Peeing on a stick at work again

I decided to be part of a study that tests the accuracy of home/portable body fat percentage testers, and in exchange I got a free scan with a DEXA machine which not only is the Gold Standard for measuring body fat percentage, but can also tell me things like my bone density and other important stuff... which I'll learn more about during my follow up appointment in a couple days.

What a DEXA machine looks like

I was mostly interested in joining this study to get this scan because last week I kick started a new weight loss initiative in effort to lower my BMI so that B & I will have the optimum set of circumstances for conception once we can start trying again in July... and also so that if we need IVF down the road, I'd qualify for some of the shared risk programs that are out there (more on those some other time).


Anyway, before I could get my scan on the DEXA done, I was required to take a pregnancy test due to the low amount of radiation I'd be exposed to during the scan.


Really?


REALLY?


I just can't escape being reminded of my infertility during any random, completely unrelated activity in my life, can I?


I still track my cycle every month and knew that I'm in the fertile period, so there's NO WAY a pregnancy test would have a positive result right now.  How humiliating and degrading to have to go into a public bathroom stall in a university building, and pee on a stick... again!  I used to do this a lot with OPK tests, but at least then I was hopeful and optimistic.  This was just awfully depressing.


Of course it didn't show a positive result - like I've never had that happen before [insert eye roll here].


Then we were able to move forward with the scan which was actually kind of neat.  I got to see my full body skeleton x-ray when it was over, and I learned there is a difference between BMI and body fat percentage.  It made me think of weight loss, obesity, and health in a whole new light, which I intend to blog about in my other blog (about healthy lifestyle and current topics of interest to me): queenofshibas.blogspot.com.


Like I said earlier, I go back later this week to learn about the results of my scan, and I'm thinking that what I learn can hep me to make the best health choices I can and hopefully not just lose weight (in effort to improve fertility) but also to improve my health overall... which has so many more benefits, especially if I ever do become a mom!  :)

Nothing Like Peeing on a Stick in the Bathroom at Work

What a roller coaster the last two weeks have been... again.


First off, let me clarify that the stick pictured above and the kind that I was peeing on in the bathroom at work yesterday are ovulation predictor kits, not pregnancy tests.


B and I had scheduled another IUI for this month.  On day one of my period, I had to call my RE back here in WI and let them know I was menstruating.  His nurse sent my Clomid prescription to my pharmacy and told me to take a pregnancy test before taking the medication on days 3-7 of my cycle.  


I had met with my RE right after returning from Dallas last month to ask about using my two Gonal-F pens left over from our cancelled IVF cycle, but that would cost us around $3500 per cycle and B and I only set aside $1300 for a regular Clomid cycle with ultrasound monitoring.  So, not only would using injectables be much more expensive for us, it has huge risks of high-order multiples.  I mean, we're talking like Octomom here.  Those pregnancies are very high risk for the mother and babies, and if you choose to reduce (terminate) the number of fetuses, you risk miscarrying all of them.  So that's not the best option for us at this time.


On day 3 of my cycle I took a pregnancy test (knowing the answer since my period was getting heavier, not lighter), and that night I started taking 50mg a day of Clomid for 5 days.


I'm wondering, what dosage of Clomid my readers have taken?  I know 50mg is the lightest dosage you can get.  But during our last IUI it got me two good sized follicles, so that's exactly where the doctor wants me.  Also, at that dosage, it didn't effect the lining of my uterine wall, which Clomid can do, so this is a good amount for my body.


I felt very bloated all week while taking the Clomid, and actually did gain a few pounds, I wonder if any of my readers noticed weight gain while taking Clomid?


On cycle day 10 I began testing with my OPK.  My RE said to test once a day, preferably mid to late morning after having not peed for four hours.  The kit's instructions will tell you to pee with your first morning's urine, but the doctor feels that the concentration hasn't had enough time to build up by then, so later in the day is better.  I told him that I usually test at least twice a day anyway.  He told me I don't need to do that, but I told him I always do it so I don't miss the LH surge.  He said that's my choice, but if I get a positive surge in the morning, we'd schedule the IUI the next day, and if I get it in the evening, we'd do it the day after the next day.  Whatever you say doc.


Cycle day 10 was Monday, so I was testing with my first morning's urine (just in case) as soon as I woke up all week.  Then I would hold my bladder all morning along and at around lunch time, sneak into the most private bathroom I could find at work and test again (that's where the title of this post comes in).  Then, I'd  test again when I got home from work or before bed, depending on how often I'd relieved my bladder in the 3-4 hours prior.


Yesterday was Wednesday, and I got a negative result in the morning.  I had back to back meetings all day from 9am-4pm, to the extent that I hardly had  time to pee in-between meetings, let alone sit around waiting for OPK test results.  So, I did pee on a stick, but then shoved the tester in my drawer in my office with the stick still in it.  An hour later, when I had a chance to sneak into my office before another meeting started, I looked at it.  It was blank, which is usual with the digital tests, after a while the results disappear because the tester kind of "turns off."  I pressed the eject button to release the tester and, as has happened for me in past experiences, the last test result displayed on the screen.  It was a smiley face!  I had a positive result!


I kind of didn't trust that because I hadn't seen it in real time, so I didn't pee all afternoon and at 4pm snuck back into the bathroom at work to test again. Unfortunately, the tester was malfunctioning and the smiley face wouldn't go away.  I couldn't test with it and didn't have a spare, but had to pee REALLY bad, so I just went to the bathroom and figured I would hold my pee all evening and test again with my other tester when I got home, at around 7pm.


In the meantime I scheduled our IUI appointments for today.  B had to go in as early as possible because he had important meetings later in the morning at work that he couldn't miss, so the scheduled him to give his "sample" at 8:30am.  But they couldn't get me in until 2:15!  I was kind of freaking out that his swimmers wouldn't be as good if they had to wait around all day, but the receptionist assured me it would be fine.


When I tested last night after work with my other tester, there was no smiley face...


That made me question the validity of the test I'd taken at noon and not looked at the results of for an hour, so I thought I'd better say something at our appointment in the morning.


The results of that conversation and the appointment in general are complicated enough to warrant a separate post, so stay tuned for the rest of the story coming soon!


To be continued...