2nd LIT down

Well it's finished. We just got home from our 2nd weekend in Canada in 3 weeks. We are exhausted! This month of April has been a whirlwind. Between two trips to Canada and a trip out to Cali for a friends wedding...we are more than ready to do absolutely NOTHING in May!!

So yeah, here we are now with our 2nd treatment of LIT done. My arms look like I am an OCD junkie with perfectly aligned track marks! haha

                                        

                            Yeah....so pretty, and just in time for summer! =/ (note the sarcasm)


The procedure went much like it did last time. We went in, husband got his blood drawn, we waited 3 hours, I got the injections, and then we were on our way home. I retest for the LAD test in 3 weeks to see if it made any difference. It will be very discouraging if nothing has changed on my results. I am also looking into getting the intralipids done as well soon. I have to start making the appts because I need to get this high TNF down before we can start trying again. So much crap, so little time. My brain is fried! Both with all of this crap and just from the insanity of our April traveling. It's times like these I really wish I had a jacuzzi!!

Anyway, so that's all I got for now! Will keep you posted when I go get retested! Hope everyone is well out there! xo

LIT round 1 completed...

What a whirlwind weekend trip to Toronto! We got back late last night around 10pm and were exhausted! We woke up early Saturday morning around 4am and left the house around 5:30am. Toronto is about an 8 1/2 hr drive from where we live near Washington, DC. We made it to our airbnb place around 3ish and settled in. It was a very cute little place! Served us well during our stay!

Once we were settled in, I had reservations for dinner at 5:45pm in the CN Tower. What a disaster that was! Long story very short - we got to the top, I got sick and had a panic attack due to the height and revolving floor, and we left 5 minutes after we were seated. What a disaster. So that was a total bust (and pretty embarrassing too) but fortunately I have the best husband in the world and comforted me the entire time. He calmed me down and we ended up finding a nice restaurant/bar down the street from our place and ate there. It was more our speed anyway. The CN Tower was ridiculously expensive and I am sure you are paying moreso for the experience vs food. So I wasn't totally devastated about the whole situation. 

  The next day we bundled up (it was freezing up there) and decided to tour the town. Everything was within walking distance for us so we walked everywhere! It was cool to see the little shops and visit the local mall. Since it was sunday, many places were closed until like noon, so we missed a lot of things since we left early to walk around. We will note that for next time! But we did find this amazing place right on lake ontario called Amsterdam brewery and the food was amazing!! I had one of the best pizzas ever! So delicious! They brew their own beer, and I am not a beer drinker, but my husband says the beer was very good so I will just take his word for it. Below is me in front of Toronto's City Hall. The pool was frozen over! 

                                          

 After walking around much of the day sunday, a snowstorm was expected to start rolling in so we made it back home just in time for that to start up. We bundled up on the couch that evening and watched the season finale of The Walking Dead. What a great way to end a great day!! Perfect!

  The next morning we gathered all of our things and checked out of our airbnb. We headed up to the fertility clinic which was about 40 minutes north of Toronto. The clinic was very nice and clean, and everyone was super friendly. They withdrew 18 vials of blood from my husband to begin the procedure. After that, we had about 3 hrs to kill before I had to go back and have the white blood cells injected into my arms. So we went and got some breakfast, and drove around Markham, Ontario which consists of pretty much nothing. Haha. They just had residential areas and a small little strip mall. And of course, the hospital. So not much to do at all. After we killed our time, we headed back and I got my injections. OUCH. You get 4 injections in each arm and they feel like bee stings. Each one got worse and worse I felt. But the nurse did compliment that I was the "most laidback patient she'd ever had!" haha! I guess others scream, cry or squirm from the pain. I took it like a champ, even though inside I wanted to scream, cry and squirm. But my motto is, just get it over with...the more you interrupt, the longer it's going to take. So just suck it up and get it done. Here are my arms after! The swelling has gone down a lot, but man do they itch!

                                           

 The itching is supposed to get worse as well. Usually by day 3 you want to rip your skin off they say. Great. But you can't itch and you cannot use any medicine or creams to relieve the pain. I can apply a cool towel every now and then to help but thats it. She did say if it got unbearable I could take a benedryl. But I think I will just suck it up and deal with it, since I don't want to do anything to interfere with the treatment. 

  After the treatment was over, we got in the car and headed home. We got in around 10pm and I went straight to bed. I'm back at work today and I plan on relaxing for the rest of the week/weekend. My ass probably won't move from the couch much. haha! But since these next couple of weeks coming up are going to be so crazy, I don't feel guilty at all for being super lazy. I think my husband feels the same way! ;)

  Well, that's it. 1st treatment down....3 weeks we will be on to round 2. Hope this all works! Time will tell!

A positive post for once

Whenever I get on here I am either venting about something, or just received bad news. So this blog has really took a turn for the negative lately. And, yes the crap I am going through sucks no doubt...but I am not always in this negative state of mind. Which is why I decided to write a post when I am actually in a decent mood! haha!

  Things aren't really much different with me news wise. Only my amazing nurse Sarah is going to talk with my doctor about potentially administering the infusion and steroid treatments on me herself, instead of having to go through an infusion center. It would save me SO much money, since half the cost is for the nurse to come to your home and do it. She volunteered and is going to tell my doctor she really wants to do this for me as a courtesy. I really hope my doctor allows it, since they do not do that kind of thing at their office. I will know what she says later today.

  But even if she says no, it's really nice to know that someone on my medical team is batting for me. That's not just out to screw me, or take advantage of my time and money. So that really made me feel so comforted that I have someone like her that would do that for me to help me. There really are great people in this world, you just have to find them!! haha

 Anyway, we are heading to Canada this weekend. I am excited! I already booked dinner reservations in the CN Tower on our first night there. Should be really cool! I will post pictures of our trip! The procedure is on Monday the 4th. They only had an injection time for me at 2:30pm so that kinda sucks because we will be heading down back to Virginia right after the appt. So that will make for a very long day/night of driving. Fortunately my boss has been really cool about the whole thing and will let me take the next morning off if I need it.

  Speaking of my boss and nice gestures, my boss is giving me the time off to go to Canada for these procedures. Meaning - I do not have to use any of my personal days for this. How nice is that!? He knows my issues and has been very understanding with me. He's never questioned my constant doctor appts and blood draws. He's been really supportive and that's such a great thing, because with all of this mess, it really has caused me to take a lot of time from work. He has even allowed me to work overtime to help me financially. As much as I like to bitch about working, it's nice to work for people who are compassionate. I'm very lucky with that.

Anyway, like I said, today isn't bad. It's just a normal day, and most days are like this. I feel fine, (even though I started my period last night), but other than that...just another day. I wanted to post this so my readers don't think I am some manic depressed woman who is on the edge of destruction! Because I look back at some of my posts like, wow....I really was down and low that day. But most days are normal days. And most days I am fine, I am laughing, I am smiling and I just go on about my day. :)

I will try to get on here as well when I am in good spirits, vs only writing when something is wrong or I am sad. I don't want this to be the most depressing blog ever posted for people to read. That's definitely not my intentions here! Good days, bad days...we all have em! ;)

LIT appointments scheduled!

Well, all systems are go! We have our LIT appointments in Canada scheduled! 1st round will be on March 21st and second will be 3 weeks later on April 11th. I am anxious, nervous, and excited! We have to retest for the Leukocyte Antibody Detection test 3 weeks after the 2nd procedure to see if it worked. God I hope so! I'm still waiting to hear back from the dr. I went to on Monday to determine if the IVIg is covered. If not we will definitely be getting the intralipids and steroids combo to coattack my immune system with the LIT.

If all works as planned - we can begin trying again in May. :)