The embryologist just called!!!

We have four "beautiful" embryos!! They will be watched through the weekend and if all goes well, we will get another call on Monday night and have transfer on Tuesday. The embryologist was really sweet and also very informative about what had been happening in the lab. She kept referring to them as "beautiful." Yay! She did say that she has my chart in front of her and knows of our previous cycles and losses, so to be realistic about all of them hanging on until Tuesday. She also said that each one of them is "very precious" to the clinic, as they are to us. It was amazing. She kept saying "precious", not in a 'our clinic likes good results' type of way, but in a 'these are your miracles and we care for them, too' kind of way. We are very happy!

I hope you all have a great weekend!

egg retrieval: a little midazolam, a little morphine, and a little nap

Warning, I’m still a little out of it.

We arrived at the clinic this morning and while waiting in the waiting lounge upstairs, my fabulous nurse came in to wish us luck. She wasn’t going to be with me during the procedure, but said that she would stop by recovery to check on me.

At 8am, I took a few Solpadeine (codeine) tablets as directed. Then another great nurse I’ve worked with before came to take us down to the IVF suite. I chose a bed, changed into the lovely paper gown, and met the RE who would be doing the egg retrieval. He spent A LOT of time with us. We went over my history, the legal documents we had signed (in case we have frozen embryos), and the plan of action. He said he was impressed that we had filled out all 28ish pages of paperwork correctly and said that it was obvious that we had put a lot of thought into our decisions.

I asked what meds he would be using for anesthesia and we discussed my anesthesia background. I guess most patients aren’t as interested in discussing drugs as I am ;) He said he would be using a small dose of Midazolam and Morphine because I was “slender”. Then I got nervous. Um, did he not see the extra 35 pounds from two IVF cycles, or my prednisone induced fat face? I laughed and said that I am in no way “slender” at this point. Anyway, he made my day with that comment. After speaking with him, the embryologist came in to talk with us and check, double check, then triple check paperwork, names, birth dates, and my patient id.

Finally it was time. I walked into the operating theatre, hopped up on the bed, and the RE started my IV. The nurse again verified my id, then another nurse opened a window directly into the embryology lab and again, names, birth dates, patient number, etc was reviewed between me, the two nurses, the RE, and the embryologist. Very thorough. As soon as the leads were placed, I was out.

I don’t remember anything until I woke up in recovery. The RE came in and told me the number of eggs retrieved, then the nurse told me to go back to sleep and said she would go get my husband. For the next three hours they monitored my vitals and I slept. I decided it was time to leave and got dressed. Just then my fabulous nurse came to visit and said she would try to see me next week for transfer.

The RE stopped by again to discuss the egg retrieval with both of us. The total count was 7 eggs, and all from the left side. Just like my first egg retrieval in Minsk, he didn’t even bother with the right side. The embryologist will call us tomorrow afternoon to discuss the fertilization report.

I am home now and for some reason, a lot more tired and groggy than I was for my first retrieval in Belarus, and I had a general for that, so I’m not sure where this is coming from. If you’ve made it this far into my midazolam, morphine clouded thoughts, congrats. As of tonight, I’m back on prednisone, baby aspirin, and heparin injections.

Final count, 7 eggs.

triggered last night and warning: picture

I was too tired to update the blog after my trigger shot last night. We are all set for egg retrieval tomorrow morning. Today I'm taking it easy and being grateful for an injection free day :) Thank you for all of your kind words, thoughts, and prayers.

HCG


last picture of medical waste


last stomach picture

did somebody call for a fifth RE?

With the anticipated traffic nightmare, and a very stressed out wife, my husband had the wonderful idea to take a walk this morning and speak to the Garda (local police) in our neighborhood. He told them that I had a medical appointment and asked if there was any way to bypass the marathon route. The Garda told him that if we left early enough that we should be able to get out. My husband was also told to be gone at least six hours and that we shouldn’t have a problem getting back in. We hopped in the car and several detours, one hour and twice explaining the situation to the Garda at roadblocks, we arrived at the clinic.

The drive home was LONG. Several detours, lots of traffic, and a few Garda to talk to. Fortunately neither on the way to the clinic nor on the way home did the Garda ask for ID or want to play 20 questions with us like they seemed to do with the other cars. I’m not sure if it was our dip plates or the massive amount of hormones I was emitting, but the Garda let us through and six hours after starting out we are finally home, relatively unscathed.


The appointment:

The RE that specializes in missing right ovaries did my scan again. She said that my lining is “brilliant” and when describing the left ovary and its 8 or 9 follicles, used the words “excellent” and “very good.” We won’t talk about the right ovary and the failure that it is.

I’m officially on the surgical schedule for egg retrieval on Thursday. All was going well until I asked if my RE would be doing the retrieval. Answer, no. I’m not thrilled with this news, however, the doctor doing the retrieval is the RE that I almost chose for our initial consult, so hopefully he will live up to his fabulous reputation. So yes, I'm now onto RE #5 in Dublin.

getting worried and feeling trapped

So as it’s getting closer to the end, the little, or not so little things are starting to bother me. Tomorrow is an Irish bank holiday, which means most businesses are closed, but I have a monitoring appointment.

1. I only have one box of Luveris left and it will be used tonight. What if I need another day or two of Luveris? I don’t think any pharmacies are open tomorrow. Grrr

2. I made the mistake of reading a couple of the Irish infertility message boards and there are several comments about my clinic and the doctors people prefer. Everyone has a different personality and finds the best fit, no big deal. However, the more I read, the more it sounds like the RE that people initially consult with isn’t necessarily the RE that does egg retrieval or embryo transfer. WHAT? So yes, I’m having a minor freak out today and will likely have a list of questions for the RE doing my scan tomorrow. I hate being “that” patient, but I really want to know what the plan is. I put a lot of time and thought into choosing the doctor we initially consulted with and that is whom I would like to work with. ::bites nails::

3. Tomorrow of all days is the Dublin Marathon. Not a problem right, I’m not running in it. Oh, but there is a problem. Not only is the marathon path down the main street in our neighborhood, separating the main road to our gated community from the side of the street that we need to be on to get to my monitoring appointment across town, but the more research we do, the more it appears we really are trapped tomorrow. We’re still trying to figure out what to do about this. Cross the street, walk a few blocks, and call a taxi? Park at a friend’s house in another neighborhood?

After closer inspection the marathon route actually has our entire neighborhood surrounded, like a prison. Several panicked phone calls to local friends later, we are being informed to take buses, trains, taxis, anything but trying to drive ourselves. Ack

If I can figure out how to add a map of the marathon route, I will. I have a feeling that a good portion of Dublin is going to be standing still due to the traffic nightmare that will occur tomorrow.

Law & Order SVU fail

Our cable is not very reliable, as in there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the schedule or programs shown. Once in awhile, we are lucky enough to catch an episode of Law & Order, a personal favorite.

I was thrilled to come across an episode of Law & Order SVU last night, only to find that it was about stolen embryos. Eep, not what I need to watch just days away from egg retrieval. Of course I realize that the L & O story line is fairly far fetched, but still. I also know that I shouldn’t have watched it, but it was one of those things I just couldn’t pull myself away from. Plus, it’s not like a get the opportunity to watch L & O very often. The episode itself was okay, not great, but okay. However, I thought I was going to come unglued every time they said that they were going to “implant” embryos versus “transferring” them. That my friends is infertility 101. Embryos are not implanted, they are transferred. One would think that with the amount of media attention, good and bad, that IVF has received in the past decade, reporters and writers would catch on, but no. RAGE

day 7 and 8 of injections Warning: bloated, black and blue, stomach pictures

As I’ve mentioned before, I never lost the 20 pounds from the first IVF. Say hello to another 15 pounds of bloat. Ack.

day 7


day 8


the rubbish bin

first intralipid appointment

We drove across Dublin and found parking in what could possibly be the tightest parking garage I have ever seen. Not fun in an SUV. I checked in at the clinic and was quickly greeted by a very kind nurse. She took me back to a room and went over the consents, side effects, etc. and took vitals. Another nice nurse came into the room and went to work. They had me sit in large recliner, put my feet up, and after a bit of searching, inserted the iv into my wrist. One of them brought my husband in and the four of us hung out for a little less than two hours. Every 15 minutes or so one of the nurses would check my vitals and adjust the flow rate of the intralipids. Other than having to sit still, it wasn’t that bad. I’ve been a bit dizzy since I finished and I was told to expect some minor side effects, particularly drowsiness. I go back to the clinic in two weeks for a second infusion.

On a very positive note, while I was chatting with the nurses, one mentioned the name of my clinic. That lead to a discussion of various infertility clinics around Ireland, particularly those in Dublin. Both nurses said that I was at by far the best clinic and seeing the best doctors, so I’m feeling very good about this. Of course as anyone who has gone through infertility knows, this is a roller coaster, so I'm sure the positive feeling will turn into doubt at some point in the next few hours ;)

The intralipids are mixed into a bag of normal saline fluid for infusion. The bag of intralipids was a thick, paste like substance, but once mixed with the saline, it looked more like non-fat milk.




all done

CD 8 appointment and a new med

As luck would have it, my husband’s department decided to close early today and have a happy hour. Being the wise man that he is, he chose to instead accompany me to both appointments and go into the office later this afternoon to work.

At the first appointment, the doctor who specializes in finding right ovaries did just that. She located my right ovary only to announce that it was small and had one lousy follicle. However the left side has seven growing follicles and my lining is great. She added a new medication, Orgalutran, or Ganirelix as it’s known in the U.S. This means I will be getting five injections per day instead of four. She said that if everything goes well at the scan on Monday, I’ll have egg retrieval on Wednesday or Thursday. She took blood for an estradiol level and we left.

par for the course

While giving me the 7pm injections, my husband informed me that he probably wouldn’t be there for the intralipid appointment tomorrow. He was able to rearrange his schedule to be there for the scan, but not to go across town for the two-hour infusion.

Eh, par for the course, welcome to the foreign circus, such is my life, blah, blah, blah. Do I dream of him having a normal job in the U.S.? Yes. Did he miss out on almost every.single.part of the first IVF and FET in Minsk? Yep. He couldn’t even be there while I was under general anesthesia, nor was he there for transfer, nor was he there for the FET. This is my life, our life. The “powers that be” dictate his schedule and we just play along.

I’m not whining, really, I’m not. So many foreign-service spouses have had it so much worse than me. A good friend med-evacted with a second trimester miscarriage, her husband deemed too important to leave the country to be with his wife. Friends delivering babies in the U.S., their husbands on opposite sides of the world.

So yeah, going through IVF, or at least aspects of it, alone, not a big deal. Just another part of my life.

Thank goodness for taxis

CD 6 appointment

I just returned from my cycle day six appointment. As usual, the right ovary did not cooperate AT ALL. After 20 minutes of scanning and searching, the lovely nurse finally declared defeat and on Friday I will be scanned by the doctor who apparently specializes in finding missing right ovaries. Hrmph. It was actually somewhat amusing. The nurse asked if I’d ever had problems with the right ovary, to which my husband and I had to laugh before answering. OH YES. The right ovary that most people can’t find on ultrasound, the right ovary that my first RE in Dublin questioned the existence of, the right ovary that my RE in Minsk didn’t even bother with, including completely leaving it out of the fun during egg retrieval. That right ovary is nothing but trouble.

Oh well, my lining is fine and the left ovary shows two 10mm follicles, one 9mm follicle, and one 6mm follicle. Could be better, could be worse.

The plan is to drop from 450 IU to 300 IU of Follistim, continue with 75 of Luveris, twice a day heparin, baby aspirin, prednisone, etc, etc. On Friday I return to the clinic for another scan, then immediately go to another clinic for my first intralipid infusion. Hope this works!

1st, 2nd, and 3rd day of injections

Warning: bloated, black & blue stomach pics below. I've used all of the tricks I was taught in the OR to minimize bruises and irritation around the injection site, but it still happens.

So far, so good. My fabulous nurse thought I would run out of stomach area within the first few days, but I forgot to tell her that I have 20 plus pounds of weight from the first IVF around my stomach, so I should be good to go until later next week, lots of room to work with. Everything is going well and the heparin is leaving surprisingly small marks, minus the one Follistim injection. Yes, the big bruise is called when Follistim injector pen meets blood vessel. Eh, it happens.


am- heparin


pm- heparin, Follistim, and Luveris


day 1

day 2

day 3

The side effects are fairly minimal, though I'm only a few days in, so we’ll see. Follistim headaches are a joke compared to the Gonal-F that I was on the first time, and no dizziness either. Yay. Just a little bloating, a little weight gain, some irritability according to my husband ;), and I’ve been really tired. Other than that, nothing to report.

pomegranate and pineapple

It has come to my attention that pomegranate is supposed to be good for lining and pineapple is good for implantation. Interesting. Seeing that I’m willing to try, well, anything, and both pomegranate and pineapple are healthy, why not.

Enter, the pomegranate collection.


a fresh pomegranate
V8 Fruit & Carrot (pomegranate & cranberry flavor)
Fruitiser pomegranate & raspberry
Tesco pomegranate juice drink

Next week, coming to a blog near you, the pineapple collection

accessories

Check out my new accessories.

These

are to go with

these

Yes, I had the first, big appointment today and I was THRILLED that my nurse was available. She did my scan, took blood from both of us for EU infectious disease screening, checked over all the meds, then gave me 2 bags of new accessories.

The scan was easy enough, and unlike Minsk, they actually put up a drape while you get undressed and have a drape for your lap. So fancy ;) Again, I had excellent care in Minsk and I have no regrets; things are just a bit more like the U.S. here. Anyway, had the scan and everything looks great. The EU bloods were fine though I’m still upset that we have to do them every month of treatment for the low price of €380, but it’s an EU law and we will obey. Fabulous nurse checked over the meds that were ordered from the U.S. and everything looks fine. Then we got the accessories, sharp’s containers, needles in different sizes, syringes in different sizes, Follistim pen, brochures, and alcohol wipes.

My wonderful nurse also did a brief lesson in drawing up the meds. I don’t think it will be a big deal because I remember so much of it from when I worked in anesthesia. Also between today’s lesson and the lesson in the embassy health unit, my husband will do just fine, though I might do some of the injections myself; we’ll see.

It sounds like the heparin will be the worst. Fabulous nurse said that particularly with the high dose I’m on, I will be bruised and with the other injections, I will quickly run out of room on my stomach for injections. We discussed other injection sites, not as pleasant as the stomach, but whatever works. I had black and blue bruising with the first IVF meds, but she said to expect black, blue, yellow, purple, orange, green, pink, and red. Hmm, a rainbow of bruising, should be interesting.

The big news is that I thought I was starting heparin and prednisone today or tomorrow and stims next week. Nope, I start tomorrow.

So the days will look like this

morning- thyroid meds, allergy meds, asthma meds, 5 tablets of prednisone, heparin injection

afternoon- prenatal vitamin, aspirin, folic acid, calcium

evening- allergy meds, calcium, heparin injection, Follistim injection, Luveris injection

Let the games begin!!!!

international pregnancy and infant loss remembrance day

Today is International Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. It is a day to remember all children lost through miscarriage, stillbirth, or in infancy. If you or someone you know have had this horrific experience, please light a candle at 7pm this evening (your local time). The idea is that if we all burn a candle for at least an hour, a chain of light will spread across the globe for 24 hours of honor and remembrance.

For more information visit:
Baby Loss Awareness Campaign
Remembering Our Babies

genuine, maple syrup

*the names of people and countries are omitted to protect the innocent and the guilty

Some time ago, we were informed that someone we know (and like very much) had contact with someone at another embassy and could get us genuine, maple syrup. Sweet! We handed over €9 about $13/14 for a bottle and waited. This week my husband brought the syrup home.

Kirkland Signature??

I looked at the bottle, looked at him and shrieked, “this is from Costco.” Sure enough our genuine, maple syrup is from Costco, and not only is it from Costco, it expired in July.

I’m sure it’s fine and we are definitely going to use it, but the real question is not why are unsuspecting, American diplomats being sold expired syrup from Costco. No, the real question is how is it that the other embassy has access to Costco from here and I don’t???

I think we’ll be having pancakes this weekend.

Honest Scrap award

Thanks to Circus Princess over at Circus Children for this award.

Rules: Reveal 10 things not previously known about you, and pass along the award to others.

I'm going to cheat and say that since two of the most difficult things I've ever dealt with are infertility and living overseas, if you've done either, consider yourself awarded with the Honest Scrap award.

list:
1. My husband proposed after knowing me for three weeks and two days.

2. My dream kitchen would have a hospital grade, ice nugget machine.

3. I gave up medical school to get married and follow my husband around the world.

4. My favorite place to be is in the OR, as a provider, not as a patient.

5. I’ve ordered the same drink at Starbucks for almost 15 years.

6. My favorite color is white, followed closely by light pink.

7. I’m a native of Washington state.

8. I’m a detail-oriented perfectionist to a fault.

9. My husband and I are both only children.

10. After living overseas without some of the comforts of home, I often dream of the house I plan to build some day and it *might* include a lazy river in the backyard.

phones are fixed, alarm is fixed, I wonder what will break next?

After the missed appointment last week, both the electrician and alarm specialist appeared at 9:45 for a 9am appointment. Whatever, I was just glad to see them both. Two hours of digging around in the phone lines and wiring, the electrician asked the alarm specialist if it could be xyz problem. The alarm specialist said that he had never seen xyz before and it would be “highly unusual.” I piped up and told them that with this house, look for “highly unusual.” Guess what? Yep, it was xyz problem.

Fortunately my instincts were spot on to have both the electrician and the alarm specialist here at the same time. Part of the alarm panel has a “tamper proof” system and can only be accessed by the alarm specialist, so yeah, good thing he was already here. The phones and alarm are now repaired and working, so the countdown begins to what breaks next.

IKEA Dublin

We finally did it, we made the trek over to IKEA. Actually we were just waiting for the initial crowds to die down after the store opened in July. There really wasn’t anything we “needed”, though I’m always happy to buy something ;) The Dublin store is basically like all of the others and almost identical to the store in Belfast. We had lunch, walked around, purchased a few items and headed home, a nice way to spend a few hours.

IKEA Dublin
St. Margaret's Road
Ballymun
Dublin 11

Douglas and Kaldi

On Sunday I thought it would be a good idea to introduce my husband to the mall. While we were there, we decided to grab lunch at a place recommended by a friend. The restaurant itself is a cute establishment, tucked back away from mall traffic. The food was good and the service fair, though certainly not fast, nor friendly. The atmosphere is nice, though tables are a bit crowded together. It’s also very family-friendly as evidenced by the number of small children and infants present.

While I can’t complain about the food or great menu, I doubt we will return any time soon. The service just wasn't at the level I expect, and while browsing other reviews, I've found that I'm not the only patron who feels this way. My understanding is that this is a fairly new location, so we might try it again next year.

I had the Californian salad. My husband had the smoked salmon crostini. Both were very good.

mixed aromatic greens with ham, avocado, pine nuts, tomatoes, pineapple, sweetcorn with a zesty vinaigrette dressing


toasted bagel layered with cream cheese, smoked salmon and scrambled egg with side salad

Oktoberfest

We miss Berlin, a lot, so when we heard that a bit of Germany was coming to Ireland we decided to check it out. Oktoberfest took place Saturday and Sunday at George's Dock, Dublin 1. We had a great time; there was a lot of beer, German food, and a band. When we arrived early in the afternoon it was fairly quiet, but by 5pm it was crowded and getting a bit wild for our taste. Definitely something to check out next year if you like German food and beer.

Dundrum Town Centre

How I lived here for a full year and hadn’t been introduced to the mall is beyond me, but it has finally happened (thanks N & J). On Friday I went to the mall with two friends, walked around, shopped, and stopped for sushi at Yo Sushi (sorry no pictures). They are currently running a special, three plates and miso soup for €10. It’s not the best sushi I’ve ever had, but decent for mall sushi. If you are at the mall and in the mood for sushi, check out Yo Sushi.

Back to the mall. It is big, great stores (several U.S. chains), a cinema, and numerous restaurants. I need to go back and do more exploring/ shopping, but from what I’ve seen so far, it’s fabulous! Dundrum Town Centre is the place to be!

three of my favorite things

shopping, Ralph Lauren, and breast cancer awareness

My mom is a breast cancer survivor, so this is very close to my heart.

One of my favorite designers, and large supporter of breast cancer research, is once again supporting the cause.

Walk, run, or click on over to Ralph Lauren.com, do some shopping, and they will donate 10% of the proceeds to fight cancer!

My patience is GONE!

I admit that I hold myself to a very high standard when it comes to being prompt. This often lends itself to becoming easily annoyed when others are late. Today has reached a whole new level.

Remember my phone situation? If not, let’s start at the beginning. The phones in the house don’t work properly and haven’t from the time we moved in over a year ago. For the most part I ignored it because I have a cell and don’t use the house line all that much. Then something weird happened...

All of the sudden the line started to go dead after I received a call from any office in the building where my husband works, whether it was from him, a friend, the health unit, the housing department, etc. We decided, for a number of reasons, that the phone line needed to be repaired.

I followed the standard order of procedure which is to notify the powers that be, who then come to the house and respond, yes, your phones are broken. They called the phone company who came out three different times and finally said the problem was electric and is “either in the wall or under the floor.” So the powers that be contacted the landlord who sent an electrician. He was here last week and when he left, the phone lines were working.

UNTIL…

the powers that be called from the housing department to ask if everything was fixed. On Friday the electrician returned to look at the phones and said that he thinks the phone and house alarm are fighting each other and it will take hours to fix, so could he make an appointment with me to come back. Sure. The appointment was scheduled for 9am on Thursday, Oct 8. I wrote it down while he was standing next to me in the kitchen.

I even had the brilliant idea to have someone from the security department come to the house at the same time so they could speak and work with each other in electrician/ alarm language which I don’t understand. I called the powers that be and told them of my ingenious plan which was immediately approved, including sending me THREE emails, one being from the security man saying that he would be here at 9am, Oct 8.

This morning I fully expected to see someone around 8:55, maybe 9. Followed by someone else at 9:05, maybe 9:10.

Well, here it is almost 1:45 and LIVID doesn’t begin to explain the rage that I feel. I even started to doubt myself. Did I have the time or date written down wrong?? I looked at my little note that I wrote while I stood next to the electrician, nope, 9am Thursday 8. I looked at the calendar, where I wrote down the appointment after I spoke with the powers that be, nope 9am written on the Oct 8 line. I even checked the emails I had both sent and received confirming the date and time, nope, Thursday Oct 8 at 9am.

RAGE

another five star rating for Millers Pizza Kitchen

This week it was my turn for a birthday. My husband asked where I wanted to go and since I’ve been on a Caesar salad kick for a while, and since Millers Pizza Kitchen still has the best Caesar salad in Dublin, that’s where we went.

I was rather hungry when we arrived and decided to once again take advantage of the special menu, a starter and main for €14.95. This time I chose to start with roasted garlic bread with cheese, and of course, the chicken Caesar salad for the main dish. My husband had the scallop and pancetta pizza. Everything was delicious!

roasted garlic bread with cheese


scallop and pancetta pizza


chicken Caesar salad


As always, the service was superb. I also decided to mention my blog to our server. We've been there several times and this was the third time I’ve taken pictures of the food (which I’m sure he thought was a bit unusual). As he was picking up our plates, I told him how pleased we have always been with the service and food, and also said that I’d put two posts about Millers Pizza Kitchen on the blog. We chatted for a bit and he thanked me for the kind words.

Upon asking for the check, our server first brought out a dessert, “compliments of the chef.”

rich chocolate cake and berry ice cream

Once again, we had a lovely dinner at Millers Pizza Kitchen.

Millers Pizza Kitchen
50 Upper Baggot Street, Ballsbridge

my new friend is working

this is what I found after my new friend was in the guest room for 20 hours

schedule intralipid appointment- check

The appointment for the first intralipid infusion has been scheduled. Apparently it’s not done at the IVF clinic, so after my ultrasound appointment on the 23rd, I’ll go across town for the infusion. The nurse said it should only take 2 hours, sounds easy enough.

On the 15th, I will have another ultrasound, the nurse will check the meds, and we will both have our EU infectious disease screens, again. You can imagine how thrilled I am about that. It’s €190 per person and we just had it done in July. I realize it’s an EU law, but it still annoys me for a variety of reasons. Anyway, there will probably be very few IVF updates for the next 10 days.

please say hello to my new friend, the dehumidifier

When we lived in Berlin, I discovered mold in the house. Gross, black mold on the walls in the guest bedrooms and forming on the ceiling in one bathroom. Per my allergy testing the year before, I knew I was allergic to it, though really, it’s not safe or healthy for anyone to breathe, allergic or not. The mold was dealt with and I was assured that it wasn’t in the walls, yeah right. I was sick and miserable that year and was subsequently diagnosed with allergy-induced asthma. Coincidence?

The following year we were offered a brand new apartment downtown Berlin (the powers that be were giving our first building to the German government and wanted everyone out). The apartment was new, clean and appeared to be mold-free. I felt great the last year we were there.

Remembering back to that first year in Berlin, I was a bit apprehensive about moving to Dublin; it’s wet here, really wet. The last thing I wanted to deal with again was mold. Everyone assured me that it wouldn’t be an issue, nobody had experienced problems where we lived, etc, etc. I will say, I have only seen small amounts of mold in our house and that was when we moved in last year.

On Saturday I attended a lovely bridal lunch (thanks K) and another guest mentioned that she had discovered mold in her purses. While this ordinarily wouldn’t alarm me, she not only lives in Dublin, but she lives in the same gated community that we do. As you might imagine, I spent a good portion of Sunday going through boxes, plastic totes, and closets making sure that everything was mold-free. So far, so good.

Deciding that I wasn’t going to take a chance, please say hello to my new friend, the dehumidifier.

a few cat pictures from the weekend

Bella proving yet again that random objects around the house are more fun than cats toys


enjoying themselves on the scratchers in front of the fire

I have drugs!

After all of the drama yesterday afternoon, I was very relieved to see my husband walk through the door carrying a large box.

Even more relieved that upon opening the internal Styrofoam box, everything was still chilled. I should have taken pictures of how well everything was packed (thanks mom!)

So here is the final count…
Novarel hCG: x 1
Crinone: x 180
Heparin: x 18 vials
Prednisone: x 450 tablets
Estrace: x 270 tablets
Follistim: x 6 cartridges
Luveris: x 10 doses

It is absolutely bizarre to see it all together. In Minsk, I was constantly at my RE’s office (I was very well monitored) so I just bought meds as needed, some Gonal F here, another box of Crinone there, throw in a Pregnyl ampule, you get the idea.

Anyway, the meds are here and I am breathing again.