Monday, September 29, 2008

And it's Monday again

Sarah's echo and EKG came back normal. Well the EKG showed the possibility of some issues, but the echo ruled those out. Given all my marginal history the doctor agreed that it was prudent to have her come in every few years for echos to check, even though he feels she'll be just fine. She does have a functional murmur from the thallasemia. All in all, I didn't realize how worried I had been. Sarah was a trouper throughout though, she was scared, mainly because of all my heart tests but the doctor was awesome and explained everything thoroughly.

We volunteered at the school Saturday for a garden cleanup and mural prep day. We have now primed the wall for the still non existant mural. Now I just have to hope it doesn't rain too badly in the next month.

Friday, September 26, 2008

Friday To Do

There is an assembly at the school and Sarah is hoping she will win an award. Unfortunately, I know who is winning it this month and it isn't her. Sometimes it's hard to be a kid. After the assembly I am watching a friend's baby while she and her hubby go out for their anniversary. Then picking Sarah up from school, hanging out there with a picnic lunch and going to a garden meeting at 1.
Then heading home for an hour to work, drop off a resume, drop off samples, and get up to Fairfield. Children's Hospital has satellite offices, so we don't have to go to Oakland for the Echo. Her appointment is at 3:15 today. I've seen enough echos that I think I'll have a good idea about her status during the scan.

Then home, rest, pizza and movie night at our house.

I'm tired just thinking about all of it.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

I'm back

Did you miss me?
Life kind of got in the way of any journaling there for a while.

We tentatively have a gestational surrogate. Shhhhh. Don't jinx it.

We wouldn't be starting a cycle till July of 2009 however. That seems so far away. But if the first cycle takes then we would have a spring 2010 baby.

IF we can afford it.
IF the surrogate says yes still.
IF it works.
IF I can handle the stimulation drugs.

So many ifs.

I'm getting my tubes tied. I don't want birth control and fear of pregnancy to ruin my life. So, sometime before the holidays I'll get it done. I've already got the call in to my OB/GYN.

I took Sarah to the doctor today. Her teacher had commented to me how tired she always seems in class. I've noticed the same thing, that she is just really, really tired during the day. She still sleeps about 11 hours a night. So we saw good old Dr. Brooks today and voila, her iron levels are at 9.6. Normal is over 11.5. Unfortunately she also has beta thalasemia so iron pills aren't likely to increase her levels. We can supplement to make sure she has the necessary building blocks to raise her iron levels, but I don't know that it will work. I think it's because my iron levels don't seem to correlate to when I have high iron/low iron diet or supplementation. Thalasemia sucks. Well, thal major would suck worse than thal minor. Given her father and my history of heart issues, the doc also agreed to my request for an echocardiogram.

The cardiologist he referred her to was mine. I'm not sure if I want this group to do her echo or if I'll try and change it to Children's Hospital Oakland. I'm glad we'll have a baseline echo to track changes and make sure everything is all right.

Work is iffy. No one seems to be buying in this economy. I got back from the ABC Show in Vegas and nada. The call backs and emails I was doing did a bit, but not much. Not very much follow through. Orders kind of sucked. And after the economic news this week there's no way I can start calling and pressuring stores, "Hey buy my stuff!!"

I'm going to try and find a part time job for while Sarah is at school. If I can just make enough to pay for the surrogacy, that takes alot of pressure off of Frank. It's not fair for him to bear the brunt of all this and the business just isn't making enough to pull in profit.