"Your cervix looks like it's been in a knife fight"

 HAHAHAH
ROFL
Seriously, this makes me laugh every time I think of it.  Direct quote from Dr A.  Hahahha.

So it seems I have some scarring from that cervical cryosurgery from back in the day.  He said it wasn't a big deal.  (Oddly enough, he said "When it's a ten pound baby up against some scarring, we know who'll win that battle".  I don't think I quite get that.)

All in all, the physical was pretty good (I mean the prognosis - not the part where everyone looks at my hoohaa, and the doc is all up in my lady business).  Dr A was pretty jovial, and not mean to the techs, so that was good.   He said my ovaries look good ("This woman has some nice ovaries").  My follicles are continuing to look good. 

He said my follicles are going to vote conservative in the election.  It is my right ovary that will likely go this month.  hahahhah!  He also named a follicle "Jack" after Jack Layton.  hahahha.  Too funny!  [This is Canadian political joking - we've an election coming up].

He said my pelvis is a good size - good enough for an 8 pounder (haha - um, aren't we getting ahead of ourselves?).

I do have a fibroid which is hanging off the outside of my uterus, but he said it isn't a big deal.

All in all, nothing really amiss.  Which I am somewhat wary of, since I am worried we'll meander over towards MF only... but I don't really believe that to be true at this point.  It was only one bad sample from DH.  But who knows - maybe all that acupuncture and being really good this month will do the trick.  That's what I'm betting on.

Even though it is NIAW, I have still chickened out on telling my friend.  DH has been brave and told two of his friends recently ... he even told them he's having surgery.  So probably I should buck up.

Reveal!

Prayer buddy reveal!!

So I was praying for Hebrews 11:1!!  :)  FUN!  She's like a super star of Catholic IF bloggers.  And things are looking up for her!  :)

On the flip side, My Heart Exults was praying for me!  She is like a professional lenten prayer buddy - excellent!  I'm so grateful to her for all her prayers this lent!  :)

I've another wanding scheduled for tomorrow.  My follicles and levels looked "great" yesterday (CD8). So...uh...all that gel they use for wanding... is that spermie-safe?  Should I bring some prese.ed and ask them to use that?  Is that ridonculous?  Ok, I am being too hyper.  It will only be CD10.  I will probably ovulate CD15-16, that will be too long for spermies to last anyway.

I also have a physical with Dr A scheduled.  I'm sort of intimidated.  I think he was training a new wander on Sunday, so he was there as well - and he was kind of mean and short tempered with her.  Like a smart guy that has no patience for slow people.  Yikes.  Well.... I suppose it is good to have a smart guy on your team, it's not like I have to go out for coffee with him.

Hoppy Easter!

Hoppy Easter, as my Aunt always says! (And then she'll shake your hand, and you'll come away with a little chocolate egg.  Love it!)

So, my dear DH is scheduled for his surgery May 10th.  So soon!  He got someone's cancellation - so it's either do it May 10 or in the fall.  I think after surgery it will be like 3-6months before we can expect good spermies.

So I am thinking it is like this cycle or bust.  (Well, by 'bust' I mean wait 6 months - which seems like a long time at this point).  I have a physical with Dr A on Tuesday, so I'll talk it over with him.  But basically the surgery is before we could do an IUI - I will be at the end of my monitoring cycle.  So I guess I will pull out all the 'stops' this month!  No more wine for me - until we're in spermy re-creation time (post surgery), then I can have a glass here or there again.

I am slightly worried we're rushing into this surgery.  It feels so fast!  One minute, everything is amazing on the male side, next minute we have severe MF and he's going in for surgery!  Yikes yikes yikes.

On a more positive IF note, a friend of ours who got pg after they had been trying a "long time" (I was skeptical - "long time" can be like four months for some people) - well, it actually turns out they had been trying for  2.5 years.  And she finally caught after she quit her job.  A few months later - preggo!  :)

TEBB

So I had my first wanding/blood test on Tuesday, guess when my next is scheduled for??  Easter Sunday!!  I don't know why this seems so shocking to me, but it does.

I guess I don't really have anything new to report.  I am now at the TEBB stage of things (Tail End Bleeding...B?  What does the B stand for?).  It was weird, I felt oddly cramp-y this afternoon, even though that shouldn't be the case at this stage in the cycle.

They keep saying everything looks excellent.  I suspect I will have an excellent cycle (Murphy's law or the acupuncture kicking in?), and they will blame everything on my poor DH.  DH may be having surgery to help correct his issue, I want to ask Dr Awesome his opinion.  I will be seeing him Tuesday for my physical, so they tell me.  I'm sort of impressed they go to the trouble of a physical.  Although I don't expect he'll find anything amiss (other than these weird pressure headaches I've been getting, but I don't think those are related to fertility).

I have decided to try and go gluten free for 60 days, and see if anything seems different.  I have been reading lately about how gluten sensitivity can be sub-clinical... in which case, waiting to go to a doc and take a test isn't really going to work so well.

In flour mill news, you CAN mill popcorn and get corn flour, which can then be turned into tasty cornbread.  :)

Smooth, CS.

The baby party today was awful.  A 4 week old, 5 month old and 4 month old in attendance, plus a 3 day old who didn't come but new Dad did.  These are all my friends!  They have too many babies!!!  Besides us, the only people that didn't have a baby or toddler was two single guy friends.

I think at least a couple of people have sort of seen the writing on the wall - I am super interested in babies, we've been married for well over a year, I'm not super career oriented, no baby has appeared... maybe a good time to stop asking.

So I only got told once that I should have a baby.  It was by Tansly, of a previous post.  I made some sort of negative weird reply, then left the table, to go talk with another table.  Smoooooth.  The subject didn't come up again, and I didn't raise it.  They did come by our house for a visit, but I chickened out - I didn't tell them of our trouble.  Maybe through email?

Anyhoo, I am staying in tonight, skipping dinner with the in-laws.  I feel like I need to de-tox after all those babies, and all that smiling and acting nice.

Oh, but I do see that JBTC got a BFP!  Yay! Excellent news when an IF lady catches.  I had just decided to start following her (since she organizes the lenten prayer buddy circle), and whammo! I see a post with two lines in a picture!  :)

A tip from your Aunt Flo!

"Hi Sweetie!  I'm back for a visit!"

"Hey Aunt Flo."

"Here's a tip for all your blog sisters for when I'm visiting - if you're uncomfortable when I'm around, put a hot water bottle between the thighs, not on your bad or abdomen.  That way blood flows away from the troubled area, instead of more blood pooling there."

"Thanks Aunt Flo.  That does work - 10 minutes of hot water bottle on the thighs and I usually feel better.  So... I thought we talked about you waiting longer in between visits?"

"Yeah, I wasn't really feeling that, sweetie.  I got a bit mixed up with you switching time zones and all."

Greek Celeriac Avgolomeno

Here is the recipe for my absolutely favourite soup.  JB put a call out for fav vegetarian recipes, and this is mine!  I got this recipe from a wonderful greek vegetarian cookbook, but have modified it slightly to be more of a meal (added lentils).

the juice of 4-5 lemons
1 egg
2 med celeriac
1/3c olive oil
3 cloves garlic
2 med carrots
4 med potatoes
5 (plum) tomatoes
~1.5 cup dry red lentils (more if you like)
black olives (we usually put maybe 10-20, depends on your taste - this is where the salt is coming from, so use your judgement)

Pour about 1T oil in pot and heat.  Add celeriac cubes and "steam" the celeriac in oil for 4 min.  [This step seems weird to me, but I always do it, soup always turns out marvelous].  Add garlic, carrots, potatoes, olives and tomatoes.  Cover with water and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 30 min.

Add very thoroughly washed dry red lentils (no need to pre-soak) [VERY WASHED - rinse and change water like 5+ times, or you'll end up with crazy starch problems], simmer and additional 15 min. 

Add lemon juice.  Beat egg in a separate bowl, and drizzle slowly into the soup as you're stirring.  This is the magic - the egg makes the soup creamy and delicious (and adds a wee bit more protein to boot!), without any butter or cream.  The lemon and egg are what make this an avgolomeno.  Add the rest of the olive oil (greeks are not shy with the oil, eh?), and serve!  Goes well served with bread, if you're of the type to eat bread.

YUM!  And before this - what on earth would I have done with celeriac?  Passed it by at the supermarket is what!  (Truth be told, they are dirty and a bit scary looking.)  Now celeriac and I are good friends.