Let the Sunshine In!

I am so excited about daylight savings time! Yes, we lose an hour of sleep, but I love what we gain with the extra daylight. I feel motivated to get more things done during the day and I end up being more productive. I love how it's heralding the onset of spring and summer. Longer days mean we can grill on our bbq and eat outside on the deck. I can start running in the evenings, which helps drop my race times. It's hard not to feel hopeful.

I felt that I had a few more reasons to be encouraged. At my recent visit with my RE, he used the word "optimistic" to describe our prospects for pregnancy as we start treatments. We had achieved a spontaneous pregnancy (albeit, unsuccessful) and the uterine septum was no longer a concerning issue. I tend to take these comments with the proverbial grain of salt; but I did note that he outlined doing 3-4 IUI cycles, where previously he had advised only doing 2 maybe 3. I'm probably inferring a bit, but this might imply that he thinks IUI could actually work. Today I got a call from the mail order pharmacy to make arrangements to ship my Ovidrel and progesterone supplements. I didn't know how excited I could become about receiving an injection and suppositories to put up my hoo-ha; but this is what infertility will do for you. After being benched for so long, I'm inspired by anything that brings us closer to attempting conception again. Just waiting on you AF...this is your moment in the sun...all you have to do is show up in a timely manner.

I'm also feeling quite reassured as my blood pressure has responded to my medication and normalised quickly. I held my pill the morning of my run and when I was flying out to the east coast for a meeting and noted that the readings were nearly normal (130/90) without taking my meds. While not trying to look too far ahead, I'm hoping that I may be able to stop the medication in a few weeks. There was only one event that could potentially burst my bubble of positive energy. Myrtle and I had arranged to talk while we were in the same timezone. I was looking forward to chatting with her, as the last time we spoke on the phone was when I called to thank her for sending me flowers on Valentine's Day, which is hard to believe was nearly a month ago, as it feels like it was just last week.    
However, I was dreading having to give her the fertility update. I've decided that I will only bring it up when she asks, and I had the feeling she would be enquiring. I was anticipating the frustration of having to explain the difference between IUI and IVF to her AGAIN (7th time for the record) and I could imagine her saying something like "Oh, the turkey baster method!" It struck me that I could probably read the same turkey baster comment on a fellow infertility blog and not be bothered at all, or even laugh, but it would seem so insensitive to hear such a comment from Myrtle.

Sure enough, she asked, "How are things going in 'that department?'" It gives me pause to observe how others enquire about the fertility process. Non Sequitur Chica described how her father refers to her "treatments"  as if she were going through cancer therapy. I do realise that it's not exactly easy to approach a friend and say "So, how are things with your infertility?" but there must be a more tactful and gentle way to broach the subject. I reported that my surgery went well and we were cleared to start again with my next cycle. "So, now you and Husband just have to manage to stay in the same place." Um-hmm. It was willful blindness. I just let her think we would be trying to conceive on our own. So much easier that way.