Promises Kept - 3rd/12th/13th IVF/Infertility/Grandmomma/Baby Showers

I combined all the above (IVF and Infertility and Grandmomma and Baby Showers) into one post since, well they are all about the same thing.

My daughter and her husband underwent IVF 9 months ago for infertility problems on both sides. 2 eggs were fertilized and implanted. One took. I went to daughter's 5th week ultrasound with her. I knew how to read ultrasounds but the doctor didn't know that. We knew one egg had implanted but were waiting for the heartbeat and pole to appear. So when the doctor had it centered on the screen I could not contain myself and yelled there she is. Of course daughter who couldn't see anything went what and the probe slid off her belly. The tech laughing said: "Oh your mother knows how to read these!" She turned the screen so my daughter could see it and yep there was not only a heartbeat but a pole.

It was a long few weeks and actually few months of extra boosts of hormones for her then harvesting her follicles only to find out she only had 5 good eggs. We went then to the obtaining the sperm and threw them in the petri dish to go to it. While all 5 eggs fertilized with the sperm, only 2 grew to the blastozote stage so those 2 were implanted. We were on pins and needles for those weeks waiting to see if the IVF was successful and if they would have how many babies or none at all. I know what I went through and can only imagine doing it yourself and what one goes through mentally and physically.

So it became official after the 3 months had passed that I was going to be a grandmomma and it was only one baby. Around 6 months we found out it was going to be a girl so I started off the baby shower rounds with my shower the end of March. Daughter had 3 more showers. That girl has so many clothes. Hope she gets to wear them all.

I am all ready with a pack n play, swing, car seat base, and know I will know when she goes into labor since she will call me to let me know to pick up the dogs which we are watching until they are all back home and have had a few days to get settled before introducing the dogs to the mix.

So here are a few pictures of the nursery (daughter did a fantastic job on it):

Promises Kept - 2nd Excuse - New Step-Mom

A little over a year after my mother passed away, my father began dating again. His first attempt was to visit the senior center in his town. He called me after and said he was never going back there. I asked him why. He said those old women are nuts. He went on to relate that he was the only male there and therefore EVERY single woman came up to him and gave him their phone numbers. He said they were crawling all over him. I giggled and he said it wasn't funny. He was even asked questions from the women if he could still get it up and how long could he last and if he liked going down on women. It was a riot listening to him. As a daughter I didn't want to know how he answered those questions although I have to tell you I was super curious :)

So his next venture was online dating spots but he said even the Christian sites were full of women who were only out there for sex and how much money he had. So he continued his life dating here and there but never the same person for long.

He does a lot with his church. He delivers communion to shut-ins, visits parishioners in the hospital, etc. He belongs to the senior group through the church. One day there was a planned outing and a woman my father knew stated she would not be able to go since she had been planning to have her car worked on that day. My father volunteered to drive her. Now here is where the story gets really interesting. His version: I drove her there and we sat together. We found that we had a lot in common and after the function he escorted her to her door and went in for a cup of coffee and before he knew it, it was the middle of the morning. Then there were giggles. Her version: He picked me up and we talked and found out we couldn't stop talking. Lots of giggles.

My father called me and asked me what I thought about him taking her out on a real date and not church related activities. He wanted to take her to his favorite restaurant but didn't feel quite right since it was my mother's favorite restaurant too. I told him to go with his gut and ask her and explain what he just told me and see if that was a problem for her. He called me back the next day and said that the restaurant was this woman and her deceased husband's favorite restaurant too. So out they went!

My first introduction to my new step-mom was at Thanksgiving in 2011. They were like teenagers. They couldn't stop touching each other and their smiles to each other were contagious. I was really happy. She is really different in a lot of ways from my mother but alike in others. She makes my father smile and laugh and he has become a new man, the father I had not seen for years.

In July of last year they married at a place we go for our family's reunion. She had never been a mother but now has the 6 of us plus husbands plus 28 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren. She is at times overwhelmed but just takes it in stride. They alternate living between what they term the small house which is in her name and the large house which is in my father's name. They even had new wills drawn up.

So......I have a step-mom I absolutely adore! The picture above is of all of us plus some relatives who drove up from Oklahoma and close family friends who drove down to join us in the celebration.

Promises Kept - My 1st Excuse - Shingles

I gave you lots of reasons that have prevented me from blogging so thought I would go into them now in semi-condensed version. Shingles - if you never had them, take my word and don't ever get them or at least try not to. No they are not contagious unless you have a tendency to suck icky looking pus pockets of their pus....then I am not making any guarantees. Condensed version: I broke out with my 1st cast of shingles on my sciatic nerve beginning December 28 through February 2011, then broke out with a 2nd case on my right facial nerve the beginning of February. It was painful aka pure hell. I could not sit. I finally went back to work in March of 2011.

Here is just a small area of the blistered area - now imagine this across both sides of my rear tushie and extending down to the bottom of the foot, up to the ankle and between the toes, totaling over 2000 of these.

Here is the whole story:  December 21st of 2011 I was working at one of our offices and I went to sit down on one of those rolling secretarial chairs and instead of sitting on said chair, it went across the room behind me and I landed on my behind. So I went into the Christmas holidays with a really sore rear end. December 23rd I made 15 dozen Christmas cookies and biscottis and did our usual 2000 cappelletti (like tortellini). By noon on Christmas eve we were at hub's parents house with a fully cooked turducken - for those of you who don't know what a turducken is: take a deboned turkey, put a layer of stuffing on it, then put a deboned duck on top of that then another layer of stuffing, then finally a deboned chicken on top of that then the final layer of stuffing. You sew this all this together to look like a turkey then bake. I also made mashed tators, glazed carrots, and cooked cranberry sauce, and 2 pumpkin pies. Meanwhile my tushy was still hurting. We came home and went to church then wrapped presents. (I know one day I will get my stuff together and have this all done way before Christmas even begins - maybe even before Thanksgiving :) So Christmas Day the kids came over and I made prime rib with au gratins and string beans. I started wrapping for the 26th at my dad's and started the 2 turkeys and the dressing for them.

Turducken before cooking:
 


Turducken after cooked and sliced:
 

By the time I got to work on the 27th, my tushie was really hurting. I got a massage but that didn't help. I went to the chiropractor and got an adjustment and that didn't help. So Wednesday night I laid on a heating pad all night. I have one of those old fashioned heating pads that need a towel on it (mine is good old fashioned plastic) but the towel didn't stay on said heating pad and I forgot to turn down the dang thing before I zonked. So I woke up with a total red blistered butt on both sides. I went to work and sat gingerly.

By the 30th with my tushie still hurting and said blisters were now going down my left leg to the knee. I hollered at husband to come take a look and to which he said you have shingles. Well, I tried to call the doctor who sent me to the ER. Guess they don't like people like me in the ER because I was rushed into a room and a doctor was there. I wasn't even allowed to strip. I had to stand because it was very painful to sit. The doc took one look at me and said you have shingles. Okay so there is a consensus. I had shingles. I was put on an antiviral medication and told to follow up with my doctor. 15 minutes in the ER - bill was over 6 grand and I owed a copay of $150.00. I refused a pain pill because I hate them.

Little did I know what shingles pain really felt like. I was still breaking out 2 weeks later so I called the doctor who saw me and rushed me in and out (fastest appointment I have ever been to) - charged me $30.00 and put me on another 2 weeks of anti-virals and since by this time I was not sleeping and had taken up channel surfing and crying for a living. I couldn't go into work. Heck, I had to use crutches to go to the bathroom because by this time I was breaking out on my foot and ankle and between my toes. I slithered in and out of bed wincing and crying every time I moved or even if the fan blew on my rear. I could not wear clothes at all. I was put on Cymbalta. Miracle drug. The pain went away.

So now it is the beginning of February 2012 and I stopped breaking out on my tushie and leg and ankle and toes and the 2000 some pustules began crusting. I took my last antiviral. 4 days later I was back on the phone with the doctor saying I was breaking out on the right side of my face. So I was back on the antiviral. I stopped breaking out just before hitting my eye area. But I began the painful process of re-learning how to sit.

By the end of February I could sit for at least 30 minutes at a time and could tolerate clothes so went back to work. I still have areas of scar tissue and still have to stretch after I sit for longer than an hour or two. But I will leave the Cymbalta story for another day.

Life is never dull around me.

My Advice: GET A SHINGLES SHOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!