I'm done with the Clomid and now waiting to ovulate. My temps have been up recently, I'm not sure if I'm sick or maybe stressed from moving. Or maybe it is because I haven't been sleeping too well. I hope it isn't because I ovulated!

Today I have my ultrasound. It is so hard fitting my baby stuff in with all the moving stuff. We close on the house tomorrow and are moving on Friday. So I have LOTS of little things I need to get done.

Other than the strange temps, I'm excited about this cycle. I got some PreSeed lubricant, which is supposed to help the sperm swim. I also have a new theory about how to BD that I'm going to try (won't get into details here!). I hope everything works out, I'd love to have a positive pregnancy test in my new house!

Speaking of the new house, it just looks so awesome! It is totally done now, we're just waiting to close on it. We did the walk through on Monday, and pretty much the only things needing fixing were some scrapes on the walls and some paint splatters on the trim. The appraiser valued the house at 5,000 more than we will pay for it, so we got a good deal. We already have 9% equity in the house, and we haven't made a single payment. She also said that if our house was located in Crown Point or St. John, it would be worth $225,000! Of course, the property values in Lowell where our house is will keep going up, so eventually we should be in that range. That's a nice increase in value!

I posted this on a board today, so I'll use it as my update:

My insurance doesn't cover infertility, so my OB has been billing my treatments as PCOS. This is now my third cycle with this OB, and I'm starting to get bills from my first cycle (where we were trying to get a diagnosis of what was going on) and my first ultrasound has been denied by my insurance company. The insurance company says that even though the ultrasound was billed as PCOS, they consider it infertility treatment. The insurance company wants the office notes from my OB to determine if it was related to infertility or not.

Now, for the second cycle, I can understand the insurance company's point (since at that point we determined I had PCOS and IR, and the second ultrasound was more to determine how I was responding to Clomid). But the FIRST cycle was really trying to get a diagnosis of what was wrong with me - and that should be covered.

I haven't spoken to my OB directly yet, so I'm not sure what she'll say. But, if the worst case scenerio happens, and my treatments won't be covered, what options do I have?

The ultrasounds are $420. The CD 21 bloodwork is $210 (the insurance company hasn't argued about this yet, but I assume they will try). Clomid costs $25 and HCG shot costs $49. Progesterone treatment is $10. Obviously, this is a lot of money each cycle, and I'm not even into IUIs or injections yet (though I'm responding GREAT to Clomid, so I assume they won't be necessary).

Here are my thoughts:

1. I might be able to "talk down" some of the prices since these are what they are charging the insurance company, and usually they give a break to people when insurance doesn't pay.

2. Perhaps I could see an RE or something who has a package deal for people who don't have insurance. Like $300 a cycle or so, right? Maybe I'll get better treatment that way too?

3. Maybe I could get additional insurance somehow? That might be as expensive as $300 a cycle though. Plus, if I enter into the insurance with my current infertility situation, perhaps they won't cover me, knowing that's what I'm looking for.

4. I could always have an unmonitored Clomid cycle, but so far I've gotten the impression that my OB's office doesn't like to do that. (Though, perhaps now that they've seen how I react to one cycle, maybe they'll be fine doing the same treatment without monitoring?)

My period started today! I added the exclaimation point because I'm relieved it finally showed up. Sometimes it can take a week (or more!) for your period to start after you take progesterone supplements (because the high levels of progesterone actually delay the start of your period). In some women it doesn't start at all, and it must be brought on with another medication. Luckily it only took me a few days. Never have I been so happy to start my period.

I've given two weeks notice to my apartment complex - which means it looks like we'll actually be moving in two weeks. God, I hope! I need to try to do some packing today.

One word: negative! My temp went up though - what's going on? I guess the progesterone is keeping it up.

I knew that the progesterone would keep my temperature higher, but I thought that it would still drop a bit as my natural progesterone fell. Perhaps I'm wrong. We'll see! I'll call the OB today.

I posted this on a message board today, so I'll cheat and use it as my update:

For the past week, I've been SO depressed. Some of it is because I'm sure this cycle didn't work - I'd have symptoms or a positive pregnancy test by now. But it is much more than that! I'm at work now, and I'm on the verge of crying. I'm sad about my cycle, and I keep thinking negative thoughts about whether or not I will ever be pregnant... but I just feel abnormally sad.

When I'm super-moody from the hormones, it feels like the worst migrane I've ever had - but without my head actually hurting! Meaning, I feel sensitivity to light, noises and people's voices irritate the hell out of me, I couldn't focus on anything, I had a short attention span, and I wanted to just lay in bed in the dark.

I have really low hormones, that's part of my infertility problem. But, I think they are also the reason I've never really had PMS or bad periods or moodiness. I'm always perky and happy!

But now that I've had my first taste of strong female hormones, it is tough for me to cope. I keep trying to remind myself what I'm doing this for - a little baby of my own. But that makes me sad again as well, because I'm having so much trouble getting pregnant!

My temp has been going down slowly for the past 3 days, so I decided that I would only test today if my temp went up (since these tests cost like $8). Well, fate decided that I needed to lose eight bucks, because my temp went up slightly, so I tested and it was negative. GREAT!! (That's sarcasm, in case it didn't come across.) Oh well. Anyway, I will take another test tomorrow, though there is only a 17% chance I can be pregnant (or else the test would have caught it).

Need to start thinking about next cycle...

Sorry I haven't posted for a while. Just been in the two-week wait, and waiting and waiting and waiting.

I went in on CD 21 and had my bloodtest. I scored 16 on progesterone and 158 on estradiol. That means I DID ovulate, and not too badly. They wanted 20 on the progesterone, so now I've been taking progesterone suppliments. I hate them. They are icky and make me very moody. Kevin has definitely noticed it.

We were joking today that perhaps the reason I am such a nice person is because my hormones are so low. I have easy periods, no PMS, I'm always perky and happy. Now that I have REAL female hormones I'm more of a bitch. HA! I feel really whiney too. Oh well, I guess that means the shit is working, right?

Wednesday is CD 28, when I'm due for my period and when I'm supposed to take a pregnancy test. I've already taken one expensive test and one cheap test, and they were both negative. But, that's probably to be expected, it was really early.

I've had no symptoms so far, and if I was pregnant, I would probably be having some symptoms by now. But there have been none, other than general bitchiness, probably caused by the progesterone suppliments (bloating and depression are the two main side-effects).

I will take another test tomorrow though, and see how that goes. I will use the ClearBlue Easy test, which is a very good one. If I am pregnant, there is an 83% chance I'll know tomorrow (based on the accuracy of the test). I love ClearBlue Easy stuff, man, they are the best at everything.

I'm depressed about this cycle though. I was so worried a few days ago about having triplets, and now I'm sad that not a single egg made it! Well, it is still possible I'm pregnant (though my chart isn't great and I have no symptoms) but it is quite unlikely that I'm having twins or more! Just because I really SHOULD be having some symptoms and positive tests with twins!

There is a girl at my work who is pregnant. Maybe 4 months or so, I don't know. She is really small and is wearing giant maternity clothes which her stomach doesn't fill in yet. I look at her all the time because I'm so jealous and happy for her. It is kind of like having a rock star work in my office. I want to try to come up with some way to talk to her, so I can have a pregnancy friend, but I don't know her. Plus, I'm not pregnant, so I would only be like stalking her. When I get pregnant and get to 18 weeks though (so I don't have to worry as much about a miscarriage), then I'll talk to her (though she'll probably have a baby by then!). Oh well.

Anyway, cross your fingers and send me good thoughts for tomorrow.