During the IVF process – I have discovered many things about my body that I think I should have already known – but it is not until you are deeply entwined in the process that you realize how much of an idiot you are about how the girl parts work.

After the multitude of shots to suppress ovulation, stimulate follicle growth, and drop mature eggs – your ovaries are really not working just yet. So, prior to embryo transfer, you will need to simulate two hormones, estrogen and progesterone. Estrogen helps maintain the endometrial lining of the uterus, while progesterone prepares the lining for implantation of a fertilized egg.

Estrace pills are taken three times a day to ensure estrogen levels are being maintained. But the prometrium, that mimics the progesterone, is required to be taken inter-vaginally every eight hours.

Now, we have all had to insert a tampon or two in our day, so we are all familiar with the area and the concept. Put a pill on the end of your finger and push it in as far as you can.  But hold on, no body told me there is going to be discharge that ends up yucking up the panties.

I started by wearing pantie liners – but this lead to a bad diaper rash. Great, not only am I impatient with the 12 day wait and have this stupid discharge, but I am now itchy and sore.

“”Friendship is like peeing your pants, everyone can see it, but only you can feel the true warmth.””

Unknown

Yesterday marked the end of the 30 day ‘Reduce Challenge’ and we still only have the garage bin a little under a 1/3 filled. Which is very remarkable for us. There are still a few areas we need improve on – paper towels seems to be our largest contribution to the bin. Here is a summary of what we did to reduce;

• Purchased a Compost for Food Scraps (still working on the Pet Waste Compost)
• Tried to improve our purchasing choices ensuring the materials could be recycled
• Items not picked up curb side, found recycle drop offs within the city (such as items as plastic, styrofoam, milk cartons, and tetra packs need to be dropped off)
• Stopped buying bottle water (see http://mymindsink.com/kill-bottled-water/)
• Use cloth bags for all purchases – including clothing – most retailers also give a small discount off your bill when you use your own bag
• Stopped using paper napkins – this is different from paper towels
• Return metal hangers to the dry cleaners

It was an interesting 30 days and it did not seem to effect us too much – just me picking through the garbage a few times to pull out compostable and recyclable items – then lecturing my husband and niece.

I think we are on the right path and will continue this new Green way of living – I just hope they will not kick me out of the house.