Preparing to Order

So, tomorrow I will call and order one more specimen. That's 5 total and 4 attempts. They have a guarantee to get 1 vial free if you try 4 cycles unsuccessfully, so save for that specimen... I think I've decided to say if this doesn't work I'll be focusing my efforts to putting the house on the market and getting the heck out of PA. If I can't work on a family on my own I should embrace the desire to run away and be somewhere I have a chance of finding someone, right?

Nothing unexpected

While I was away my period came, so as expected this month is a no. Now that I am out of specimens in storage I'm not pressed to try each month. Looking at the calendar next month I won't be able to try as I won't be around, but this month I was going to put it off as to save up a few more bucks.

Given that August is nixed, I guess I should give July a try. I also need to worry about availability... my first donor is no longer available in IUI prep, and while my second donor's listing is still yes for IUI, his ICI and IVF preps are in limited quantity, which hints that the IUI probably isn't abundant. I guess those two factors mean I should try in July. I wonder if my body will cooperate.

Ovulation Achieved

Finally body. I had a positive ovulation test this evening. Amusingly after 2 weeks of tracking my resting body temp it didn't spike this morning, so how accurate is that?

Having done the IUI Monday afternoon, knowing that some (frozen) sperm can live 3 or maybe 4 days after, and that it takes anywhere from 12-36 hours after LH surge to ovulate where does that leave me? Unlikely, but, at least there is a remote chance. At least it makes it easier to turn down the alcohol at the upcoming company picnic, as if the 17 day diet I've started wasn't enough.

Try three, part B

Guess what... still no positive ovulation test this morning, but since the tank was only good to today I went ahead and did what we needed to do. The appointment was not with my normal doctor as she is in surgery on Mondays, instead with a midwife (one that several friends spoke quite highly of). I'll give her this, I did feel comfortable with her to converse immediately, and it hurt a hell of a lot less than the attempt last week and hasn't resulted in anywhere near as much blood. Then again, it could be timing related too.

She did give me some hope however in offering three days as still being the viability of frozen sperm. It gives me some hope - providing of course I ovulate this week, which if my second period in May hadn't come early, is when I would have been suppose to ovulate. So now I'll keep an eye for ovulation by Wednesday morning before I give up hope on this attempt.

Still not ovulating.

Still no positive ovulation test. I've got to go in tomorrow regardless, will it show positive tomorrow? What the heck is going on? I don't know. I'm quite at wits end, I can tell you that.

Try three, part A

I used the first specimen from 4102 today. Right before leaving for my appointment I was pleasantly surprised by a call from Fairfax stating they were refunding me for the last specimen. Considering I was expecting nothing this is great news.

The ovulation test didn't come out positive this morning, so I ended up with the doctor talking to me like I'm an idiot ("you need to ovulate for this to work you know" - repeated several times). Yes, yes, but I should be ovulating at this point and here I was with two specimens and a weekend looming. I can't win with my body, that's a fact.

After this time, which took way longer than the previous two and had several bouts of pain, I was bleeding quite a bit. IUI is not pleasant at all.

Waiting for a surge

Depending on how long my luteal phase really is I should be ovulating soon. Two specimens of 4102 are in FedEx's hands right now, and should arrive tomorrow. I've got an appointment for tomorrow afternoon, and another for Thursday afternoon, but may end up needing to shift tomorrows if the test doesn't say I am ovulating. I've also actually been taking my resting temp the past several days, hopefully I can correlate the temp spike with a positive LH surge.

Go figure that it was so early the past times, how much do you want to bet it will be late this time? The specimens shipped on Monday, so they'll be good through this coming Monday, hopefully I won't need to buy myself more time than that.