Everything is Coming Together...

I kinda can't believe it. Everything is in order for the March IVF! After a month of biting my nails all the insurance craziness is officially A-OK, I got three calls today confirming that the RE has received the authorization code, not only for this IVF, but if need be for all three IVFs. It is nice to know that if we have to do this more than once I won't have to worry about dealing with insurance any more.

I also discovered that my next Remicade infusion with be right smack in the middle of stimming. I am really happy the timing for Remicade and IVF is working out (completely coincidentally). It may not make a difference, but I feel better knowing that my Crohn's will be nice and calm and medicated during this cycle.

I am exactly 4 pounds away from my goal weight for IVF. I need to be at 287, I am currently at 291. I would like to be at 284, both for a little extra cushion in there and and because that means I will have lost exactly 60 pounds since April 2010. 7 pounds in three weeks is do-able. I got a little off track during my birthday week, but now I am back to consistently losing 2 pounds a week.

So all signs are pointing to this whole thing going off as scheduled. I am also trying to convince myself that it has to work since if it does the baby would be due the same week as Garry's birthday (yes I already figure it out, stop judging me).

Let the finger crossing commence!

Welcome to my life as a not so old Crohn...

So we have covered my infertility, started to talk about baking, now I am going to tell you about my Crohn's disease. And let me tell you, it is not pleasant, so if you are eating right now or have a weak stomach, you might want to just skip this entry.

OK first the technical scientific info. Crohn's Disease is one type of a group of diseases called IBD, Inflammatory Bowel Disease. It is an inflammatory autoimmune disease. Basically Crohn's causes your immune system to attack your GI tract causing it to become inflamed.

I could go into great detail about how i got diagnosed, but this post would take an hour to read. Let's just say it took 3 months, four hospitalizations, lots and lots of vomiting, every test you can imagine that involves drinking radioactive material or shoving cameras where they really shouldn't go. And then finally i was diagnosed with Crohn's Ileitis, which basically means that the section of my bowel where the small intestine meets the large intestine gets inflamed and hence back up and vomiting.

Now normally this disease doesn't bother me much. I get IV infusions of a drug called Remicade every 8 weeks and it pretty much has kept me in remission for the past two years. Unfortunately lately I have been having some issues. I have been having some stomach pain and nausea, my GI thinks it may just be another stomach issue, perhaps related to having my gallbladder removed. But it has been getting in the way of my life this week. The past two days I have been on an almost entirely liquid diet to help avoid pain and inflammation. It is hard to do much work when you have to run to the bathroom every five minutes for obvious reasons. Hopefully the new drugs the GI doc gave me will help though.

And to add insult to injury, I have a bulging disk in my lower back. Awesome. So it hurts to do anything but lay down on a heating pad, including running to the bathroom or sitting on a toilet.

Yup, my life rocks; bad back, Crohn's disease, blocked right tube and lazy left ovary. Oy.