Today feels like a great day to share another week of happy moments! Here is my eleventh week of #100happydays.
Day 71 – September 15, 2014: I find about once a week I struggle with finding a happy day photo and today was it for this week. Not because I wasn’t happy, but because it’s really hard to take photos of de-cluttering and selling stuff that we no longer need. And, although I had fun cooking supper tonight, my attempt was a horrible disaster due to some very poor multitasking (which I blame on my husband since he distract me), so that picture is more of a lesson in how not to cook, and tasted just as bad as it looked. So, when my husband’s evening took a turn for the worst due to an unpleasant work emergency at 7:45pm, my best photographable happy moment of the day was my attempt to make him smile when the crises was defused. A strong, de-stressing rum and coke. It worked and we both smiled.
Day 72 – September 16, 2014: Tonight, my husband and I cooked up a storm. We baked lemon and dill wild sockeye salmon for supper; slow cooked garden heirloom tomato sauce to freeze for warm winter pasta; homemade pepper and teriyaki beef jerky; dehydrated chili peppers from our massive garden crop; baked another batch of delicious gluten-free blueberry muffins; and, we even prepped tomorrow night’s honey barbeque meat loaf.
Day 73 – September 17, 2014: We had a bit of a stressful afternoon so my husband suggested a walk to help clear our minds. So, today’s happy moment was our family walk in a provincial park near our house. We particularly enjoyed watching two deer eating in a meadow, the view of the perfectly still river from a small pedestrian bridge, and the beautiful fall colours. And, Sadie enjoyed every single smell along the way.
Day 74 – September 18, 2014: Today I decided to take a photo of something in our house that makes me smile almost daily – our little golden frog from Panama. He sits on the counter in one of our bathrooms. He makes me happy because he reminds me of a glorious week in Panama with my husband. And, I also love that his colours clash with every single thing in the room (and our entire house for that matter), but I like him anyways.
Day 75 – September 19, 2014: Surprise, surprise, my happy moment today was on another walk with my husband and our giant furball. My favourite season is late winter/early spring, because I love the anticipation of summer. But, I absolutely adore the fall colours and the crunch of leaves underfoot now that all the leaves are falling to the ground marking the end of another summer.
Day 76 – September 20, 2014: Today we made it to my favourite outdoor summer farmer’s market. The fresh veggies are right off the farmer’s trucks, the crafts are cute and adorable and the people are always friendly. A visit to this market always ensure a fun time shopping, and at least a weeks’ worth of delicious produce at a really reasonable price.
Day 77 – September 21, 2014: We won’t have many more warm fall days left before the snow falls and stays for the winter. So we are taking advantage of the ones we do have by enjoying days like today. We had a wonderful walk in this beautiful park and enjoyed the breathtaking fall colours.
Wishing everyone a great week filled with happy moments!
If you like this post, please feel free to share it and please return to myperfectbreakdown.com to follow my journey.
As many of us in the IF/RPL community know, our lives are not going to the plan we expected. Many of us have been forced to learn some very hard lessons about life.
We learn to shift our perspective.
We learn to change our expectations.
We learn to lower our standards (of ourselves and society).
We learn to find faith in places we didn’t expect (religion, science, etc.).
We learn to nurture our marriages.
We learn to live in stress.
We learn to speak a new language of acronyms.
We learn to throw out our life plan (car, marriage, house, baby, etc.).
We learn to live in cycles (2 and 4 week cycles). We all know the two week wait all too well. We all seem to know the feeling of not committing to something important because we don’t know where life will be in 2 months or 6 months.
But what many of us also do is rely on our medical professionals – Some of us now know more about creating babies and miscarrying babies then many family doctors. We become expects in a subject we never really thought we’d care about – progesterone levels, betas, immunology, IVF, clomid, etc. We expect that doctor’s should know more than us about our reproductive future – but some of us learn the hard way that doctors are not gods and rather they are imperfect and fallible.
I had a very good lesson in this last point last week. My RE and his clinic, whom I had generally liked up until this point, clearly indicated that they are not gods. They did this through horrible communication, and we clearly saw that they are not treating me as an individual, rather they are treating me as a standard RPL patient which they see very few of. I ask questions slightly outside of the norm, and the nurses just read form a list of standard answers. This is simply not okay.
Photo Source: Office.com Clip Art
Last week reminded me that as much as I’ve let go of my life plan, I am not prepared to be a passenger on a train running wildly into the night. My doctors are there to support me, not to muzzle me. I am an active participant in my medical care and my future. While, I’m accepting that the end of this journey is beyond my control (i.e. will we have biological children or not), I will not accept that I have no say in the direction the train is running to get us there. I have a strong voice, and I will be much stronger from this point forward. I have to demand better of my current RE, and find a new one if he doesn’t step up. I am more than just a statistic. I deserve personal care. In fact, every single person experiencing RPL and infertility deserves the best personal care possible.
So, what I can assure you is that the next few weeks are going to be interesting and may result in a much different approach to our medical care:
- I’ll know in a day or two if we are pregnant this cycle. I honestly hope not, I just don’t think starting a pregnancy in the stress of last week is ideal. But, the deed was done, so it will be what it will be.
- October 1, we have skype initial consult with Dr. Bravernman. It’s free, my expectations are low, but it’s a great place to start.
- October 1, we have an appointment with our local immunologist to discuss his thoughts on seeking the knowledge of an RI.
- October 3, I have an appointment with my local RE (his nursing staff agreed to give me a cancellation appointment). We will be discussing the unacceptable treatment I received from his nurse. We will be discussing everything that happened with the progesterone last week and what his interpretation of the situation is. I will demand that from this point forward I use prometrium after ovulation, not once we test positive. We will be discussing his willingness to work with an RI out of country.
If you like this post, please feel free to share it and please return to myperfectbreakdown.com to follow my journey.
My Perfect Breakdown 