"History, Heroes, and a Hometown Feeling"

After 30 hours in the car from Canada, Guy and I are now living in Fayetteville, North Carolina for a couple of months. He signed a contract to play with the Fayetteville Fireantz of the SPHL in hopes of making it to the playoffs. It is a tight race with all the teams being within one or two points of each other. Guy is playing amazing! Won all 5 games he has played! Pretty impressive!

The team has put us up in the Holiday Inn Bordeaux. Not very homey, but we are making the best of it. Living on sandwiches and microwave food. Not easy to stay on a diet! So I am just trying to make healthy choices and not pig out on junk food, which would be so easy to do! There is a small gym here and you would think that it would be easier for me to go since it is so close. Quite contrare, it seems harder!

Fayetteville seems to be a pretty good town though. The people here are super nice. It stand true to it's motto "History, Heroes, and a Hometown Feeling". We are eager to hopefully get out and experience some of the history here. We are looking forward to the annual Fayetteville Dogwood Festival if we are still here. Seems like fun! It is home to Fort Bragg and Pope Air Force Base so everwhere we go we see someone in the armed forces, which continually reminds us of the people fighting for this country and our freedom. And it really does have a hometown feeling. I feel closer the Shreveport than I am. It almost feels like home here.

Guy left yesterday on the longest road trip of the season, we hear. He will be gone for 3 days. Nothing compared to the1-2 week trips in the CHL. So Honey and I are hanging out in the hotel watching movies. Late at night we throw her ball down the hallway to tire her out a bit. She enjoys it! We also found an awesome dog park here, but it has been pretty chilly here, so we haven't been able to go lately. She likes going and just smelling all the other scents that have been left behind lol.

Guy and I have started the 40 day challenge of The Love Dare. I whole-heartedly recommend this to anyone and everyone that is married. It is from the movie Fireproof, which also was an amazing movie! We are learning more and more about each other everyday and learning how to deal with things in a more patient and godly manner. We are now on day 17 and it has been an unbelievable jouney for the last two-and-a-half weeks. We are learning to love each other despite of our flaws, meanwhile loving those flaws because it is a part of who we are. God has blessed me with an incredible husband and I love him EXACTLY for who he is. He may not be perfect, but he is perfect for me! I challenge you to get the book and take the 40 day challenge with your spouse. You will be amazed at the way God will open up your heart and mind towards your spouse.

Pill junkie

We are now here in Canada and are finally all settled in! Wow, is it cold up here!! Guy planned an amazing Valentine's weekend! We got all bundled up Friday afternoon and Guy took me ice skating at The Forks and then got us a hotel room at Inn at the Forks. Super nice hotel with rose petals on the bed, chocolate covered strawberries, champagne, and roses with I Love You monogrammed on the petals! Very thoughtful on my husband's part! I must say, I did an amazing job picking an incredible husband!

On the topic of trying to conceive, I am now feeling like a pill junkie lol! I am taking EstroSense which is a hormone balancing formula and I just added 160mg of Vitex yesterday. I have read on the internet that people have had amazing results with Vitex, so I am hoping we can add the positivity! We shall see! Also I am taking prenatal vitamins, extra folic acid, Vit D, Vit C, and 2 pills for Essential Fatty Acids. Updates to come if anything should occur!

I am also continuing to watch my diet and I bought a gym membership last week. I have started going to aerobics with my husband's Auntie Carrie and we are having a blast! Our class was Butts and Guts and I was in a lot of pain the next couple of days afterwards lol! The instructor worked our thighs more than ever!! We did more squats than I ever want to do in my life again lol!

I wish you all a Happy Valentine's Day and a wonderful weekend. I hope everyone has some time to reconnect and recharge this weekend - don't forget the romance :)

While we're waiting...

Well, since we are going to be in a rut for the next few months with no insurance and no where to obtain fertility services, i have begun to explore the option of alternative therapies to aid in our journey of trying to conceive.

First off, I have started (tonight) myself on a Low Glycemic Index Diet. Not too sure how this is going to work out since my first experiment with a Low GI meal was not so good. I made Vegetable Ratatouille... and it may sound good, but it wasn't lol! It called for red wine, which I am not too fond of and all I could taste was bitterness. Also, I can't figure out why the company who packaged my bay leaves crushed them all up. The entire time I was trying to eat, I kept finding bay leaves, and if you don't know, you can't chew up a bay leaf lol!

I am also adding some rigorous exercise to my regime. Well, once we get to Canada next weekend lol. 45-60 minutes of cardio a day and one day of Pilates or Yoga. Also, we will see how that goes. Most of you know how I feel about exercise!!

I will keep you updated! Should be quite entertaining!

Post 4

Guy went a did his SA about a month ago, which all results came back normal. I also had my SIS yesterday, which was absolutely not fun at all! Basically they insert saline through a catheter into the uterus to see if your tubes are patent. As for the actual procedure, well, i was a little surprised by it. The insert the speculum and grab your cervix with a long allis clamp to hold on to it while he slides the catheter in. When he did that, I thought I was going to jump off the table. That was probably the worst part of the procedure. A catheter goes in through your cervix so that they can inject this saline wash (feels like a gallon, but it's more like 20 ml) and then they reinsert you with that ultrasound-dildo-cam-amabob. So he starts moving it to look at both sides and flooding me with this saline and... surprise, my tubes are open!

The entire ride home I was caught between throwing up or passing out... I got home without doing either, thank God! I rested the entire evening hoping I would feel better today. I didn't and I have come home early to try and rest off the cramps.

Now that we know what needs to be done, we are having to put all of this fertility stuff to a screeching halt! We have decided to call it a season here in Tulsa, Ok, and move to Canada for the next 4 months and then settle down in Shreveport, La. I researched fertility in Canada and IVF is half the price it is in the states, but the catch is... it takes a year to get in and be treated. So, when we get back to Shreveport we will pick all this up and press on. As for now, the doc put me on Yaz to keep me regular and to try and decrease my testosterone count.

On the way to work yesterday morning, I was listening to the radio when an amazing song came on... "In Better Hands" by Natalie Grant. Wow! What an amazing message!

"There is hope when my faith runs out, Cause I'm in better hands now"

Post 3

Guy and I went to our first fertility appointment yesterday and it was a very bittersweet experience. Bitter because the doctor found the problem... and sweet because, at least, he found a problem and now we can do something about it. We are going to call him Dr. P, and he is amazing!!

We arrived at the office and they put us in a room until the doctor arrived (he was doing rounds on his patients at a nearby hospital). He finally saw us about 8:45 and he just collected a good medical history foundation on both of us. The nurse took our picture for our file and then we were off to the exam room.

I undressed and got on the table. In addition to the regular poking and prodding of a regular annual exam at the ob/gyn, I also received a transvaginal ultrasound (a probe in inserted vaginally and ultrasound is used to visualize the pelvic organs). Everything looked perfectly fine until he looked at my ovaries. I could see these black "bubble" things around my ovaries and I knew this wasn't normal. Right then and there he diagnosed me with PCOS (PolyCystic Ovary Syndrome). At first, I was very upset thinking I would never have the chance to carry my child or be a mother. Then Dr. P then chuckled, and said "I deal with this everyday! We have medicines to fix you!" Boy, was I relieved!

We then went back to his office to discuss what we are going to do. We first had to go give blood that afternoon to check us both out to a T. Guy has to go next week to give a semen analysis (just to chek the number and quality of his Michael Phelps...) and to make sure the only problem is with me. He put me on Aygestin 5mg to make me have a period and shed my uterine lining so that he can perform a test on me in the next week or so called a SIS (Saline Infusion Sonography) and an HSG (Hysterosalpingogram). An SIS is done to evaluate the inside of the uterus by filling the uterus with saline during a transvaginal ultrasound. An HSG is an X-ray test that looks at the inside of the uterus and fallopian tubes and the area around them. After these tests are finished, I will then be out on injections to stimulate ovulation and then Dr. P will artificially inseminate me with Guy's sperm. He says doing it this way is a lot more controlled and insures a pregnancy even more.

We are eager about all of this starting, yet nervous as well! We hope everything works out for the best and we are blessed with a beautiful baby one day! I will always remember this experience that my husband and I are going through and we can't wait to have a little miracle!

Thank you for all the prayers and thoughts!

Post 2

The Ob/Gyn called today and told me the results of my blood test. My thyroid was normal but my progesterone was very low. All in all, she thinks I am not ovulating. So, the next step is to go to the fertility doctor. I have an appointment with him on the 17th of December, and hopefully I will find out more about all of this.

Update to come....

Post 1

Anyone who has experienced infertility will tell you: it’s a rollercoaster. Whether you are involved in infertility treatment, or dealing with monthly cycles, it is seems inevitable that you will ride the waves of hope and disappointment.

The story goes like this... We dated... We got married... And a baby is supposed to be next, right?? We have the names picked out, the nursery decorated in our minds... Well, who would have ever thought we would be having problems. Getting pregnant, that is :) The trying is perfect ;)

This seems to be marking the beginning of the infertility trek that we are setting upon. I went to my new Ob/Gyn yesterday for my annual and, of course, I will say she is pretty amazing. I was impressed at the time she took to sit down and talk with me about the trouble we are having trying to conceive. She gave me all the possible options and then let me decide. I chose what she recommended which was to have my blood drawn to test my progesterone and thyroid levels to see if I am even ovulating. I am now waiting for the phone call next week for her to tell me the results. Whatever they may be, I will most likely be going to an infertility doc so we can figure all this out and hopefully have a Baby Gus pretty soon!

I plan to keep this blog updated as we go through this journey for our family and very close friends. We are hoping that this is nothing and this blog will turn into a pregnancy update rather than an infertility update! All we ask is that you keep us in your prayers!

"In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps." Proverbs 16:9