2003-03-30 - 11:05 a.m.

I didn't even notice that the last entry on Friday was the 25th! Yeah Me!

So I changed the title of my blog. Technically, the name is Mortimesmom, which of course, is because of my dog. But I was calling the blog Tales of an in-vitro attempt. However, I felt that in light of our recent failure, and not knowing when the next attempt will take place, I needed a more general title.

So I picked I Enjoy Being a Girl, which as I mentioned before, is from the musical Flower Drum Song, and is the words printed on my current favorite babe-tee. I think it sums me up better than the previous title.

We had an eventful start to our weekend. I went to bed at 11:00 on Friday, only to be waken up at 11:50 by a wimpering dog... Took him out for a walk, he had the runs... not good. I had to take him out once or twice an hour until 4:30 am. Normally, I would share those duties with J, but he really wasn't recovering well from his surgery. He didn't really have any pain in his groin area, but his head felt like a pressure cooker the minute he sat up or stood.

So after a sleepless night, I convinced him we should call the hospital, and after a few un-returned calls, I did get the anesthetist on call, who told me to bring him in. Seems that a spinal anasthetic can cause pressure in the head. They performed a "blood patch", where they took blood from his arm and put it in his back, and he was cured immediately. I mean, he even wanted to go out for lunch the minute we left the hospital! It's great to have him back to normal!

Anything to add? 0

2003-03-28 - 2:59 p.m.

Five random thoughts on a Friday afternoon:

1 I'm currently reading Beginner's Luck. It's funny, whimsical, and it kept me distracted for hours at the hospital. I'm in the homestretch, should be done tonight.

2 We have this customer, Mrs. S.... She was our very first customer the day we opened, buying one of our biggest pieces. She comes in regularly and when she's here, it's like a tornado. She picks up so many things at a time, we always have a great week when she visits. Today, she dropped almost 200$ in 15 minutes. I love Mrs. S....

3 In my previous life, I was a Public Relations Specialist. I lived on CNN and other news channels. I use to crave 24 hour coverage of anything that was going on, especially airline related incidents, which were my field. Then I snapped out of it and realized it was wrong to have a job that got exciting when several hundred people crashed to their deaths. All this to say, I'm fed up of war coverage. I has nothing to do with my personal opinion, I just can't take war as entertainment. Thank God for TLC, which will keep me buzy with "While you were out" and "Trading Spaces", "What not to Wear" and "Faking it".

4 Speaking of these shows, have executives at TLC simply given up on creating new programming and decided to simply re-do all the BBC's shows???? Changing Rooms was the original Trading Spaces, and What not to Wear and Faking It are two absolutely excellent BBC shows I've been watching for a while now. I told my husband months ago we should start a production company and buy the rights to Faking It because it would work very well on our side of the ocean. Imagine his surprise when he spotted it on tv a few weeks ago.... Bet he wishes he'd listened to me!!!!

5 Fifth and final random Friday thought: I need to call a fence installer and get a quote to fence-in our yard. Except, I'm afraid the neighbours are gonna be mad. We're doing it to keep Mortimer from pooping on their lawn, but they've been there a lot longer than we have, and unless we can afford a fancy rod-iron fence that will let the sun through, the fence will block the sun from reaching their flowers.... I like the neighbours, we'll be there for many years, how do I let them know????

Anything to add? 0

2003-03-28 - 12:49 p.m.

I guess I'm on the road back to recovery.... I really haven't had much time to dwell on it. Nothing like a husband who can't walk and a dog with an over-active bladder to keep you busy!

J is in a fairly low amount of pain, considering, but he has a bad headache and he's still quite nauseous. I'll give it another 24 hours and then I'll start worrying. We did remove the bandages this morning and frankly, I've gotten bigger scars rollerskating! Grant it, this particular scar, no matter how small, is in a highly sensitive area. But at least it didn't gross me out or anything! I don't even think there is a stitch there.

I've been surfing tons of blogs, looking for distraction and found a few non-blog sites that made me smile.

First, you can always count on the Hi Monkey! site to cheer me up. I even ordered one of the t-shirts this week.

Slightly more arty, but very interesting, are Marc's photos of his feet.... Don't ask, just check it out.

There is almost no snow left on our back lawn. The front lawn had melted at the begining of the week. Of course, now we are left with muck and junk that we didn't pick up in the fall, but I'm happy to see the grass, even if it's brown and dead. The only problem is that Mortimer insists on rolling around in decaying piles of leafs. He doesn't roll in the grass in the summer or in the snow in the winter, but give him gross decaying leaves and he goes nuts!!!

Certainly not my most insightful post thus far, I'll do better next time!

Anything to add? 0

2003-03-27 - 9:55 a.m.

It didn't work... at least not completely. My egg retrieval was fast and painless. They only got 5 eggs. No hidden ones, no surprise follicules, just the 5 we knew about.

J's surgery was a little more tricky than anticipated. It wasn't a needle aspiration, they had to open him up, so he's in pretty bad shape right now. He's not supposed to walk for 48 hours, I had to leave him at home on the couch with everything he needs within arms reach.

We did have a tiny bit of fun yesterday. He had a "spinal" instead of being put under, so they wouldn't let him go home until he could stand up and pee. He stood up after about 5 hours, but he couldn't pee. He was still frozen, and the stress of having 5 nurses constantly asking him if he'd gone yet was just too much pressure!!! So I finally convinced the urologist to let me take him home and if he didn't go by 9:00pm, we would come back and he would get a cathater. Well, by the time my dad picked us up, we stopped by the pharmacy to buy his pain killers and got home, he couldn't wait to go to the bathroom!!! I suspect is was mostely a fear of the cathater.....

So they called at 8:45 this morning. Only 3 eggs fertilized. Normally, that would be enough, but since we have to do genetic screening for CF, it's not enough. They are off to the freezer, until we can try again in a few months and hopefully get more eggs next time. At least they got enough from J that he won't have to have surgery again.

Deep down, I knew it wasn't going to work. The odds were totally stacked against us. But when they called this morning, I felt like I was hit by a truck, again.

The worst is that the phone is going to start ringing soon, everyone wanting to know how it went, how many we got.... I can't deal with it. I let my mom and my best friend know right away, and J will pass it along to one of his sisters, so hopefully we won't have to tell the same story too many times, but still, the minute the phone rings.....

Anything to add? 1

Last Entry ~ Next Entry

��