IVF

It's been a while since I wrote about our fertility issues. After we got insurance here in Utah, we went to an OB/GYN who has a laporoscopy specialty. He said it wouldn't be worth it for me to do another surgery because chances are my fimbriae are damaged and more surgery would damage them more. So we started the IVF process. Today we got our calender with the list of all the drugs and what days to take them. I started Lupron, which is twice a day, the others start on Saturday. But as we were signing all the consent forms, one of them gave a list of food we are not allowed to eat during the cycle: curry powder, licorice, prunes, raisins, excessive use of non-absorbable antacids, paprika, benedictine liqueur, tea, and gherkins. I'm also not allowed to take ibuprofen which is annoying because I had a massive headache last night, so I needed to get a prescription instead of Tylenol and Excedrin because they don't work on my headaches. Dave also bought Coke for me since the caffeine could help, but that stuff tastes like nasty cough syrup. Dave had to go to work, so my Mom picked me up from my appointment and took me to Sodalicious for a caffeinated drink, they make me a blue bomb shell (Mt Dew with yummy flavors).

The next couple of weeks will be crazy with ultrasound appointments, blood tests, hormone shots and other drugs, egg and sperm retrieval, embryo transfer, and waiting to find out if implantation will occur. Plus I am finishing up data collection for my last PhD project. Hopefully we will be done with IVF around Memorial Day and data collection around Father's Day. Wish us luck!

Finals

It was Finals and Graduation this week at BYU. I kept having flashbacks of the last day of Finals in April of 1995. My brother and I were at home watching tv when this conversation happened (something like this):

"Are you done with finals?"
"Yeah, are you?"
"Yeah..........do you wanna go get shakes at Granny's in Heber?"
(we both look at the clock)
"Yeah! We have time to go and come back and pick up Mom from work on time"

So we head up to Heber, get shakes, then drive back in time to pick up my Mom from work, which was 4pm for many years.

By the time we got back home Corey's mission call was in the mail box. I know we got all excited when he opened it up and it was to Japan. I got my mission call four months later to South Africa while Corey was in the Missionary Training Center (MTC). I was working in the MTC cafeteria at that time so we were able to walk over to the big map and take a picture.

I don't have the picture of Corey and I at the Big Map, but this is me with my MTC companions, December 1995.

More Research

In November, my PhD reviewers said I needed to redo my last project. So I am finally collecting data for this project. These are usually the days/times I can collect data. It's been a ton easier than when I was in England. It took 6 months to get 6 couples to participate in England. Now in 3 weeks I've had 4 couples participate! I need close to 18 couples, so hopefully it won't take too long!

This is the Place

 A couple of weeks ago Dave and I stopped by the 'This is the Place' State Park. The story goes that when Brigham Young and the first pioneers arrived in the SLC valley, he said "This is the right place, drive on."

This is a plaque listing all the Handcart Companies. My ancestors we part of the Martin Handcart Company, which is the most famous and had the most deaths. My family was lucky to survive with no deaths or injuries.

Dance Training Room

This is my office through the window. The rest of it is the BYU Dance Training Room. 

This is a wall in one of the stairwells in the Richards Building by the Dance Dept office. There are always opportunities for the dance students to perform and do workshops in the summer.