are lacking on time. By this time, we are both tired from being in the sun all day so we headed back to the train to catch one to head home.
Two stops out from home and the train stopped like usual at a stop...and then the lights flickered and then it asked everyone to get off because that train was done for the day....okay....weird. So we do and we wait for another to come through and we make it back to the station. Grab a taxi and head home.
We hung out for a bit and then decided to go to the pool and take a swim and lay in the sun for a bit. That was lovely and relaxing. Now we are just hanging out in the apartment, planning out some other activities for Athens and Brian will be cooking soon. Really, just recouping from a long day of walking in the sun.
Today was great because I felt like a tourist on vacation and not stressed about the IVF. When we did get home, we got an update on how things were going. So as of yesterday...
They collected 19 eggs, 12 of them were mature, they injected all of them with Brians sperm and they came in this morning and 6 of them had fertilized. So currently we have 6 growing embryos in the lab. Grow little ones grow!!! Right now the plan is to implant one on day 5 - which would be monday and we will get an update everyday about how they are all doing.
Today was a great day. :)
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
Egg Collection - Day 12 & 13 - July 21 & 22
Tuesday
Today was our bum day. We are both jet lagged and exhausted, so we slept in until noon. Then we put away all our clothes into the closets so that we weren't living out of a suitcase for the next few weeks. I felt a bit light headed after so I took another nap.
At some point in the morning, we gave Mom a tour of the place via skype and talked for a bit to catch up on everything.
Once we were up and around we went to the main house and got directions for where everything is around the house. We even have handy little map to guide us around.
We decided to take a walk to the beach which is about a 10 minute walk. It was gorgeous. The water is a beautiful blue and the breeze felt great. We did forget to take any pictures, sorry guys. I blame the exhuastion. I didn't feel like getting in the water yesterday, but Brian went for a walk in there. It was really rocky and he ended up tripping and falling. It was funny to watch from the shoreline. But when he was drying off he realized he cut himself pretty good on his foot. Nicely done. He now wears my Monsters Inc, Sophia the First and Minion bandaids on his feet. He rocks them. :)
When we left the beach, we walked to the market to grab some food to last us. I have downloaded an app on my phone that is a dictionary where I can scan Greek writing and it will translate it to English for us...but smart us left my phone at the apartment and only took Brian's phone. Bah! So we relied heavily on the pictures of the packages. It worked out in the end.
Once we had groceries, we walked back to the house. Brian made spaghetti for dinner and we just hung out. We watched the Avengers to pass the time and skype'd with Brian's mom. Then it was bedtime because wednesday was a big day!
Wednesday
It's egg collection day!
I didn't sleep well last night from the anxiety/excitment. I woke up at 1, then at 3, 4, 5 and 6. Finally just laid there and played on my phone. Once Brian was up, we got around.
Our taxi was picking us up to take us to the clinic in Athens at 8:15 and my apt was at 9. Ruth came down to make sure we were up and ready to go. I wasn't allowed to eat/drink anything for 8 hrs before the procedure...so when she asked how I was feeling, I said "hungry" - she said "tough!" Haha, she cracks me up. At least I follow directions. :)
Kosta (the taxi driver - not to be confused with Kosta the doctor) picked us up and took us into the clinic. We were a bit early, so we sat in the waiting room and took a pre-collection selfie.
They came and got me and took me into the room to get changed into the gown. Went into the procedure room and they put me to sleep. I've never been under anestetic before, so it was a unique experience! I don't remember anything, and then I was awake! I laid there for a bit and then got dressed and went back to the waiting room to meet up with Brian. The whole process took about an hour and while I was in there, Brian gave his sample to them.
Kosta (the taxi driver) came back to get us and took us home. I laid on the couch and I was awake! I thought I'd be sleeply all day!!!! We watched a movie, I kept down some sips of water. Ruth wanted to wait a bit before I ate to make sure I kept down the water...I'm impatient and hungry and ate a piece of beef jerky. :) Then she came down to check on me and gave me the okay to have some bread. Later in the day I had my mandatory egg white omlet. I've kept everything down so far.
I'm feeling okay. I'm really swollen/bloated and that's really uncomfortable. Ruth gave me some pain pills to help with that. Apparently when they drain the follicles, they naturally fill back up with blood and that's what causes the swelling - so thats normal. I did some reading and it should go down in a few days. I am using a heating pad and that helps tremendously!
So...the results!!!
They collected 19 eggs!!! Holy crap!! That's a lot!!!!
Of the 19 eggs, 12 of them were mature and have the potential to be fertilized
They did ISCI (where they inject one sperm into each egg) on all 12 and we will hear back tomorrow morning on how many have been fertilized!
So thats really good numbers! Yay! Hopefully we have some good news in the morning and the little embryos keep on growing! The plan is to get them to grow for 5 days and then they will take 1 and implant it back in to make the baby.
But...technically - we (with a little help from science) there was an attempt to make 12 embryos today!!!!!! That's crazy and awesome to think about all at the same time!!!
I do start more meds tonight to prepare my body for the embryo transfer - but I'm excited to keep this process rolling!
Tomorrow we plan to go into downtown Athens and do some exploring for the first time now that the hard part is done! So lots of pictures tomorrow night, sorry for the lack of pictures today.
Today was our bum day. We are both jet lagged and exhausted, so we slept in until noon. Then we put away all our clothes into the closets so that we weren't living out of a suitcase for the next few weeks. I felt a bit light headed after so I took another nap.
At some point in the morning, we gave Mom a tour of the place via skype and talked for a bit to catch up on everything.
Once we were up and around we went to the main house and got directions for where everything is around the house. We even have handy little map to guide us around.
We decided to take a walk to the beach which is about a 10 minute walk. It was gorgeous. The water is a beautiful blue and the breeze felt great. We did forget to take any pictures, sorry guys. I blame the exhuastion. I didn't feel like getting in the water yesterday, but Brian went for a walk in there. It was really rocky and he ended up tripping and falling. It was funny to watch from the shoreline. But when he was drying off he realized he cut himself pretty good on his foot. Nicely done. He now wears my Monsters Inc, Sophia the First and Minion bandaids on his feet. He rocks them. :)
When we left the beach, we walked to the market to grab some food to last us. I have downloaded an app on my phone that is a dictionary where I can scan Greek writing and it will translate it to English for us...but smart us left my phone at the apartment and only took Brian's phone. Bah! So we relied heavily on the pictures of the packages. It worked out in the end.
Once we had groceries, we walked back to the house. Brian made spaghetti for dinner and we just hung out. We watched the Avengers to pass the time and skype'd with Brian's mom. Then it was bedtime because wednesday was a big day!
Wednesday
It's egg collection day!
I didn't sleep well last night from the anxiety/excitment. I woke up at 1, then at 3, 4, 5 and 6. Finally just laid there and played on my phone. Once Brian was up, we got around.
Our taxi was picking us up to take us to the clinic in Athens at 8:15 and my apt was at 9. Ruth came down to make sure we were up and ready to go. I wasn't allowed to eat/drink anything for 8 hrs before the procedure...so when she asked how I was feeling, I said "hungry" - she said "tough!" Haha, she cracks me up. At least I follow directions. :)
Kosta (the taxi driver - not to be confused with Kosta the doctor) picked us up and took us into the clinic. We were a bit early, so we sat in the waiting room and took a pre-collection selfie.
They came and got me and took me into the room to get changed into the gown. Went into the procedure room and they put me to sleep. I've never been under anestetic before, so it was a unique experience! I don't remember anything, and then I was awake! I laid there for a bit and then got dressed and went back to the waiting room to meet up with Brian. The whole process took about an hour and while I was in there, Brian gave his sample to them.
Kosta (the taxi driver) came back to get us and took us home. I laid on the couch and I was awake! I thought I'd be sleeply all day!!!! We watched a movie, I kept down some sips of water. Ruth wanted to wait a bit before I ate to make sure I kept down the water...I'm impatient and hungry and ate a piece of beef jerky. :) Then she came down to check on me and gave me the okay to have some bread. Later in the day I had my mandatory egg white omlet. I've kept everything down so far.
I'm feeling okay. I'm really swollen/bloated and that's really uncomfortable. Ruth gave me some pain pills to help with that. Apparently when they drain the follicles, they naturally fill back up with blood and that's what causes the swelling - so thats normal. I did some reading and it should go down in a few days. I am using a heating pad and that helps tremendously!
So...the results!!!
They collected 19 eggs!!! Holy crap!! That's a lot!!!!
Of the 19 eggs, 12 of them were mature and have the potential to be fertilized
They did ISCI (where they inject one sperm into each egg) on all 12 and we will hear back tomorrow morning on how many have been fertilized!
So thats really good numbers! Yay! Hopefully we have some good news in the morning and the little embryos keep on growing! The plan is to get them to grow for 5 days and then they will take 1 and implant it back in to make the baby.
But...technically - we (with a little help from science) there was an attempt to make 12 embryos today!!!!!! That's crazy and awesome to think about all at the same time!!!
I do start more meds tonight to prepare my body for the embryo transfer - but I'm excited to keep this process rolling!
Tomorrow we plan to go into downtown Athens and do some exploring for the first time now that the hard part is done! So lots of pictures tomorrow night, sorry for the lack of pictures today.
Monday, July 20, 2015
Whew - Day 10 & 11 - July 19 & 20
Lets see if I can remember everything that has happened. There has been a lot and lack of sleep might mess with my brain. I'll do my best...
When we left off, we were sitting in the Atlanta airport waiting for our midnight flight to Paris. We watched a few episodes of the Walking Dead and then we finally boarded! That flight left on time!! Most of the flight we slept and watched movies on the seat screens. Not too intersting of a flight.
We jumped ahead in time 7 hours on that flight, so we arrived in Paris at around 2pm Paris time. We looked into possibly making a quick run to see the Effiel tower before our next flight that started boarding at 6ish, but every post said that you needed at least 5 hours and with all of our bad luck, we didn't want to risk it.
So we hung out in the airport. We walked around all the shops and bought a souvenier gift for the baby (a Effiel tower top toy) and we watched some Netflix to pass the time. Brian got a notification on his phone that our bags were not on our flight. Bah! So we went to a desk to see what was going on...aparently in all the reshuffling of our flights, our bags got send on a different route. They were sent to New York, then to arrive in Athens at 9:45am on Monday. We were going to be arriving in Athens at 11:10pm Sunday night. So that didn't work well. We talked to Ruth and she said we could just drop by the airport on the way home from the clinic the next day and grab the bags or the airport would deliver them to us. So problem semi solved.
Flight to Athens is delayed.
More delay
Even more delay
So now we are about to board and we won't be arriving in Athens now until 1am and thats really late for Ruth and Simon to come get us, especially when they have to drop of their family at the airport on tuesday at 4am. So they need sleep. So since our bags are stuck anyways - Brian and I decide to just hang out at the Athens airport overnight until they can come get us on Monday later in the morning. We looked into hotels and they were stupid expensive for us only being there for 8 hours. So we are just going to chill in the airport.
We finally board, by this time we are just done flying. We get to the airport and talk to the baggage people and everything seems to be in order. We grab some food and walk around the airport. We find an empty corner that we can lay down in and maybe get some sleep.
It was cold. The floor was stupid hard. Not comfortable, and not much sleep came to us. But we tried. We also noticed that our feet/lower legs were really swollen. Probably from sitting for such long periods at a time. I'm happy to report that all extremeties are now back to normal size.
We woke up and walked around some more, went to check on our baggage. My bag is there!!! Yay!!!
Brian's bag is not.
Brian's bag got put on a different plane that won't be in until 5pm on Monday. Of freaking course. So we set it up to be delivered to the house tonight. To pass the time until Ruth and Simon arrived, we decided to watch some Walking Dead. Just kidding - Greece doesn't have Netflix!!! WHAT??? Apparently they don't have Amazon Prime either. W.T.F.
We watched Guardians of the Galaxy instead. Movies it is I guess.
We watched Guardians of the Galaxy instead. Movies it is I guess.
We finally meet Ruth in person!!!!!!!!! And she comes with a ride to leave the airport!!! We've never been so happy to see an airport in the rearview mirror.
We head straight to the clinic for an untrasound and bloodwork. My bloodwork came back and my estrodiol was over 2000 and the ultrasound showed good follicle growth in both ovaries. Yay! Good news. I am responding so well to the meds that they want to get my levels down just a bit before the transfer - so Kosta (the doc) told me I had to eat 5 egg whites a day and drink loads of fluids. (Later today, I had my first egg white meal. Delicious). Got the meds for the trigger shot and headed home.
We were shown to the apartment we are renting from Ruth and its gorgeous here. Absolutely gorgeous. Walked in the door to the apartment and we passed out. Brian showered and I just laid on the bed and I was out. We slept for about 5 hours and then got up and went to the pool! Ruth said that some physical excersise would help wake us up enough to last the night but then wear us out to be able to go back to sleep tonight. (We are now 8 hours ahead of KC time). Their pool is beautiful and we hung out in the sun for a bit.
Ruth and Simon have 7 dogs (I think I counted right) and they are awesome. They are super sweet and just want pet 24/7 and cuddle time. Pretty much exactly like Ally and Jack, so they make me happy. I love puppies!!! They help fill the void because I miss my puppies!!!
We came back to the apartment and I showered. It was the best shower of my life. No joke. Amazing. Got around, ate my eggs and then headed up to the main house for dinner.
Simon and Ruth cooked us chinese food and it was delicous. Then we had "daddy cake" for dessert. Pretty sure it was 150% chocolate with a crumbly crust. I'm sure the dogs will love me with all the crumbs I probably spilt, but it was yummy and rich.
The airline called and they just dropped off Brian's bag!!! Yay!!
So right now I'm stuffed and I'm back to being really tired!!! We are just hanging out in the apartment. I have to do my trigger shot at midnight tonight, so once that is done, I'm going to pass out yet again.
The weather here is wonderful and so far, things are looking up! Tomorrow we had planned on being bums, going to the beach and then the egg collection will be at 9am on Wednesday morning! Thank you everyone for all the positive thoughts/prayers/good vibes...looks like our luck is starting to turn in our favor. Keep 'em coming!
Saturday, July 18, 2015
Here We Go - Day 8 & 9 - July 17 & 18
Friday
Start out Friday morning and I couldn't sleep very well so I woke up tired.
I had my doctors appointment Friday morning for an ultrasound and bloodwork again. During the ultrasound, she found 21 growing follicles and my estrodiol level was about 960. If you aren't familiar with IVF...that means that I have 21 sacs of fluid in my ovaries that contain eggs. Normal people (wish we were normal) produce one egg per month. The injection drugs I'm on are called stimulants that make my ovaries produce lots of eggs for this process. So each follicle contains an egg and its growing. Ideally, we want them to be 18mm which would indicate a mature egg that is ready to be collected and fertilized. So right now, I have 21 potential eggs to be fertilized. Which is a good thing! IVF is a numbers game because not all eggs will be mature, not all will fertilize, not all embryos will last the 5 day incubation period before implantation - so the more you have, the better the chances that you end up pregnant! So yay! I continue on my current protocol of the menopur (which helps the eggs grow and mature) and centrotide (which prevents ovulation, so the eggs stay in the ovaries until they are collected).
Right now the game plan is to do another ultrasound/bloodwork on Monday in Athens, then probably take the trigger HCG shot (which causes the final maturation of the egg) and then egg collection 36 hours later on Wednesday and then we let them grow for 5 days! Hopefully, things keep according to plan.
After my doctors appointment on Monday, I went to lunch with my teacher buddies. The biomed teachers got together to introduce the new Freshmen Center teacher to the rest of the group. We had a good time with good conversation! It just reinforced how excited I am for this school year!!!!
I went home and I wasn't feeling so hot. I was nauseous, cramping and super tired. I really didn't' sleep well the night before, so a nap was in order. Brian got home and we went and did some last minute shopping. I was excited to find some dresses to wear while we are there because I feel really bloated from all 21 follicles growing and so comfy clothes sounded like a much better idea than jeans. So we found some clothes and got some last minute things we were missing. It was nice to just have an evening together. I did have to do my centrotide shot in the Bass Pro bathroom...that was interesting. Then we went home so I could do my menopur shot really quick and then head back out. We got home for the night at about 11 and then stayed up till 3 finishing packing and laundry. These aren't from last nights shots - but I forgot to post them a few days ago...here is what shot time looks like! I told Brian I'm getting pretty great at using syringes and he replied with....hmmm..not sure if thats a good thing!
Saturday
We woke up this morning and Brian started us out right with cinnamon rolls. YUM. We did the last minute things and then Mom and Dad showed up to take us to the airport. We got an email that our flight had been delayed. The original plan was to go from Kansas City to Minniapolis (I asked Brian how to spell that...he said "umm...a lot of nnnn's and an apolis". Helpful) then to Amsterdam and finally to Athens. We were supposed to arrive tomorrow (sunday at 1-ish).
Well flight out of KC delayed enough that we would miss the flight to Amsterdam - so that re-routed our entire itinerary.
New plan, leave KC, go to Atlanta, to Paris then to Athens and we would arrive in Athens at about 2pm. Okay, not too much different - sounds fine to us. We were super happy when my checked bag came in at 49 lbs when there is a 50 lbs limit!!! That was super exciting!!!! Especially since I packed the whole thing and Brian used to not let me pack because I didn't do it right! Go me.
This is us before we board for Atlanta.
So we get on the plane and we got assigned the emergency exit spot...look at all this leg room!!! Yeah!!!!
We get over Atlanta and there is bad weather. We can't land. So we hover over the city for 40 minutes. Enough to be annoying and make us miss our flight to Paris. So we have to go to the Delta line to get re-routed yet again. We stand in line for 30 minutes. We finally get to a lady and she says she can't do international flight changes. We have to use the phones.
Well that information would have been nice to know BEFORE we stood in line. So I get on the phone. And I'm on hold for another 30 minutes. As she is telling me the new plan, she hits a wrong button and hangs up on me. There is no redial option. BAH!
So we give up on the phones and go to the international desk. We stand in line again. Finally we have two options.
1 - arrive in Athens at 11:10 pm on sunday
2 - arrive in Athens at 2pm on Monday
Well each has downfalls. We really didn't want to get there late in Athens because that's when the protesting is occuring. Ruth and her husband are picking us up and we didn't want them to have to drive up there. But with option 2, we might miss my scan/blood work apt on Monday and thats not good either! So since it was 2AM in Athens when we had to make these choices and couldn't call - we went with option 1.
So now we are sitting in Atlanta...waiting for our midnight flight.
A good thing is that we took Cassie's advice and we are getting a small souvenier for the baby at each stop, and so this is the first one from Atlanta.
One thing we have learned in Atlanta is that neither one of us knows how to walk. I swear, every 10 steps one of us is tripping over our feet. I think the airport has it out for us. For now, we will sit and watch a movie until we get to board our flight.
Here's to a safe flight and hopefully no more delays!!!!!! Athens, here we come...eventually. :)
Start out Friday morning and I couldn't sleep very well so I woke up tired.
I had my doctors appointment Friday morning for an ultrasound and bloodwork again. During the ultrasound, she found 21 growing follicles and my estrodiol level was about 960. If you aren't familiar with IVF...that means that I have 21 sacs of fluid in my ovaries that contain eggs. Normal people (wish we were normal) produce one egg per month. The injection drugs I'm on are called stimulants that make my ovaries produce lots of eggs for this process. So each follicle contains an egg and its growing. Ideally, we want them to be 18mm which would indicate a mature egg that is ready to be collected and fertilized. So right now, I have 21 potential eggs to be fertilized. Which is a good thing! IVF is a numbers game because not all eggs will be mature, not all will fertilize, not all embryos will last the 5 day incubation period before implantation - so the more you have, the better the chances that you end up pregnant! So yay! I continue on my current protocol of the menopur (which helps the eggs grow and mature) and centrotide (which prevents ovulation, so the eggs stay in the ovaries until they are collected).
Right now the game plan is to do another ultrasound/bloodwork on Monday in Athens, then probably take the trigger HCG shot (which causes the final maturation of the egg) and then egg collection 36 hours later on Wednesday and then we let them grow for 5 days! Hopefully, things keep according to plan.
After my doctors appointment on Monday, I went to lunch with my teacher buddies. The biomed teachers got together to introduce the new Freshmen Center teacher to the rest of the group. We had a good time with good conversation! It just reinforced how excited I am for this school year!!!!
I went home and I wasn't feeling so hot. I was nauseous, cramping and super tired. I really didn't' sleep well the night before, so a nap was in order. Brian got home and we went and did some last minute shopping. I was excited to find some dresses to wear while we are there because I feel really bloated from all 21 follicles growing and so comfy clothes sounded like a much better idea than jeans. So we found some clothes and got some last minute things we were missing. It was nice to just have an evening together. I did have to do my centrotide shot in the Bass Pro bathroom...that was interesting. Then we went home so I could do my menopur shot really quick and then head back out. We got home for the night at about 11 and then stayed up till 3 finishing packing and laundry. These aren't from last nights shots - but I forgot to post them a few days ago...here is what shot time looks like! I told Brian I'm getting pretty great at using syringes and he replied with....hmmm..not sure if thats a good thing!
Saturday
We woke up this morning and Brian started us out right with cinnamon rolls. YUM. We did the last minute things and then Mom and Dad showed up to take us to the airport. We got an email that our flight had been delayed. The original plan was to go from Kansas City to Minniapolis (I asked Brian how to spell that...he said "umm...a lot of nnnn's and an apolis". Helpful) then to Amsterdam and finally to Athens. We were supposed to arrive tomorrow (sunday at 1-ish).
Well flight out of KC delayed enough that we would miss the flight to Amsterdam - so that re-routed our entire itinerary.
New plan, leave KC, go to Atlanta, to Paris then to Athens and we would arrive in Athens at about 2pm. Okay, not too much different - sounds fine to us. We were super happy when my checked bag came in at 49 lbs when there is a 50 lbs limit!!! That was super exciting!!!! Especially since I packed the whole thing and Brian used to not let me pack because I didn't do it right! Go me.
This is us before we board for Atlanta.
So we get on the plane and we got assigned the emergency exit spot...look at all this leg room!!! Yeah!!!!
We get over Atlanta and there is bad weather. We can't land. So we hover over the city for 40 minutes. Enough to be annoying and make us miss our flight to Paris. So we have to go to the Delta line to get re-routed yet again. We stand in line for 30 minutes. We finally get to a lady and she says she can't do international flight changes. We have to use the phones.
Well that information would have been nice to know BEFORE we stood in line. So I get on the phone. And I'm on hold for another 30 minutes. As she is telling me the new plan, she hits a wrong button and hangs up on me. There is no redial option. BAH!
So we give up on the phones and go to the international desk. We stand in line again. Finally we have two options.
1 - arrive in Athens at 11:10 pm on sunday
2 - arrive in Athens at 2pm on Monday
Well each has downfalls. We really didn't want to get there late in Athens because that's when the protesting is occuring. Ruth and her husband are picking us up and we didn't want them to have to drive up there. But with option 2, we might miss my scan/blood work apt on Monday and thats not good either! So since it was 2AM in Athens when we had to make these choices and couldn't call - we went with option 1.
So now we are sitting in Atlanta...waiting for our midnight flight.
A good thing is that we took Cassie's advice and we are getting a small souvenier for the baby at each stop, and so this is the first one from Atlanta.
One thing we have learned in Atlanta is that neither one of us knows how to walk. I swear, every 10 steps one of us is tripping over our feet. I think the airport has it out for us. For now, we will sit and watch a movie until we get to board our flight.
Here's to a safe flight and hopefully no more delays!!!!!! Athens, here we come...eventually. :)
Thursday, July 16, 2015
Too Much - Day 7 - July 16
If you know me, you know that I am normally a pretty happy person. I'm very organized and I like to be on top of everything. So far through this IVF process, I've done a pretty good job of staying positive and organized...
But today I'm struggling.
For the most part, IVF abroad has been pretty smooth sailing. There have been a few hurdles along the way...but nothing I couldn't handle. It looked a little like this.
The first issue - reaction to medicine.
But today I'm struggling.
For the most part, IVF abroad has been pretty smooth sailing. There have been a few hurdles along the way...but nothing I couldn't handle. It looked a little like this.
After the last 24 hours, it looks more like this.
The first issue - reaction to medicine.
I did the centrotide and menopur injection last night and both were a lot more liquid to inject than I had been doing with the follitism. So that was painful, then my abdominal area was really sore. I felt nauseous and really swollen. There isn't really a different way to explain it. Just really uncomfortable. That continues all night and still today. So I'm dreading my injection tonight. Ugh.
Next issue - money.
The way the IVF abroad program works is that you pay for the clinic when you start the process (so when you start injections). To pay, you have to transfer money to an international exchange company and then they transfer it from US dollars to Euros and send it to the clinic. Well the company took longer to get me the official log in info and then the transfer takes 2 days to complete. I finally log in this morning and they are having technical difficulties and so it takes a few hours to finally get it set uphat to do. I go in, we start the process and then the Assistant Manager comes out and tells me that the bank will not transfer money to Greece because of their current economic status. At all. No money transfer will happen from wiring money.
So I have to call Ruth and make sure its okay that I send money to the exchange company via credit card, even though I have to pay a larger fee and it takes longer to process on their end. She says that's fine and they will just have to get over the fact it will take longer for them to get their money. While I'm on the phone with her, I find out another problem.
Next problem - lack of meds
I asked her about the centrotide, because I have two doses left. One for tonight, one for Friday. She is confused and said no, I should have gotten 5 doses of it to last me until Sunday night. Nope. So she checks the prescription she sent and sure enough, it only had listed 3 doses instead of 5. It was a simple mistake..but crap. Now I need at least two more and we leave on Saturday. So she quickly sends a new prescription for 3 more vials to our doc here (Brandi). I also call and email Brandi to make sure she got them...no reply.
I call Walgreens Specialty Pharmacy...they can get me the meds by tomorrow if the whole thing is processed by 6:30 tonight. While I'm on the phone, I realize that its Thursday. Brandi is off work on Thursday and Karen is on vacation. Well crap. I need someone to enter in that prescription!
So I call the main office and ask if anyone there can enter the prescription and she said that she would transfer me to the triage nurse, and as soon as she answers, I get an email from Brandi saying she just send in the script! Whew! One bullet dodged. Sorry triage nurse, guess I don't need you after all.
I give Walgreens a bit to process, call to make sure they have it...and they do! It's being processed now and they will call me with payment info and delivery info soon.
Next problem - money
The three new vials of centrotide will cost $580. So now we have racked up more medication costs.
Initial cost for meds from the UK: $1200 (with FDA currently)
Cost for 2nd set of meds from US: $2200
Cost of follitism because meds didn't show up on saturday: $536
Cost of more centrotide: $580
That's a grand total of $4516 dollars on meds. When we had budgeted to spend $1500. Its just frustrating beyond words. The FDA is still holding the original meds from the UK and no release date to be given. If you've read the other blogs, you know that my parents and Brian's parents are helping us pay for this whole process. I am beyond grateful that they are willing to help but asking for more money over and over is awful. I know we will pay them back and eventually we will have paid for this whole process ourselves but this just sucks. Its just one thing after another. The main reason we were going over there is because it was so much cheaper. Now we are spending the same amount we would have spent here.
Next problem - name on my medications
I've also had to be on the phone with Walgreens today about the name on my prescriptions. They have my name spelled wrong. They spell it Rachelle instead of Rachell. So it doesn't match my ID. I have a letter from them explaining their error, and will get an official letter on letterhead tomorrow via FedEx...but I called TSA to check how that will effect bringing them on the plane. They said they won't have an issue - but customs might. I called customs and all I get is a busy signal. Phone won't even go through. I'll keep trying.
Final problem - the issues in Greece
If you've looked at the news, you know that Greece is not in the best state right now. We have been talking to Ruth about it and she said we would hardly notice while we were there. We are staying in her apartment, so will be 40 minutes outside of Athens where all the chaos is occurring. But the clinic is in Athens and we will have to go there at least every other day for scans and blood work. It's been peaceful protests but as of last night there were petrol bombs and teargas used. Obviously there is nothing we could do to change this, but good God. Its just one more thing to worry about. I know family is worried about it and so are we - but we are so vested now that there isn't much else to do.
This is a really long way of saying that today is a bad day. This is just too freaking hard and too much to deal with.
Brian sent me some Cool Runnings motivation and it helps...but I just need the rest of this process to be smoother. I'm done with all these dang hurdles. It should not be this hard to get pregnant. Those of you who it happens naturally for, don't ever take advantage of it. Pregnancy might suck, the cost of having a kid might suck, but on the bright side, at least all you had to do was have sex to get there.
Even though I'm frustrated, I can't help but look at this picture and only see the Nike icon. "Just do it." So that's what we will do. Just. Do. It. and hope for the best.
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
Family Time - Day 4, 5 & 6 - July 13-15
So the post everyday didn't happen...but here is what I've been up to..
Monday
Today was all about the money! I slept in, got around and then headed to Johnathan and Ashley's place. They bank at Commerce bank and were able to exchange our money for euros for us. Yay Foreign money! As Ashley would say, its so pretty!
We hung out at their place and we played with the kiddos. Miles was actually awake most of the day! And he is one wiggly kid!
That evening, my parents and Brian joined us for dinner. The boys grilled out and we hung out in the air conditioning. The joke of the night was the yellow watermelon. Mom and Dad were bringing over the meat/buns and Ash and I were in charge of sides. So we went to Price Chopper and wanted watermelon. The sign said "seedless yellow watermelon." Well we really didn't think it was actually yellow.
Oh no, it was yellow. It tasted exactly like regular watermelon, it was just yellow! Weird. But we were the butt of all the jokes the rest of the night because we didn't think the sign meant it would actually be yellow!
I was able to give the kiddos their souvenirs from my time in California at Universal Studios. River got a Sully jacket and she was freaking adorable in it!
We stayed up late watching Jupiter Ascending...and it was okay. Meh.
My shot of follitism went fine. The headache is getting more intense and hurts. Just trying to think bigger picture, it will be worth it.
Tuesday
Tuesday was all about cleaning! I detail cleaned the bathrooms in the house...literally detail cleaned. With a toothbrush and all! Whew! It was exhausting. I cleaned up the rest of my house and tried to work on my stats project that is due on friday - but I still don't have all the data I need. EEK! Starting to get a bit freaked out about that one. I also gave the puppies a bath! Jack was normal, Ally at the soap. Pretty much normal for them! They were running laps after and I tried to get pictures, but Ally moves too fast to be photogenic!
On the positive note, the meds we ordered from the US (the 2nd set, since the first set are still stuck with the FDA) arrived! Yay meds!
Tuesday evening, I went down to the Title Boxing Club in Belton with Mom and Ashley to go to their Ladies Night Out Event! We did a class, got some food and a gift bag. The best part was the massage afterwards! AHHHH! Glorious.
Then we went back to Mom & Dads and hung out. When I box, I don't wear shoes so that I can turn my feet easier and so by the end of a class, my feet turn black from the rubber mats. Well River kept seeing them and would say "UCK!" So I told her to fix it...she goes into the kitchen, grabs a dish towel and starts cleaning my feet. It was hilarious!!!
Then she saw me put my bandaid on after I did my injection and she said "owe!" The rest of the night she would raise up my shirt, point to my bandaid and say "owe!" She is stinking cute. Love that kid!!
Came home and watched a few episodes of The Walking Dead.
Wednesday
Scan day! Had to wake up early this morning, but it was worth it because its Scan day! Doc in Greece wanted me to have a scan and bloodwork done today. Yay needles! Good thing needles don't bother me or this whole process would be a lot worse!
The results were...
Endometrium 7mm
Right ovary follicles: 12mm, 11mm, 10mm, 13mmLeft ovary follicles: 17mm, 11mm, 10mm, 13mm, 9mm, 14mm, 12mm, 13mm
Estradiol today on July 15, is 432 pg/mL
After hearing that, the doc in Greece wants me to do Centrotide at 7 tonight (so I better hurry up and finish this **just did it - that was a lot of meds to inject!**) and then Menopur at 8pm.
After the doc appointment, Mom and I did some window shopping and she helped me run a few errands. We went to Jason's Deli for lunch and I made the most perfect ice cream cone! So pretty. I was very proud of myself. :)
We did run into another problem with the meds. (Of course - I swear, meds will be the death of me) Walgreens has my name spelt wrong - they have Rachelle instead of Rachell. Well, when I told them this a year ago, it was no big deal because they knew it was me. Well - it is a big deal with I go to fly with them on Saturday. The prescription won't match my ID. Freaking perfect. So I had to call them and they can't send new labels for security purposes, but they are sending me a letter explaining that they are my meds and such. Bah! Just one more hurdle. I'm going to call the airport tomorrow and make sure we will be okay.
Mom and I went back to her place and I took a nap. Then we headed to Title to get a workout in. My stomach started cramping at the end, so I backed off a bit. I did want to workout though because when I worked out last night, I didn't get my headache after meds. So we thought the workout probably helped. I hope it does the same tonight!
Now I'm home. Brian is cooking dinner and its time for shots! More Walking Dead probably and then just a relaxing night at home.
Coming up in the next few days, its prep time! Time to do last minute laundry, pack and get things going!!! I have another scan/bloodwork on Friday and we leave on Saturday!
Monday
Today was all about the money! I slept in, got around and then headed to Johnathan and Ashley's place. They bank at Commerce bank and were able to exchange our money for euros for us. Yay Foreign money! As Ashley would say, its so pretty!
We hung out at their place and we played with the kiddos. Miles was actually awake most of the day! And he is one wiggly kid!
That evening, my parents and Brian joined us for dinner. The boys grilled out and we hung out in the air conditioning. The joke of the night was the yellow watermelon. Mom and Dad were bringing over the meat/buns and Ash and I were in charge of sides. So we went to Price Chopper and wanted watermelon. The sign said "seedless yellow watermelon." Well we really didn't think it was actually yellow.
I was able to give the kiddos their souvenirs from my time in California at Universal Studios. River got a Sully jacket and she was freaking adorable in it!
We stayed up late watching Jupiter Ascending...and it was okay. Meh.
My shot of follitism went fine. The headache is getting more intense and hurts. Just trying to think bigger picture, it will be worth it.
Tuesday
Tuesday was all about cleaning! I detail cleaned the bathrooms in the house...literally detail cleaned. With a toothbrush and all! Whew! It was exhausting. I cleaned up the rest of my house and tried to work on my stats project that is due on friday - but I still don't have all the data I need. EEK! Starting to get a bit freaked out about that one. I also gave the puppies a bath! Jack was normal, Ally at the soap. Pretty much normal for them! They were running laps after and I tried to get pictures, but Ally moves too fast to be photogenic!
On the positive note, the meds we ordered from the US (the 2nd set, since the first set are still stuck with the FDA) arrived! Yay meds!
Tuesday evening, I went down to the Title Boxing Club in Belton with Mom and Ashley to go to their Ladies Night Out Event! We did a class, got some food and a gift bag. The best part was the massage afterwards! AHHHH! Glorious.
Then we went back to Mom & Dads and hung out. When I box, I don't wear shoes so that I can turn my feet easier and so by the end of a class, my feet turn black from the rubber mats. Well River kept seeing them and would say "UCK!" So I told her to fix it...she goes into the kitchen, grabs a dish towel and starts cleaning my feet. It was hilarious!!!
Then she saw me put my bandaid on after I did my injection and she said "owe!" The rest of the night she would raise up my shirt, point to my bandaid and say "owe!" She is stinking cute. Love that kid!!
Came home and watched a few episodes of The Walking Dead.
Wednesday
Scan day! Had to wake up early this morning, but it was worth it because its Scan day! Doc in Greece wanted me to have a scan and bloodwork done today. Yay needles! Good thing needles don't bother me or this whole process would be a lot worse!
Endometrium 7mm
Right ovary follicles: 12mm, 11mm, 10mm, 13mmLeft ovary follicles: 17mm, 11mm, 10mm, 13mm, 9mm, 14mm, 12mm, 13mm
Estradiol today on July 15, is 432 pg/mL
After hearing that, the doc in Greece wants me to do Centrotide at 7 tonight (so I better hurry up and finish this **just did it - that was a lot of meds to inject!**) and then Menopur at 8pm.
After the doc appointment, Mom and I did some window shopping and she helped me run a few errands. We went to Jason's Deli for lunch and I made the most perfect ice cream cone! So pretty. I was very proud of myself. :)
We did run into another problem with the meds. (Of course - I swear, meds will be the death of me) Walgreens has my name spelt wrong - they have Rachelle instead of Rachell. Well, when I told them this a year ago, it was no big deal because they knew it was me. Well - it is a big deal with I go to fly with them on Saturday. The prescription won't match my ID. Freaking perfect. So I had to call them and they can't send new labels for security purposes, but they are sending me a letter explaining that they are my meds and such. Bah! Just one more hurdle. I'm going to call the airport tomorrow and make sure we will be okay.
Mom and I went back to her place and I took a nap. Then we headed to Title to get a workout in. My stomach started cramping at the end, so I backed off a bit. I did want to workout though because when I worked out last night, I didn't get my headache after meds. So we thought the workout probably helped. I hope it does the same tonight!
Now I'm home. Brian is cooking dinner and its time for shots! More Walking Dead probably and then just a relaxing night at home.
Coming up in the next few days, its prep time! Time to do last minute laundry, pack and get things going!!! I have another scan/bloodwork on Friday and we leave on Saturday!
Monday, July 13, 2015
Naps are Glorious - Day 3 - July 12
I think the theme of this weekend was to relax! And we were very successful at it!
Brian let me sleep in again and then we went to the Egg & I for breakfast. While waiting on our food...Brian thought it would be hilarious to do a thumb war.
As you can see, I'm at a complete disadvantage!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't help it I have really short thumbs!!!!!!!!!!!! Needless to say...I lost.
After brunch we went grocery shopping. We decided to do some shopping for snacks for Greece at the same time to put in our checked luggage. Our last time in Europe, nothing looked good to eat at the grocery store. So we ate the creme filled wafer cracker things. And now I hate them. So Brian thought it was funny to suggest buying some - No. That didn't happen. But we did get some other snacks that will last us if we run into the same situation again.
We came home with all intentions to deep clean the house. While Brian cleaned his gun, I fell asleep on the couch. He said it would only take 10 minutes and he would wake me up to clean...but he didn't. I got a 2 hour much needed nap. Yay!
We ended the night with a trip to Taryn & Andrew's for dinner and game night. We played Bananagrams and I won, Taryn won and Brian won. Then we played Name 5 and Andrew kicked all of our butts.
It was a good night.
I did my second injection while we were over there. Not too many symptoms. Some pain and then cramping but not as bad as the first time. The worst thing is the headache. It's not a full on migraine, its just a dull ache on the right side of my head. It's annoying and it hasn't gone away since about an hour after my first injection on Saturday. I just have to keep thinking, bigger picture. A small headache is definitely worth a baby!
That's it for Day 3. Only 5 more days until we leave for Greece!
Brian let me sleep in again and then we went to the Egg & I for breakfast. While waiting on our food...Brian thought it would be hilarious to do a thumb war.
As you can see, I'm at a complete disadvantage!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't help it I have really short thumbs!!!!!!!!!!!! Needless to say...I lost.
After brunch we went grocery shopping. We decided to do some shopping for snacks for Greece at the same time to put in our checked luggage. Our last time in Europe, nothing looked good to eat at the grocery store. So we ate the creme filled wafer cracker things. And now I hate them. So Brian thought it was funny to suggest buying some - No. That didn't happen. But we did get some other snacks that will last us if we run into the same situation again.
We came home with all intentions to deep clean the house. While Brian cleaned his gun, I fell asleep on the couch. He said it would only take 10 minutes and he would wake me up to clean...but he didn't. I got a 2 hour much needed nap. Yay!
We ended the night with a trip to Taryn & Andrew's for dinner and game night. We played Bananagrams and I won, Taryn won and Brian won. Then we played Name 5 and Andrew kicked all of our butts.
It was a good night.
I did my second injection while we were over there. Not too many symptoms. Some pain and then cramping but not as bad as the first time. The worst thing is the headache. It's not a full on migraine, its just a dull ache on the right side of my head. It's annoying and it hasn't gone away since about an hour after my first injection on Saturday. I just have to keep thinking, bigger picture. A small headache is definitely worth a baby!
That's it for Day 3. Only 5 more days until we leave for Greece!
Sunday, July 12, 2015
A little relief - Day 2 - July 11
It's not surprising that I needed a little relief after the stress of day 1.
To start the day out, Brian let me sleep in! Ah! So relaxing.
Once we were up and going, Brian mowed the lawn and I worked on homework. I was able to finish my last Statistics Exam! Yes!! The only schoolwork I have left before we leave is my Statistics project which is about 80% done and I'm just waiting on some data to finish that up. Once its turned in, I will be officially 2/3 done with my Specialists degree! By this time next year I'll have my 3rd degree in one hand and hopefully a baby in the other!
The rest of the afternoon was pretty laid back, we cleaned a bit, watched some TV, fixed the bed frame and then I took a nap! Sleep is one thing that seems to be evading me lately. It's probably all the stress and anxiety but I don't stop naps when I finally feel like I can get some sleep. A little nap goes a long way.
Brian's parents came over for dinner and we played Blockus. I'm normally pretty good at the game, but the first round was awesome! I played all my tiles!!! That's never happened before!! See, everyone else has tiles left and all the red ones are gone!!!! Yeah buddy.
At 8pm, I did my first injection of follitism! Ruth told me to pick a time that is later in the evening so that we could have the scans/bloodwork back and make decisions before it was time for the injection. So we chose 8. I thought I would have Brian do it but when it came time, I felt like it would be easier if I just did it and had the control. So I watched the instructional video, loaded the meds into the pen and bam! First injection done!
Its was a great Day 2. Much more relaxing and less stressful than Day 1. Thank goodness!
To start the day out, Brian let me sleep in! Ah! So relaxing.
Once we were up and going, Brian mowed the lawn and I worked on homework. I was able to finish my last Statistics Exam! Yes!! The only schoolwork I have left before we leave is my Statistics project which is about 80% done and I'm just waiting on some data to finish that up. Once its turned in, I will be officially 2/3 done with my Specialists degree! By this time next year I'll have my 3rd degree in one hand and hopefully a baby in the other!
The rest of the afternoon was pretty laid back, we cleaned a bit, watched some TV, fixed the bed frame and then I took a nap! Sleep is one thing that seems to be evading me lately. It's probably all the stress and anxiety but I don't stop naps when I finally feel like I can get some sleep. A little nap goes a long way.
Brian's parents came over for dinner and we played Blockus. I'm normally pretty good at the game, but the first round was awesome! I played all my tiles!!! That's never happened before!! See, everyone else has tiles left and all the red ones are gone!!!! Yeah buddy.
At 8pm, I did my first injection of follitism! Ruth told me to pick a time that is later in the evening so that we could have the scans/bloodwork back and make decisions before it was time for the injection. So we chose 8. I thought I would have Brian do it but when it came time, I felt like it would be easier if I just did it and had the control. So I watched the instructional video, loaded the meds into the pen and bam! First injection done!
The minion bandaids provided by Cassie really do help :) I didn't have terrible side effects. I did have some pain after the injection and some cramping after, but nothing too bad. About an hour later I got a headache but I don't know if that was medicine induced or if it was just a normal headache. No awful symptoms, so that was great news!
Once our visit with Brian's parents was over, then we stayed up (probably too late) and watched a few episodes of The Walking Dead. Nothing like some good ole zombie action before bedtime.
Its was a great Day 2. Much more relaxing and less stressful than Day 1. Thank goodness!
Saturday, July 11, 2015
Surprise! Day 1 - July 10th
Background Info...
We are going to Greece for our IVF cycle! Pretty much everything is set up and ready to go. Our only hiccup was medications that were ordered from the UK and being delivered to the US. They had been stuck in customs since June 26th and we have been in constant communication to get them cleared and delivered to us ASAP. IVF cycle starts on the first day of your period - day 1. Then you do an ultrasound on day 2 and start the injections day 2. For me, I was predicted to start on Tuesday July 14th.
Day 1
Surprise! Day 1 came four days early and I started yesterday. Woke up at 4am and my first thought of the day was FUCK.
So I start sending emails. I email Ruth (our nurse contact in Greece) to let her know, I email Brandi (our nurse contact in the US) to let her know. I try to go back to sleep...
Yeah right. Sleep has been evading me the last few weeks, there is no way I was getting sleep when I was so anxious now.
So as I'm laying there (not sleeping), I think we have two major hurdles.
1. I still don't have meds, and I'm supposed to start them tomorrow.
2. Its Friday. Well shit. My day 2 scan would have to be on a Saturday. The clinic here in the US doesn't do scans on the weekends.
Ruth is out of the house (remember they are 8 hours ahead of us) and will write me an order to get the scan done today instead of on day 2 tomorrow.
Then we have to figure out medications - which will turn out to be my demise today.
The first major problem (there's a lot today so fair warning) is that our clinic in the US is really busy today. Apparently every one needed to see Brandi today. The second nurse is out on vacation. Well great.
After many calls and emails, I have an appointment for 1pm (keep in mind that's 9pm in Greece and the doc needs to review my scan before he can tell me how much meds I need to be on).
We are trying to figure out the medication situation at the same time I'm trying to figure out when to get a scan. I finally hear back from customs and we have been cleared from customs but now our meds have to go to the FDA to get inspected...and that can take 7-10 business days.
I'm sorry???
What?????
7-10 BUSINESS DAYS????? I'LL ALREADY BE IN GREECE WHEN THEY SHOW UP!!!!!!!!!!! (keep in mind we ordered them on June 22nd).
So it's final - the meds that are in customs are worthless to us. We won't get them until its way past when we need them. So the $1200 we send on the meds is gone. *we might be able to give them to another couple who needs them and get some money back instead of them just sitting in my house useless*
Now we have to get a new prescription for meds that I can get here.
At this point, I go in for my scan at the doc office. Scan goes fine, I have 20 antral follicles in each ovary.
Time to talk meds with Brandi. Doc in Greece wants me on Menopur first and then I'll take Centrotide next week based on the scan results in the next few days.
Menopur -
We are going to Greece for our IVF cycle! Pretty much everything is set up and ready to go. Our only hiccup was medications that were ordered from the UK and being delivered to the US. They had been stuck in customs since June 26th and we have been in constant communication to get them cleared and delivered to us ASAP. IVF cycle starts on the first day of your period - day 1. Then you do an ultrasound on day 2 and start the injections day 2. For me, I was predicted to start on Tuesday July 14th.
Day 1
Surprise! Day 1 came four days early and I started yesterday. Woke up at 4am and my first thought of the day was FUCK.
So I start sending emails. I email Ruth (our nurse contact in Greece) to let her know, I email Brandi (our nurse contact in the US) to let her know. I try to go back to sleep...
Yeah right. Sleep has been evading me the last few weeks, there is no way I was getting sleep when I was so anxious now.
So as I'm laying there (not sleeping), I think we have two major hurdles.
1. I still don't have meds, and I'm supposed to start them tomorrow.
2. Its Friday. Well shit. My day 2 scan would have to be on a Saturday. The clinic here in the US doesn't do scans on the weekends.
Ruth is out of the house (remember they are 8 hours ahead of us) and will write me an order to get the scan done today instead of on day 2 tomorrow.
Then we have to figure out medications - which will turn out to be my demise today.
The first major problem (there's a lot today so fair warning) is that our clinic in the US is really busy today. Apparently every one needed to see Brandi today. The second nurse is out on vacation. Well great.
After many calls and emails, I have an appointment for 1pm (keep in mind that's 9pm in Greece and the doc needs to review my scan before he can tell me how much meds I need to be on).
We are trying to figure out the medication situation at the same time I'm trying to figure out when to get a scan. I finally hear back from customs and we have been cleared from customs but now our meds have to go to the FDA to get inspected...and that can take 7-10 business days.
I'm sorry???
What?????
7-10 BUSINESS DAYS????? I'LL ALREADY BE IN GREECE WHEN THEY SHOW UP!!!!!!!!!!! (keep in mind we ordered them on June 22nd).
So it's final - the meds that are in customs are worthless to us. We won't get them until its way past when we need them. So the $1200 we send on the meds is gone. *we might be able to give them to another couple who needs them and get some money back instead of them just sitting in my house useless*
Now we have to get a new prescription for meds that I can get here.
At this point, I go in for my scan at the doc office. Scan goes fine, I have 20 antral follicles in each ovary.
Time to talk meds with Brandi. Doc in Greece wants me on Menopur first and then I'll take Centrotide next week based on the scan results in the next few days.
Menopur -
- Option 1 - I can go to a pharmacy in Overland Park and pay $145 a vial. I need 6 vials to get me through the weekend until I can have some delivered next week.
- Option 2 - Use Walgreen's specialty pharmacy and get Menopur for $79 a vial and they will FedEx it and I will get it on Saturday (today).
We decide on option 2. Since I don't need the Centrotide yet, I'm not so worried about it. So I'm on the phone with Walgreens. The total comes to about $1900. They advise me that I should add Centrotide to the order (since I'll be buying it next week anyways) so that it puts my total over $2000 and qualify for a $200 discount.
- Brandi puts in the prescription
- I sign up for the discount program
- I leave the doc office with Follitism as a back up...just in case something happens so that I have meds to last me over the weekend.
- I wait
- I call and see if it's processed so that we can finalize it (pay for it and set up delivery)
- 3 pm - not ready yet
- 4 pm - not ready yet
- Find out that they only have the order for Menopur and not Centrotide
- Call Brandi
- Oops - forgot the second medication, she sends it in
- 5 pm - not ready yet
- 6 pm - Its ready!
- Just kidding, they only processed the Menopur and didn't see the second prescription for Centrotide. Have to start the processing over again to be able to get them both tomorrow and still qualify for the discount. They close at 7pm. If its not processed by the time they close, I don't get the meds on saturday when I need them to start using.
- 6:15....I'm freaking out
- 6:30....freaking out more
- 6:45....even more freaking out
- 6:54....they call!!! It's ready to go!!!!!!!!!!!! I give them payment information and delivery will be saturday! Its all set up.
I'm all smiles and thankful the day ended on a positive note.
So at this point, Alex (our house/dog sitter) is hanging out at our place and we are having a dandy ole time. Brian cooked dinner and all was good. We had already decided we were going to watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I.
So we go downstairs to watch it and relax...
and we cant' find it.
anywhere! The movie has disappeared.
We decided to go to family video and rent it.
Nope - they only have Part II.
Walmart?
Nope - only the whole blue ray set for $70
Target?
Nope - only have Part II
Best Buy?
Nope - only have the full set like walmart.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
So we do what all logical people do, buy an apple TV and buy the movies off iTunes to watch at home.
We finally get home and are ready to watch it!
I check my phone because I had left it at home to charge (all the phone calls today had killed it)....and I have missed calls and voicemails from Walgreens.
- Payment didn't go through.
- Will not get meds delivered on saturday.
- There is no way around it.
FUCK. ME.
Realize that I gave them the wrong expiration date for the card.
I cry. I mean seriously. What else could go wrong?
Once I calm down and see the bigger picture, I'm fine. Brandi gave me the Follitism as a back up. THANK GOODNESS!!!! I have meds to take over the weekend to start my cycle!
We all take a deep breath...and watch Harry Potter until 2am.
What. a. day. If day 1 was was that crazy, it can only go up from here right????
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