Sadie and her word of the day

Our Date

I finally have my pictures from King’s Island. Yes I realize it took me long enough.

We decided at the last minute to take this 2 hour drive to Ohio. Due to the fact, that we have spent all our money on trying to have a baby we don’t get to go very many places or have a “vacation”. For the past 2 years we have been trying to plan this trip to King’s Island but our life roller coaster made it difficult to make plans. We were either poking me with fertility medication or waiting to see if we were pregnant.

We decided to wait and go off peak time. It was great there were no lines and we rode everything we wanted to twice.

We like roller coasters so we rode the old favorites which are the Beast and the Racer
. We also rode the Delirium
and the Drop Tower
.

It was a very pretty day not too hot but sunny. We decided to ride the log ride, so we thought we were riding the log ride, we seen the ride beside us so we went into the entrance that was called White Water Canyon. So we put 2 and 2 together, people on a log riding on water and then an entrance to a water ride.
Well, it wasn’t the simple little log ride where you get a little wet. Oh No, we got soaked. I was completely wet for about 11/2 hours and the water was cold.

You know how we try and eat pretty healthy but Kings Island was our exception. I enjoyed the very expensive and so greasy piece of pizza and a funnel cake. We didn’t go over board with the food but enjoyed every bit of it.

We stayed about 6 hours and that was plenty of time to do all we wanted to do. Aaron and I finally had a little date/vacation.

King's Island

My husband and I went to Kings Island yesterday. I didn't want to take the good camera just in case I dropped it on a roller coaster. I had to go old school and buy one of those throw away camera's. Which means now I have go to the store and get them developed. You don't realize how good you have it when you can just hook the camera up to your computer and have at it.

So as soon as I get my butt off the computer I will get my pictures ready to post.

We had a great time and I can't wait to post our trip.

Autumn Apple

Hope the scent brings you to the place of a cool fall breeze and the beauty of the colors from the trees leaves turning.

Cute

I wanted to share this really cute bridal shower invitation I made for a friend of mine. I enjoyed doing this for her and wanted to share.

Keena has the "Word of the Day"

Chaos that is all I need to say

Last night I was watching a TV show. I won't tell you who it was about but, I am sure I will give you enough hints and you will guess who I am talking about. I was just flipping through the TV channels looking for something to watch. Then there she was. The woman who has several, several, several children. Guess who it is yet? This woman has made the ones with real fertility problems look bad.

I could only stand about 10 - 15 minutes of the show because I was so angry at her. I don't want to judge but it is so hard not to. Someone abusing fertility treatment. I blame the doctor also for participating in this.

I wanted to see if maybe those babies are at least treated well. It was chaos! In just the small amount of time I was watching one child (2 years old) was kicking, screaming, hitting his mom and the camera person and calling the mom names (words that a grown up shouldn't say to there mom).

Another child (he was 9 years old) was also throwing a tantrum hitting his mom. You could also clearly tell that he did not want the camera in his face.

The last thing I saw and then I had to turn it was when mom was holding one of the infants and she was so busying talking to the camera that she didn't notice the baby was spitting up.

I am not a mom but I can clearly see that this mom is way over her head. I feel sorry for those children. They don't deserve it.

Don't take citrus with grain

Edgar Cayce (the sleeping prophet)said it almost 100 years ago. Now science has finally caught up. Orange juice is highly acidic. Since it normally goes through your digestive system quickly, there are no ill effect. Bread(especially white bread, due to lack of bran)takes a long time to pass through your digestive system. Absorbent bread soaks up the highly acidic orange juice and holds it in place. This can cause minor to serious problems in the digestive system.

So here is another way to be healthier with very little sacrifice.

Fertility Clinics

I was watching the news over the weekend and was a little saddened. The story was a debate about fertility clinics and does there need to be more guidelines/rules/laws for fertility clinics? I am ok with the debate itself. The part that bothered me was one person who called people that had multiples through fertility treatments “mills”. It wasn't just once it was several times. If you feel that there needs to be more guidelines than that is your opinion and talk about what should be changed but don't stereotype someone who is seeking fertility treatments and call them a "mill". On the news this morning, I seen that a woman robbed a bank. Should we all be called bank robbers now??

In my experience, I have done fertility treatments (the procedures were all done by my personal prognosis and by all rules/laws/guidelines)with no success.

What's Cookin!

Since I don’t have a lot of adventures and excitement I will tell you about what I cooked this weekend.

Saturday for breakfast it was blueberry/banana muffins. They were so yummy I made another batch Sunday afternoon. I have noticed that on recipes (like muffins) they say to freeze them. In the Kriech household no need to freeze. They disappear very quickly! Just to make sure you all know we don’t eat them all ourselves. We packed a few up for some family members to enjoy.

On Sunday I made some plantain chips. I cut the plantain up and fried them in some extra virgin olive oil and then put some sea salt on them. Delicious!

I am always looking for new ideas and recipes to make. If you have a recipe you love let me know I would love to try it. I make a lot of things from scratch so that I know exactly what is going into my food.

It's Friday!

On Friday mornings I like to treat myself to Chick-fil-A. If you haven’t had there chicken mini’s you are missing out! You get this little sweet piece of bread inside is your chicken nugget. Then I get a small cup of fruit. Their fruit is so fresh and last I love their unsweetened brewed tea. So now you know what I eat almost every Friday morning.

I am looking forward to Sunday night when Season 3 Premieres of Mad Men on AMC.

I was watching us on a Realty TV show

The other day I was watching Gene Simmons Family Jewels (Please no comment on what I was watching!!) Anyway, Gene’s schedule was completely open so he was bored. He asks Shannon (his wife/girlfriend) what she was doing and she said she was going to the grocery store. Gene asks if he could go. Shannon was hesitant but said ok. They both went to the store and Gene was driving Shannon crazy, he was telling her to make sure it doesn’t have high cholesterol in it and what the ingredients are in the bread etc. Then at home, Gene is going through some of his things and wakes his son up to talk about what he has found. After that Gene goes to the movies with his daughter and her friends and all through the movie he his talking asking why did they do that and on and on. I thought I was watching Aaron and me.
As you read through my blog you see that we both are very conscious about what is in our food (even though Aaron knows so much more than I do about ingredients in our food), I like grocery shopping on my own and how the scene was portrayed, so does Shannon (I was feeling her pain lol). What you don’t know is that Aaron does the same thing Gene does at the movies. We will be watching a show or movie and Aaron will say that’s not real or why are they doing that etc.

But all laughter aside, I love Aaron dearly he truly wants what is best for the both of us.

The Fertility Advocate

The Fertility Advocate

Shared via AddThis

Plastic

BPA or Bisphenol A is a plastic used to line food cans and make bottles like baby bottles and water bottles. BPA has been linked to cancer and birth defects in female and male reproductive systems. This toxic poison is found on over 100 types of cans of vegetables, soup, fruit and infant formula.

One study found that in 1 out of 3 cans of infant formula, only one serving was enough to give a person a dose of over 200 times the government’s standard for safe-level exposure. Currently there are no government regulations on amount of BPA allowed in our food!

95% of people tested in the US have a dangerous level of BPA in their systems.

If the recycle symbol on the bottom of your container has a #7, it most likely contains BPA

The weekend

This weekend was uneventful. Friday afternoon is clean house day. Saturday was grocery day. I made tacos for lunch on Saturday and it was for dinner and lunch on Sunday also since there was a lot of it.

Sunday morning I made pancakes with blueberries from scratch. Making pancakes from scratch doesn’t take much time maybe about 5 extra minutes from making it from a box. I make pancakes that have whole wheat flour, oats and wheat germ. You can say they are healthy pancakes unlike the kind you get out of a box. I also made brownies with icing from scratch and I always use whole wheat flour instead of white when baking.

Your very thoughful!

I want to thank everyone for checking on Aaron after the incident. Aaron removed his stitches on Wednesday and by the weekend it just looks like a small bump and scab on his head.
I thought about taking pictures of his head but did not know if anyone would want to see it, now I wish I would have. It is amazing how quickly it has healed.

Do you have a comment?

If you have a comment, question or story and you feel uncomfortable about writing it on my blog you can always email me. I would try and comment on what you say on my blog if that is ok with you. I would not give out your name or any info that you said was not ok.

Is it the hormones?

I think like any medications, fertility medications affect people in different ways. I noticed for me were weight gain and my hair was growing. The other thing like emotions I guess it depends on several things, was it the medication that made me more emotional or was it the fact that I am going through fertility treatments to get pregnant and there is no guarantees that any of this will work. Was it the constant thinking about it or was it seeing pregnant women every time you turned around (I am exaggerating) but that is what it felt like. The best thing I can suggest is to find a friend/family member that can support you and listen to you. Think positive! even though it is hard when you don’t want to get your hopes up just in case it fails. If you feel sad, cry; if you are angry, talk about it; if you are excited about it, share it with others. There is no one that should tell you how you should feel.

Just a small difference in the price

The cost can blow you away. The first thing was the ultrasounds. As you read in my last post I had a total of 4 of them. 1st one was when they found the cyst, 2nd to see if the cyst decreased, 3rd to see the progress of the follicles and 4th to see the progress of the follicles again. My insurance will not cover since this was part of the fertility process. I don’t know the exact amount that all these ended up being but I just want you to know how many ultrasounds you may need and each one will cost hundreds of dollars.

The drugs, Femara and the Noveral was not pricey but the Follistim was another story. This is where research should have been done on my part to find the best price with a reputable pharmacy. The first time I ordered my prescription of Follistim I just went to my local pharmacy it was a drug that had to be ordered, so I called the next day to see if the drug was in and ask them how much it was. I was told it was $9.00. I questioned it and they said yes that was correct. I went to pick up my prescription and was getting out a $10.00 bill the cashier said that price is not correct. I thought ok maybe a little more but no the cost was $843.00. I freaked out! The pharmacy made a mistake so they charged me for their cost only. It was still $800.00.

The next surprise was when I got home to see how to use the Follistim. I had no needle to inject this drug. I called the pharmacy and they said I didn’t order one. Well if I knew that I needed to order one I guess I would have! Or maybe not maybe I should just try and drink it (LOL). I ended up going to my doctor to get what they call the Follistim pen. This is what you need to inject the drug. Needless to say make sure you know what all is needed to administer.

The other cost would involve, the 2 blood draws, the collection and washing of the sperm and last the nurse inserting the sperm into my uterus.

Artificial insemination is less expensive than invitro and that is why we chose this option first hoping for a precious little baby.

The next Dr. Visit

It was a month later and I had to go to the doctor's office to see if the cyst was gone. The baseline ultrasound was done and the cyst was still there but it had decreased in size. The doctor said it was small enough to start the IUI process. The process is done by days and day 1 is the first full day of flow. On day 1 I started taking an oral medication called Femera I took it for 5 days 2 times a day.
On day 3 I started taking an injectble medication Follistim (Follistim is used to stimulate a follicle to develop and mature) I had to take the Follistim until day 9 and then I went to the doctor's office to do another ultrasound. The ultrasound would be to check to see how many follicles I have and the size of them. The follicles holds the mature egg. The ultrasound showed that there were 9 follicles but none of them were the size they needed to be. I continued to take the Follistim for 2 more days. I went back to the doctor for another ultrasound and a blood draw. At this time the ultrasound only showed 8 follicles and only 4 of them were a mature size. The blood draw is to check my FSH level. Day 13 I did another injection called Novarel (is used to cause ovulation). Day 15 is when the insemination is going to be done my husband and I both went into the office. They collect his sperm and then the sperm is washed (Sperm washing separates sperm cells from a man’s semen, helping to get rid of dead or slow-moving sperm as well as additional chemicals that may impair fertilization). This process of washing takes about an hour. Now it is my turn the sperm is placed directly into my uterus by a flexible catheter. This only take a few minutes for 20 more minutes I lay there with my hips elevated looking at the fertility bunny on the ceiling. We wait for 2 weeks and take a pregnancy test. The test was negative.Tomorrow I am going to explain the cost of this entire procedure.

How about a small giveaway??

I want to thank everyone for visiting my site.

I would like everyone that visits my site starting Tuesday, August 4, 2009 until Sunday, August 9, 2009 make a comment on any of my posts. For each comment made I will put your name in a bowl. Then on Monday morning I will draw a name. So I bet you are wondering what the prize will be. I have a couple of choices.

The first choice is 1 wallflowers pluggable home fragrance diffuser set (scents are Autumn Apple, Fresh Linen or Cinnamon Stick)or I have deep cleansing hand soap (I have several scents so I won't list them all). These items are from Bath & Body Works.

I will only be able to ship within the United States.

Just in case you are wondering WHY?

If you might be wondering why I am writing this blog. There are several reasons for this.

My first reason is to find others in my same situation and to see the process in which they were able to conceive or if not how to deal with it.

I want the support of my friends to help them understand what I am going through. I am not trying to get someone to feel sorry for me but to understand what infertility is.

Infertility is real and not just a feeling. Some may say "just get over it" or "Why don't you just adopt". Those words can be very hurtful when someone is trying to conceive a child of their own. There are many reasons why I feel the way I do and why I have taken certain steps to achieve a child of my own. I will take the time to help someone understand or for those who do understand I just want to say thank you.

I also want to explain to all readers what all can be involved when trying to conceive.

We all go through struggles in life and have to take each challenge and make the best of it. This is my way of making the best out of a devastating situation. I am not saying my struggle with infertility is the worse problem someone could have believe me I have been blessed with so much and I am very grateful for my family and friends and the help that God has given me through this time.

The last thing I want to say if my miracle does happen in the future I want everyone to know I will never forget how this made me feel and will always be there for anyone going through infertility.

It was a beautiful Friday afternoon and then the splitting maul happened!

Aaron and I were working in the yard on Friday. We have a tree stump that keeps sprouting up leaves from the roots in the ground. When it all sprouts out it is an eye sore. Aaron wanted to make sure we were able to kill this so that we do not have to continue to cut the leaves up so he wanted to take a splitting maul to be able to get the stump killer in all the roots growing out. Aaron started splitting it up. All of a sudden the splitting maul bounced off one of the roots and the maul hit Aaron in the head. I didn't know what just happened. All I seen was Aaron bent over. I thought this thing hit him in the eye but he was still standing but bent over. All I said was Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness. Then Aaron said I am bleeding go get me a cold wet cloth. I gave him the wet cloth and then he came inside. I was able to see his head and still couldn't tell what was hit on his head there was so much bleeding. Aaron was able to get the bleeding to almost stop. We then went to the immediate care center. Aaron had to get 12 stitches in his head. The doctor said that he did chip his skull but nothing was fractured.

If you do not know what a splitting maul is I have a picture of one and the stump.