      |
Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2001 - 8:42 p.m. - I'm Still Alive
 My goodness I’ve been bad about updating this month. I think I will make updating my journal at least 4 times a week one of my New Year’s resolutions. Granted I’ve never been good at keeping resolutions, but then I’ve also never been good about keeping a journal or diary for any length of time and I’ve kept this one for over a year now! Despite my worries about my emotional state this holiday season due to our failed IVF attempt, I must say that my spirits have really taken an upturn. Much of that has to do with a very positive meeting we had with our RE on December 18th. If you belong to my notify list, you’ve already heard all about it (another reason to join my notify list), but basically our RE feels very confident that he can and will get us pregnant. There is some concern about the quality of my eggs and we have to do a few tests (one of which I am not looking forward to) but we will try another IVF attempt probably in March. The advantage of having gone through IVF once (even if it didn’t work) is that we know how I respond to the fertility medications and that we were able to get some decent embryos. While they weren’t excellent quality, he says he’s seen much lower quality produce viable pregnancies and that the quality was not bad for someone with PCOS and endometriosis (as both of those issues do effect the quality of the eggs). Best of all, though, was that the RE was so confident that he could help us and we have a lot of confidence in him. Granted, it might take more than one more IVF. He told us he would encourage us not to give up with just one or two IVF attempts. We are hoping, however, that our next attempt might result in more embryos, and perhaps even enough to freeze for embryo transfers if the IVF attempts don’t work, which would be much easier on me medically and on us financially. As you can see from the picture above, we did get our house in order in time for some holiday decorating. I don’t know if you can tell from the picture but we still weren’t able to decorate the tree fully, the bottom third still can’t have any ornaments on it courtesy of Miss Midnight. She broke 3 of my favorite ornaments within 2 hours of our putting up and decorating the tree!! She sure is a jumper! We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas. Michael’s brother and his wife came down from Oak Harbor on the 23rd and we were treated to an outstanding dinner of duck prepared “Thai style” my SIL. Michael claims the meal was like a “party in his mouth” and it is now his favorite dinner! (I guess that means I better learn how to cook it.) On the 24th we all went to my parents’ home and celebrated “Weihnachten” (German Christmas) complete with carols in German and real candles burning on the Christmas tree. Yes. Real candles. And no, we’ve never had a fire. It is done very carefully and only for a short time while everyone is watching and there is a bucket of water nearby. The flickering, soft light from the candles makes the tree come alive like no electric lights can. It is truly a magical moment and an experience you will never forget if you ever get to see it. Christmas morning we first enjoyed a nice breakfast then tore into stockings in the tradition of Michael’s family. After that we leisurely took turns opening gifts under the tree, which was then followed by a speakerphone conference call with Michael’s family gathered in Virginia. We laughed a lot, shed a few tears and had a wonderful time. I must admit that I am ready for this year to end though. I’m hoping that 2002 will be a better one for us and that our dearest dreams and wishes come true.
|
        |
|
|
|
|