Back and in good shape

We're back from San Fran and we had a great time! We walked so much that by Monday afternoon (day 3 of our trip) NoodleGuy and I were both whimpering in pain due to our throbbing feet. We had to wait 20 minutes for a bus at one point and were both basically lying on the sidewalk by the time it came, haha. We really did feel rejuvenated by the weekend, though. We explored everything in SF proper. We walked the Golden Gate bridge, up and down Lombard street, waited in insane lines (exacerbated by the cables breaking down twice) for the cable cars, hung off the sides of the cable cars, took a tour of Alcatraz, went to Chinatown and Japantown, Fisherman's Wharf, Union Square, North Beach, Embarcadero and Mission Hill.

Some photos:





Photos are: Golden Gate bridge, view from cable car, view of Alcatraz, Lombard St, Chinatown, Fisherman's Wharf-ish.

Last impressions: we want to live in North Beach. SF reminds us alot of Boston except bigger and better. There are alot of homeless people in Union Square (and this is from a gal who grew up in NYC). There are alot of smokers in SF, very surprising. There are alot of restaurants in SF (we later read that it has more restaurants per capita than anywhere else in the US). We loved riding the cable cars. We loved the weather and natural beauty of the city. We love Virgin America.

We got back late on Tuesday night and then yesterday was my birthday, so it's been an exciting few days. We went out to dinner last night and I got an excellent, knee-length down jacket from NG for my bday. It's black with a grey (fake) fur-lined hood and manages to be awesomely warm though still flattering form-wise for a down coat.

In IF news, I had my saline sonogram yesterday and it's all clear! Whew! Last time I went in expecting everything to be fine and turned out to need a hysteroscopy to clear out what turned out to be @ 10 polyps. Yet another in my long list of "unexpected" bad news IF appts. You'd think I'd learn by now not to go into appts all starry-eyed and optimistic, right? Anyhow, this time we were all good, thank God.

In a rare occurrence, I actually got my own beloved Dr. B for the procedure and was able to talk to him about my concerns over what my f'ed up body is doing right now. Ongoing spotting for a week now and no real AF and no apparent O last cycle. This is highly unusual for me, and it adding to the can-we-get-this-done-before-Christmas stress. Dr. B said he's get me home for Christmas (love him!) and gave me 3 options:

1) Start stimming now, he had looked at my ovaries and they were quiet, good for starting. That would mean skipping the estrogen priming. That kind of surprised me, I wasn't really mentally ready to start.

2) Go on BCPs to take over my cycle and time AF in a few weeks, again skipping EPP. Not a great option for me because BCP over-suppresses me, pretty much dooming the cycle. You can tell already that I wouldn't choose this option.

3) Wait and see, hope my body moves on naturally and do b/w every few days to see if I ovulate. If my body behaves, I can still do EPP and if it doesn't by a cutoff date of about 11/18, I can go on Provera and still force AF. This option gives us the chance of still doing EPP, if things happen naturally.

I opted for the final choice because I'd like something to happen naturally ;). And I think EPP is my best shot so I'd like to squeeze it in, if I can.

Dr. B looked at my antral follies yesterday too. For once he actually saw Ol' Leftie, but it was quiet as a doormouse. Poor Leftie. On Big Rightie, he saw 3-4 antral follies, which is par for the course for me. I'm praying that I can get a few more eggies than AFC shows, but who knows. Since I only got one follie last time, I'd be happy enough if those 3-4 to behave. So long & short of it, it looks like I'm on schedule for a mid-December IVF.

I don't have buckets of hope like I did way back when but at least I'll be doing something instead of waiting. Remember the early days of IF when IVF seemed like a last resort, but one that would surely work? Like the Holy Grail? Yea, now I'm more like an IF atheist. I'll be watching from the sidelines as my RE plays puppeteer with my body. I already know I'll feel more like a spectator than a participant, and maybe that's a good thing.