and now....

Oh, right. I'm trying to conceive, not just thinking about lunch/pants.

So the femara, it seemed so good. Three follicles! I am a good responder. But then it was on to Teh Blood Work to see if femara would fix my luteal phase defect, aka not enough prog. Woo! Blood work! I am a pro, y'all. I can pump my vein up so good, Amir, one of the lab techs (the hardcore one) doesn't even need to use a tourniquet. Hahh! I am a blood work winner. Or not.

Femara didn't do shit for my prog levels. There were many phone calls and messages passed between me and Martha, keeper of all knowledge, about when I'd go see my friend Amir, and what my prog levels meant in terms of seeing Amir again (my RE wants prog levels checked at 5, 7 and 9 dpo - he's thorough - and there's no co-pay to go to the lab and I'm a blood work star - see above - so I'll go get stuck as often as needed, although I don't always get to see Amir) and they all added up to one thing - femara does not equal increased progesterone for me. At least not at the level at which I took it this most recent time.

In one of the many messages my boss took down (Martha is her BFF now), the options were laid out for me - up the dose of femara or come in for a consult. Well, crap. I don't really like either of those options, so I made my own: Same dose of femara plus my old friend prometrium, which we know fixes my luteal phase defect. Good old Martha, she ran it by the RE and left me (yet another) message at school saying that would be fine and I should call for my early cycle wanding just as soon as I start bleeding (this is not an exact Martha quote) and that there would also be other "options" to be discussed at said wanding. Hmmmm..... looks like I get a bonus consult along with the wanding. Fab. That's only one co-pay to deal with. Plus going to the RE doesn't count in my book unless they stick something in me, so consults alone are lame-o.

So I am still hoping for an insem next cycle (i.e. in the next couple-few weeks). Word on the fertility street is that the IUI washing machine might be ready. But if that "might be" turns out to be "is" I might be running into Sperm Issues. See, I'm not getting the goods from a sperm bank, I'm getting them from The Donors You Can't Beat With A Stick. And most doctors are loathe to stick anything in a girl's hooha that hasn't been quarantined (ack! STDs! Age of Fear!) or didn't come from her state sanctioned partner (never mind that those state sanctioned partners can do things outside of those state sanctioned relationships that might put a body at risk). My bio-tranzed goods do not meet either of those requirements. So far, the RE seems willing (he seems to have little truck with bureaucracy), but we'll just have to wait and see, won't we? (Oh, stop worrying - my donor has no STD's.)

Anyway, onward and upward. Or something.

ps - Is it weird to link back to one's own blog? Discuss.