You down with HSG? (Yeah, you know me.)*

I thought I was going to get out easy. Over the winter, I had a couple of courses of bloodwork to evaluate my LH, FSH, etc., levels. The Physician's Assistant (who I love -- she's a fast talker like me) confirmed what I already thought, things just weren't up to snuff and next time we TTC'd, I'd use Clomid again.

Last Thursday was my appointment to see if the doctor (or PA, as it were) wanted to do more bloodwork before I start Clomid again in June. She outlined the steps that the office usually follows with early infertility intervention (since I went through my last round of treatment with my old doctor). After the usual early steps of charting, semen analysis, etc., there it was... step two... an HSG.

"I had one of those in February of 2005," I told her, pointing at the list of steps on her paper. She wrote 2/05 next to it.

"Well, the next step is Clomid, which we'll be doing anyway, but let me check with the doctor and see if he might want to do another HSG. He might, especially since you've had a couple of infections."** She left the room to grab him between patients and see what he wanted to do. I knew I was fucked.

While it was not the most horrible or painful experience of my life (I mean, I have given birth), my previous HSG would certainly qualify as unpleasant. In fact, after my amnio, when the Hubster asked, "How was it?" as we left the office (although he was there, he knows I'm pretty stoic and wanted the real assessment), my response was: "I'd have five amnios before I'd have another HSG." So, I think that the fact that I'd rather have a seven inch needle stuck into my uterus through my abdomen than have a catheter stuck up through my cervix and x-ray contrast flooded through my reproductive parts is a clear indication of which procedure I found more painful.

We all now how this story ends. I'm scheduled for a second HSG this Thursday.


*My apologies to Naughty By Nature.
** In addition to a current BV infection (symptom-free, so I didn't know I had it), there's the BV infection (also symptom-free) that led to Monkeyboy's early arrival in the world.

Here we go

Thursday is my appointment with my doctor (ok, with the physician's assistant), to see about starting Clomid, et al, with my June cycle.

Lazy Mix CD

I haven't made myself a good mix CD in a while, partly because I'm too lazy to sit down and devote the time to do it (and partly because my computer is giving me some real problems).

But a 6-CD changer in the car means I can do my own lazy-mix by switching between them as I drive to work. My drive is long enough to listen to about 6 to 8 songs. This week's mix went as follows:

CD 2; Track 5: "Ain't No Love," Aslyn, Lemon Love.
CD 2; Track 6 "You Got Me," Aslyn, Lemon Love
CD 3; Track 1: "Bona Fide," The Clarks, Between Now and Then
CD 1; Track 6: "Los Angeles is Burning," Bad Religion, The Empire Strikes First
CD 4; Track 3: "Big Me," Foo Fighters, Foo Fighters
CD 5; Track 8: "Where the Boat Leaves From," Zac Brown Band, The Rock Boat VII CD 1
CD 6; Track 16: "Time to Go," Scott Blasey, The Rock Boat VII CD 2

Running Woman

I fell off the exercise wagon last month while caring for a sick child (three days spent on the couch doing nothing but cuddling, watching Jack's Big Music Show and administering Pedialyte one teaspoon at a time). As of April, I had to start over with my goal of no less than three days a week.

It's helped that I finally figured out how to program the treadmill so I don't have to adjust speed and incline throughout my run.

I'm following the graduated program in one of The Hubster's books, where the ratio of walking to running is adjusted up each week, until you're running for 30 minutes (or should that be stated, the ratio of running to walking?). It also focuses on running for time, not distance, at the beginning of the program. It's what I've always used to get back to running and it works well for me.

Here's hoping I'm back to running 30-45 a day minutes by the beginning of summer.

Back in the Saddle

I have an appointment scheduled for the end of the month to start the baby-making #2 process. Well, the official medical-intervention part of the process. I think using no birth control for the last year almost indicates that at least the potential for baby-making has already been underway.

Bored Now.

I'm feeling restless again, but don't know what to do about it. Usually when I get this way, a good solution is to pick up some new music. However, I've bought or been given so much new music recently that I can't listen to it all. Some of it seems neglected and that makes me feel guilty.

Recent Purchases:

• Tails -- Lisa Loeb and Nine Stories
• Fireracker -- Lisa Loeb
• It's a Shame About Ray -- The Lemonheads

Recent CDs sent my way (all courtesy of Beamer, thanks!):

• Social Distortion -- Social Distortion (I requested this)
• White Light, White Heat, White Trash -- Social Distortion (also part of the SD request)
• Sex, Love and Rock N' Roll -- Social Distortion (ditto)
  
• Cheating at Solitaire -- Mike Ness (solo CD of Social Distortion's guitar player, sent to accompany the SD CDs)
• The Empire Strikes First -- Bad Religion (sent because I liked the SD and Mike Ness so much)
• Indestructible -- Rancid (Because I liked the Bad Religion so much we bought Warped Tour tickets!)
• ...And Out Come the Wolves -- Rancid

Also, I don't want to buy too much music right now because there's a lot of new stuff to be released soon that I'll be buying:

• New Scott Blasey (next week)
• New Bad Religion (July)
• New Antigone Rising (July?)

What she said

"She says the sex is dynamite... One of the three legs that hold up Love's stool: sex, liking his brain, then kind of accepting who he is 'cause you're never going to change him anyway."
-- Shelly Tambo, Northern Exposure, "My Mother, My Sister"

Lullabies

This morning I decided it was time to put the Bad Religion CD away and turn off the punk station for a while. I finally got the Lisa Loeb CDs I ordered from Half.com and thought that I should give them a listen.

Also, last night I was searching my mind for songs that I a) knew all the words to, b) could actually sing (I have no skills and no range), and c) hadn't sung a thousand times already for the night time post-tooth-brushing "rocking and two songs" routine that is the Monkey's bedtime ritual. I was having a hard time coming up with anything, because I haven't been listening to anything even remotely ballad-like recently. (And if I have to sing the same old stuff a thousand more times, I'm going to scream).

I almost busted out "Last Call," because since I heard it last weekend and I hadn't in a while, it's been about the only non-punk thing running through my mind (and I know all the words). That would have made a nice lullaby, huh? Anyway, I settled for the part of Dar William's "The Christians and the Pagans" that I could remember, then fell back on the old standby "The Train They Call the City of New Orleans." (That's what my Dad used to sing to me. We're a weird family, huh?)

Quote of the Month

From the book Matilda Bone, which I'm reading with my World Cultures class:

"Spring was but a promise, but a promise was better than winter."

Yeah. That.

The Sirius punk station is back to being punk. Yay! (This is after it was taken over for the past several months to be The Who station, I guess cause Sirius is one of the sponsors of their tour. I don't have anything against The Who, I just don't think they deserve a whole station to themselves). I'm glad the punk station is back. It wakes me up on my morning commute.