Resolve

I ran across my '07 resolutions, and realized I managed to accomplish 3-1/2 out of the 7 items. So much for posting them online, I don't think I looked at them after Feb/Mar.

I am still a workaholic, I still haven't had a real vacation, although I tried to come up with a weight loss/work-out regimen--I managed to gain 11 pounds, I did spend some time with my horses--until my knee injury shot the last portion of the year. So now it's 2008 and my resolutions need a bit of reviewing. This year I'll try for eight and hopefully will have better luck!

1. Loose weight so I can fit in my skinny pants and THROW OUT my fat clothes! (If I get pregnant then I'll just have to buy some maternity wear.)


2. Stop working so hard--get out of the office for lunch every day! Limit (or better yet, eliminate) the unpaid time spent working after hours.


3. Get my knee better so I can start horseback riding again--in between IVF cycles.


4. Travel! (Relative visits do not count!) Visit my friends in Ventura! Go on a cruise, go to a B&B now and then, and ideally check out Europe/Italy once I reach my goal weight!


5. Look into purchasing a home or buying a lot and building--and actually do it!


6. Go to the Midwest and visit our families and friends. --When it's warm!


7. Focus more on me and stop worrying about what others-especially family-think.


8. Have fun!

Hopefully I'll get more than 1/2 accomplished this year!

Grade School

I just tried an online "test" to see what my writing level is on this blog, and come to find out it's grade school level. I think this may be because I tend to use a zero instead of an o in some words in order to keep me out of search engines, and I tend to explain things a bit more since some of the tests are relatively new. My often neglected gardening blog is considered genius level. Bizarre.

In other news, I received my blood clotting tests back. Of the 18 tests, I tested positive on two of these, and was borderline on three. This just re-affirmed that I need to take blood thinners throughout pregnancy to prevent clotting. (including a shot two times a day through the first trimester) I guess this way they know for sure the diagnosis was correct.

I contacted an acupuncturist last week and will be starting up with acupuncture and herbs again around the second week January. This time the herbs are in powder form, which will be different than the leafy brew I used to prepare. I will go to the acupuncturist for 3 months, and focus on repressing my immune system. (it seems a bit strange I want to repress something that keeps me healthy) I will also be working on getting my BMI down so I won't be overweight when trying to get pregnant. So in April or so, I will go through an IVF cycle if I have lost enough weight. We have decided to go through two more IVF cycles and then if we're unsuccessful, we'll consider a gestational carrier.

So unless a miracle happens or the acupuncture works, I won't be having a baby in 2008. I squeaked in marriage mere months before I turned 30 -- if things work I'll just squeak in having children the year I turn 40!

Christmas Cats

Christmas turned out quite nice. (Even if we didn't make it back to the Midwest to see friends and family.) Our black cat was very exited about his fish-shaped stocking and took the toys out of it to play! It was hilarious to watch and amazing that he seemed to get the present thing quite well.

He went over to the female cats stocking to pull out what was in it as well. He then laid on the stuff so she couldn't play with it. Very cute. --Especially since he was wearing his Santa coat the entire time. The female changed outfits half way through the day and wore a cute new jingle collar the rest of the time. I'm afraid they were a little spoiled, but not too bad... I jut couldn't resist the cute stockings, and if you put up a stocking... you should at least get a couple of things.

They even helped unwrap gifts! It so sweet! The black cat turned out to be the best helper, as he wanted to see what was in EVERYTHING! It was adorable! The greatest part is, Christmas was stress free! No hectic travel, no stressful visits, and no worries. It was very nice.

I managed to have the day off today, so the cats and I slept in until 11:30, which was great! Tim had to work and left sometime before 8. (he also worked Christmas Eve day as well) Poor guy--I think he gets two days off over New Years, which will be nice. Maybe he'll be able to sleep in a bit too.

I am posting a relatively good picture of me here as well. This should be the last fat picture I post, as we're starting a diet this week. Tim has devised a weight loss plan, and is very excited about this. (Even though the gift in my hands is a large tin of chocolate from Tim.) I am still hobbling around, as my knees still hurt from the bursitis...but now it's more of a painful popping when I move it certain ways instead of a constant pain, and my range of motion has improved a great deal! Hopefully this final stage will pass soon, so I can again add work-outs to my weight loss.

That's it from sunny California. Hope Santa treated everyone well, and you had a restful and relaxing holiday!

She's a killer...

I got my test results back. The TH1 and TH2 tests were normal—meaning my natural killer (NK) cells are not spewing toxins. However the NK assay was elevated. I was a 4 on a scale of 0-5. (where 0 is good)

The Dr has recommended acupuncture to suppress the immune system at least a month before I do an IVF cycle. I will then need a subcutaneous injection of Humira every other week. (I think that's up to 4-5 shots now...) The drug is often used for inflammatory diseases--which may help my bursitis ridden knees, as they still hurt! It a appears the drug's major side effect is that it triggers an adverse reaction to people who have or have been exposed to Tuberculosis and can increase your chance of infections.

If the shots don't lower my numbers, I will need to go through a session or two of IVIG. It's a lot to absorb, but at least I may have my answer. I was hoping I could do something without having to go through another round of IVF. I suppose at this stage it's rather naive to expect that life would suddenly get easy.

A pint?

Well I finally went in to have my blood drawn for the Chicag0 tests. I am happy now that it is done and the eight vials are on their way. (I pretty much lost count as I tried to figure out how many they'd need for a pint. It seemed like they were getting pretty close!) The nurse kept "stretching" my vein to get the blood to flow more freely--saying that sometimes the needle isn't quite straight and cuts the flow off. Not the thing I wanted to think about the first thing in the morning. Now I just need to wait 2 weeks for the results to get in. I am pretty sure this test will determine what my underlying problem is. If it doesn't I'll be shocked.

It's a pretty amazing test, however it's the resulting treatment I'm a bit concerned about. If you reduce your natural killer (NK) cells, how will that affect you later on? Did I end up with NK cells for a reason? If so, what will my body develop if I "treat" these cells.

I have a friend who is pregnant with twins after going through this process, which is quite encouraging since we had similar results in other areas. I almost wonder if it's something environmental that has caused a rise in NK cells--or maybe it's something that was there throughout the centuries since there was no way to check for it until recently. I'm sure at some point they'll figure it out.

For now I won't focus on the possible treatments, and instead will patiently wait for my results to return in order to see what the game plan is.

Christmas Goodies

Our holiday cards featured Santa and Mrs Claus this year. The photo on the right didn't make the cut, but it's still cute! (There's a red laser light dot under those paws...as far as he's concerned.) Mrs Claus thought her outfit was very stylish. They tolerate their hats, but don't seem to mind the warm outfits at all.

It's strange having the cards and shopping done so early this year. I still have Tim and the cats to buy for, but neither of those are major purchases. (we already bought our major purchase as a joint gift) The cats got a smaller cat tree for our bedroom window, so their 'major' purchase is done too.

With all my shopping done, I'm actually thinking about making cookies and sweets next weekend. I love making holiday goodies but don't like the extra pounds that often follow. I figure I can still make up divinity, sugar cookies, pfeffernusse, fudge, turtles, chocolate dipped pretzels, nut brittle, etc. and give the homemade goodies as special gifts to some of my co-workers and friends. That way the temptation of snacking will be gone. We'll see how it goes... but in concept it sounds like a good plan to me.