Cycle update

I'm procrastinating. I'm supposed to be working on my new website, but instead I am about to post all the minute details of my current cycle for you. I know... just what you've been waiting for.

Below is my basal body temperature chart to date. According to my chart, my peak-day was on day 17. As a side-note, because I sometimes have excess mucus, my Creighton instructor sometimes will have me identify my peak day as the last day that I see the most clear peak-type mucus (I don't chart it any differently.. day 17 would still be charted as peak.. but I just keep it in mind). That day was day 15. Anways, click on my chart to make it larger.

Now that my prolactin is normal, my diet is hopefully helping my PCOS and my endometriosis is gone, I hope that I may one day ovulate. Unfortunately, I didn't chart my bbt in past months, so I have nothing to compare the chart above to. As I know all too well from positive OPKs, it can appear that you are ovulating even when you are not. If I had been charting throughout the last year and my temps had been all over the place, then this chart would be more encouraging.

So today is cycle day 22. I had seven days of peak-type mucus followed by four dry days. That's definitely more "normal" than what I've experienced in the past and normal is good! The only thing abnormal about this cycle so far is that I had nine days of red stickers, the first two and last two of which were brown spotting. Plus all that pain mid-cycle.

Today I started my new, higher dose of T3. I'm now up to 22.5 which is the highest they'll have you go. Let me just say that I CANNOT WAIT to stop this medication. Just a few short months ago I wasn't on any medication and couldn't wait be on something, anything. I swore I wouldn't complain about it. Well, I've tried to be good about it, but this T3 just completely interferes with my life. I can't eat for six hours a day. I take my temperature four times a day, my pulse three times a day. I have to take my folder that holds my thermometer and temperature chart with me everywhere. It never leaves my side. Not to mention my husband hates that I have to take it. Ever since my new doctor said he thinks I'm part of the study simply because they need people (he doesn't think it's hurting me and may in fact help me, but he doesn't think I'm really a candidate), my husband has been against it. He hates that it rules my life and that we have to pay $40 a month for the drugs. Oh and there's the fact that none of my "symptoms" have changes whatsoever. I don't feel any differently since starting it. I really hope that my new doctor takes me off of it at my appointment in two weeks.

Well I'm now off to work. Feel free to let me know if you think I might have ovulated according to my bbt chart (or if you think I didn't. I can take it). By the way, my friends' baby was born last night and they are picking him up tomorrow! Thank you for your prayers thus far and if you get a chance, please pray for the birthmother.

The new love in my life

Oh, strawberry, where have you been all these years? I apologize for ignoring you for so long. I know, we had some good times when I was a kid, back when we'd go strawberry picking. It's just that you came to symbolize healthy food and all that is not fun. But I've officially started a new chapter in my life and I'm happy to announce...you're a part of it, strawberry!

By the way, have you smelled them before? (I know, I know, not everyone swore off fruit for the last decade). They are intoxicating. I just stand in the produce department with the little plastic cartons to my nose. I can eat a carton a day, easily. I wonder if that is bad. Oh well, it's better than a carton of ice cream.

The diet is going well. We've had several new items for dinner that we would have liked even before the diet, like chicken cordon bleu, fajitas, cheese steak roll-ups, all with approved low-glycemic and low-fat ingredients of course (I've gotten creative). We've also had filet mignon (because it is allowed on this diet, and you better believe I'll be making it once a week..I need something to look forward to), pasta primavera, turkey chili, and much more. Turkey sandwiches, omega-3 eggs and eggbeaters, fruit, salad, high-fiber whole wheat toast, almonds and low-fat no-sugar-added ice cream, among other things, serve as breakfast, lunch and snacks (I do use a little regular butter on my toast which my mom assured me is not going to hurt me and if my mom says it, it must be true). My husband also eats low-fat cottage cheese and all-bran cereal, but I can't stomach either. Did I mention he's doing the diet with me? He weighed himself today and lost three pounds. Yay! I haven't officially weighed myself yet (I thought our scale was broken until he pointed out today that you can manually turn the little arrow back to zero) but my clothes are a little looser. 

So I made another bag. This one is for my mom for Mother's Day (again, I hope she doesn't secretly read this blog). I am not 100% happy with it because the fabric store I went to didn't sell cotton canvas, which is supposed to be sewn inside to make the bag a little more durable. Instead, I used fusible fleece (I think that's what it's called) and it turned out okay, but a little too stiff. I also made handkerchiefs for my mom and two sisters' dogs out of the fabric scraps but for some reason didn't take any pictures of them and they are now safely on their way to New York and California. They are reversible and oh so cute.

This bag only cost me $16 and three hours of my time. Not bad, considering usually I'd spend much more on a gift. 

I am procrastinating working on my documentary. I played around with it a little yesterday and was very uninspired, yet whenever I really get into it I end up being so happy and glad I did it and the hours literally fly by (yes, literally, not just figuratively). So why do I avoid something that I know will make my joyful? I secretly want to deprive myself of happiness, I guess. Anyway, I'm almost done with the trailer I've been putting together and will hopefully post it on here soon. My husband is also working on a website so when that's up and running I'll post a link for that as well. Okay, now off to work...

Wait.. one more quick update. I had to call in my temperatures and pulses to PPVI today for the thyroid study I'm in. The thing is, they say to call them if your pulse is over 90, which mine often is. I've never called because they never seem to think my quick pulse is a big deal, so I just wait until I'm scheduled to call. But now, my pulse has reached between 110 and 120 on several occasions. That can't be good! So now I'm waiting for the nurse to call me back with my next instructions. I'm really curious to see if they'll reduce the dose.

Okay, now off to work...

Three shrines in one day

We had a great trip to the shrines of St. Gianna and Padre Pio. And, at the last minute, my friend remembered that there is a little shrine to St. Therese in a parish near her parents' home that contains a relic (we think it was a bone) of St. Therese. I love St. Therese so I was glad to make a stop there as well. After her shrine, we visited Padre Pio's and, in what would be quite a contrast to St. Gianna's shrine, it's a huge complex on a big plot of land. The buildings are just beautiful. When you first walk in, there's a chapel that is a replica of Padre Pio's Our Lady of Grace Church in San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy.



The chapel contains an actual confessional used by Padre Pio in San Giovanni. Visitors write intentions on pieces of paper, attach them to rosaries, and then hang the rosaries on the fence that surrounds the confessional. We, of course, left rosaries with our intentions. There's also a relic behind glass in the confessional - one of the brown gloves worn by Padre Pio.



We then made our way to St. Gianna's shrine, which is over an hour from Padre Pio's. Last summer when I visited her shrine, I met a woman who had also experienced infertility and who now is a shrine volunteer and board member. After praying to St. Gianna and venerating her gloves, she conceived and now has two children. I emailed her the other day to see if we could visit the shrine when it is usually closed. She was so kind to agree to meet us there. So on that day, we ended up being forty minutes late and we felt terrible. But when we got there, she didn't seem to mind at all! She was just so sweet. We had a wonderful experience at the shrine, and despite that fact that it is so small and unassuming, it is pretty powerful. We were able to hold onto a pair of St. Gianna's black leather gloves and pray with them. We might have felt a little silly at first, but we even held them to our stomachs when we prayed (my friend is also dealing with infertility). I know she heard us.

The volunteer told us that the shrine actually has three pairs of St. Gianna's gloves and there's a retired married couple who travels around the country, visiting parishes with the gloves and giving presentations on St. Gianna.

Here's a picture of the shrine. It's a simple statue in the back of a parish church. The case that contains her gloves is right in front of her feet:



So it was a great trip and I'm so glad we went. And, I'm happy to report, the peaceful feeling that started a couple weeks ago has not lessened, and for that I am very grateful. I just really trust God right now and I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

In other news, it is day six of my diet. I know this diet is supposed to make you feel better and more energetic, but I'm not there yet. Right now I'm still feeling lightheaded and tired. The problem is I'm not sure which symptoms are due to the diet and which are due to the T3 I'm taking. I think one of my problems is that I'm not eating enough. You're supposed to eat three meals and three snacks a day, and I maybe eat two meals and one snack, if that. I'm hungry all the time, but I have such a hard time finding things I like that sometimes I just don't eat. Not to mention that for six hours a day, I can't eat (two hours before and one hour after my medication, twice a day). One thing is for sure, though - I am not complaining about any of this because it is all potentially helping me inch closer to a pregnancy. And, as we all know, I will do anything that it takes (well, anything that the Church has deemed licit, of course!). And I am starting to feel a tiny bit thinner. Yay!

Road trip

A friend and I are taking a little trip to the Philadelphia area to visit both the Padre Pio shrine and St. Gianna shrine. I'm leaving this evening and will be back tomorrow. I can't wait!

My diet is going very well (day three! woo hoo!). I'm super motivated and am still on that new diet high. So far I haven't wanted anything I can't have. I've actually enjoyed eating fruit and was even craving some last night! I made low-carb pasta with chicken and lots of vegetables for dinner yesterday and I have all our meals mapped out through next week. I've also been thoroughly satisfied by my no-sugar-added ice cream.

PPVI increased my dose of T3 yesterday. So far I've had an annoying headache every day and my stomach has been upset, but I don't think a stomach ache is on the list of possible side effects. I've also felt just kind of out of it since I started taking it. Maybe it's in my head.

I will pray for all of you at the shrines!