Update, Update, Update!

Alright, first I just want to clarify that although my biopsy turned out to be the most excellent news possible, we still have quite a process ahead of us. The actual donor transfer is still a ways off.

So, Lizzie & anyone else out there, please put out that "It's A Boy!" cigar! It's still a bit too early to completely declare victory! :) But, Lizzie, thank you for making me laugh so hysterically at that comment last night on the phone...gosh, what would I do without my sisters?! Could a girl be any luckier???

I called HCR (Hinsdale Center for Reproduction) this morning in order to speak to Sue and get the low-down. So, here's the latest:

Due to all of the estrogen we were pumping into my body (injections, injections, insertions, injections...) in order to get my lining to the optimal millimeter, my estrogen level is now over 1000. In order to proceed safely my cycle needs to reset itself and my estrogen level needs to decrease all the way back to 20. Um...yeah...20.

Here's the thing...every woman's cycle does this each month...increases-decreases...it's just usually you don't know anything about it. It just happens. I, on the other hand...now know EVERYTHING. Due to my situation, it can take one or two cycles before my estrogen level gets back down to 20. Sue brought up the fact that my body doesn't ever seem to react the way we think it is going to (it has a mind of its own) so, we aren't really sure what it is going to do.

Today is actually already Day Two of my next cycle - which was very surprising to Sue. Usually it takes much longer after a biopsy for you to get your period. But, as we all know, my body and the word "usually" don't often mix. So, four days after my biopsy, the lining I worked so hard to build is now already shedding. Shedding lightly I may add, which is another surprise - but kinda nice :)

So, here's the plan - Dr. Hickey does not need to see me just yet. We're going to wait 3 weeks. I will go in on Wednesday, May 20th for an ultrasound and blood work. They are thinking that this might not be a "real" cycle restart. My cycle has not been the most easy to follow due to all of the ovarian failure going on, so we're just waiting to see what happens. If I get my period again before the 20th, I will then go in on the Day Three of that cycle. They will do an u/s and blood work in order to see what is going on and to recheck my estrogen level.

In the meantime, Mackenzie will call on her next Day One (today is her Day 23), and possibly schedule a Day Three appointment - which is an u/s and blood work. They'll put her on Birth Control that way they'll be able to figure out her cycle dates and start timing out when the donor process could possibly take place. Now remember, this won't occur for at least a few months.

So...once again...we wait. But...it's a happy waiting period. :) :) :)

Are you following? I know that this process can be pretty hard to follow so please leave me a question on my comments and maybe my next post will be a Q&A with your new Reproductive Endocrinologist - Dr. Rachel Witkowski!

ps...Thanks Tara for our "talk" today over email. Lizzie is so lucky to have you as a best friend and us Milazzo sisters are so lucky to have you as a "sister". Love you!

Oops! I forgot to add...did anyone notice that I've gone international?! That's right...WORLDWIDE!

It's Just a Phase...

...and I'm IN it!!!

Yes! It's true!

Sue from Dr. Hickey's office called this afternoon (already!?) to tell me that my biopsy showed that I'm IN PHASE!!! (my body can support a pregnancy!!!! It can do something!!!) and we are ready to begin the process of matching my cycle to Mackenzie's! AHHHH!!!!!!!

You have NO idea how excited I am...I am BURSTING as I write this blog...(which I'm sure you can tell by all of the capital letters and exclamation marks!)

Sue left me a message with the news, of course, as we all know how rare it is that I actually answer my phone (it was in my work bag and I didn't hear it). So, I checked the message and burst into the happiest tears of my life. Sue sounded very excited on the message too! I called the office back knowing that it was already closed, but I was lucky because Victoria, the receptionist/do-it-all girl, answered the phone! We talked a bit about how excited everyone at the office was to call and give me GOOD news FINALLY! She said that Sue was ecstatic to call...she is the one who usually has to call me with the disappointing news. Victoria told me that she would talk to Sue as soon as she gets in tomorrow and that I should call during one of my breaks at school to talk about the next step. Then she asked about my cycle - which I just so happen to be on Day One today...and she asked about Mackenzie's. She thought that they may want to get me in on Wednesday already! especially if it looks like Mackenzie's Day One isn't until next week. Remember, I need to lead Mackenzie by two weeks in our cycles for the timing of the transfer. Mackie was at work when I called her, so I'll have to wait to find out tonight what day she is on...

So, this news has come WAY earlier than expected and I couldn't be anymore thrilled than was Brian cheering on Pujols' Grand Slam against the Cubs on Saturday!!!!

AHHHHHHHHH!!! YEEEEEAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

There will be more to come this week so STAY TUNED!!

Ella Bean and the Graham School Fun Fair!

On Friday night Brian & I had the pleasure of watching our friends, Laura & Cale Lucas', daughter Ella. They were headed out to dinner for a friend's birthday, and asked us if we could watch her for a couple of hours. What a blast! We had such a great time with her.
(side note...I asked Laura if it was okay that I post pictures of Ella - she obviously said yes!)

Isn't she a doll!?

I showed Ella how to open the screen door
and walk out onto the patio...
she only went back and forth about a million times!

It's a great night to sit on the patio and read a book!

Ella & Brian...but she calls him "Ryan"

Snuggling on the blue chair

Today my school had its annual Fun Fair. I was signed up to work the Redemption Table from 12:30-2:00 along with about 6 other people...they didn't really need me, so I bailed and walked around socializing. My parents came to support Graham too, as they do every year! Thanks Mom & Dad! Along with some nice socializing I even got to play games with my principal's son, Michael. She was signed up to work the Moon Walk - I know lucky girl, huh? So, I grabbed her 2 year old and we set off for the games! Let me tell ya, he is quite the athlete! We even did the Cake Walk and surprised his mom with a nice container of cupcakes. She was super excited!
(for the record, I also asked Joan, my principal, if it was okay that I post a picture of Michael)

One of our AWESOME first grade teachers!
Mrs. Conkey workin' it at the Duck Pond!

Mom & Dad enjoying some cotton candy at the Fun Fair!

Me & Michael...he is enjoying his Cake Walk prize!

Biopsy Schmiopsy

It's over! I survived my Endometrial Biopsy! Obviously I feel good enough that I'm already blogging about it!

We left our house around 12:50ish...a bit early, but the nervousness took over and I just had to go. I had taken the Valium pill that Dr. Hickey had given me just before we left. It didn't really make me feel any different, except that my head started to get a little swimmy. Otherwise I was fine.

Brian & I ready to roll!

They called us into the room at around 2:10ish. First he did an ultrasound and you'll never guess...my lining was at 10.9mm!!! AHHHH!!! YES!!!! (I asked...the units for lining is millimeters) He then traced out a line that he would follow to complete the biopsy. Your prayers worked - THANK YOU!

Here is the picture of my ultrasound.
The green line is the path Dr. Hickey drew -
it is the path he followed to the promise land!

Dr. Hickey asked how I was feeling and I told him how the Valium wasn't really affecting me...just a swimmy head. He decided to give me some Lydocane (Novacane) shots in my lining and cervix. Those shots hurt a bit, but not too bad - they were over pretty quick. Dr. Hickey and Sue, my nurse, left to let the Lydocane do its thing.

I made Brian take a picture of all of the

"tools" that were going to be used!
...notice the scissors...yikes!

Here we are waiting for the Lydocane to start numbing me up!

Isn't Brian the best?!

After about 5-10 minutes, they came back ready to begin the biopsy procedure. For the women out there...think Pap Smear...uncomfortable...awkward...that pretty much describes it! He then thread a catheter up to snag/suck some of the lining. Brian described it as a straw full of lining...nice huh? It was a very uncomfortable feeling - I actually felt a lot of pressure in the area under my belly button. I closed my eyes and Brian squeezed my hand. It was over pretty quickly.

Dr. Hickey said that I did a great job, and he also thanked me for not kicking him! ha...I'm guessing some other patients had a harder time than I did! He also said that I was very tough! HA DAD! TOUGH! The only time I've been described as tough is when I was slamming girls against the boards in indoor soccer! ...I never thought that I would compare the two.

All in all I feel pretty good. I'm a little worried about how I'll feel when the Lydocane and the Valium wear off, but we'll see.

ALL DONE! YAY!

My reward for being so tough...
a VENTI nonfat iced Caramel Macchiato...
Starbucks heals everything!

I was reading "Conceive" magazine while we were waiting to be called in and I came across an advertisement that made me think of one of my most favorite people...

Mar Moran...this one's for you! Love you!
By the way...it's called the "Conception Curve Pillow"

...you just don't use pillows to prop up your butt anymore girls!

HILARIOUS!

Today's the Day....

So, I thought that I would be able to sleep in today and take advantage of my day off, but that wasn't the case at all! I woke up at 8:00am...and I'm pretty sure it is due to the pit in my stomach. I know that today is going to go fine and that really it's not that evasive of a procedure, but I'm just still nervous....

Yesterday I had a blood work appointment at 8:00am. Victoria, the scheduler, insurance, and do-it-all girl at HCR said that they only blocked 30 mins for the procedure, but really it should only be about 15-20 minutes. She also said that they had a girl in on Tuesday who described it as a Pap Smear with a pinch. I guess this other girl was also a teacher and was ticked that she didn't bring any work home with her. She had also thought that it was going to be way more painful. But I guess it wasn't. Here's what they don't know about me...my pain threshold is about oh...zero!...my dad tells me all the time that I'm a bit of a baby when it comes to pain. Okay okay...yes, I'm a cryer...we all know that. I would prefer if things didn't hurt.

Brian, of course, is not nervous at all. Well, duh...he doesn't have to have something nipped out of him today. He told me that he was going to have them transfer all of the pain to him, that he could handle it and then I don't have to! I really wish they could do that...

My appointment got moved up to 2:00pm, so please send up those prayers!

_____________________

On Tuesday night I went out to dinner with some girlfriends from college to this really great winery called, Cooper's Hawk. My friend, Courtney is getting married next spring and asked us to be her bridesmaids!

Courtney, Maria (in back), Renee, Val, & me!

Yay Nay!!! Renee & her husband Alan,
are due with their baby boy on June 25!
Needless to say...she didn't drink any wine!

Whew! What a Weekend!

It was a crazy crazy weekend! I started out home in Aurora, headed to Elmhurst, then to Chicago, then to DesPlaines and now FINALLY home! Whew! (I put a few miles on Brad's car...shhh)

Brian & Brad left for their bachelor weekend in French Lick, Indiana on Thursday. Sounds like they had a great time drinking, gambling, golfing, and drinking. They drove the Tahoe so I got to drive Brad's Lexus for the weekend. Compared to the 'hoe, I felt like my butt was dragging on the road!

Mary Lou came again on Friday night to give me my shot. All went well. She brought me a surprise! When she walked in she handed me another bag of needles. The special thing about these though is that they are even MORE butt-friendly than the ones we already have! They are a smaller needle, so it doesn't hurt as much!!! Yay! She told me that I can't tell anyone (I'm assuming that she means anyone at the dr.'s office...uh...let's hope!) that she gave them to me because they are really expensive. She said that's why they don't usually order them for patients. I must be pretty special...because I got them for FREE! Atleast things are working out for me with all of this med stuff! Hey...I'll take what I can get!

Saturday, Mary Lou had plans and wasn't able to come over to give me my injection...so...I headed out to Elmhurst to nurse Amy's house! If you remember it was her son's prom night - and YES! - I did get a picture with him! haha!


Amy said that we've been doing the shots in the wrong spot. We've supposedly been doing them too low. If you were to draw a line from your tailbone to your hipbone, they should be injected up there. Oops! It is fine that we did it lower, but it is probably why I've been so sore! Amy yelled up to her daughter to bring her a Sharpie and she drew 2 large circles on my butt that way Brian knew where to aim! Now it is SERIOUSLY like darts! Once again...yes! I have a picture of that too! Don't worry it's not too revealing!


Next stop...Chicago for Megan's Bachelorette Bash! Here are some pictures of our awesome evening! If I say so for myself...I plan a hell of a party!

Lizzie, Kris & I getting the hotel room all ready to go!

The girls ready to try out Flirty Girl Fitness!
By the way...it was AWESOME!
We did the Chair Striptease...it was a blast!

Shake it baby Shake it!

Yeah Girls...work it!

At Sub 51...dancing the night away!
Laura Lucas, me, Megan, Megan Fitzgerald and Lizzie in the background

LATE night...
on our way up to our hotel room with some
friends we made in the elevator
can you tell we had fun???

There are a million more pictures from the evening...but us girls will keep them to ourselves! :)

Sunday morning....Deana's Baby Shower! Our very great friends, Deana & Brad Tokarz, are expecting their first child on June 3. Deana, Liz Schrum, and Stephanie Bea and I started out as the "Valpo Girlfriends" then we moved to become the "Valpo Wives" and are soon going to be the "Valpo Moms"...so weird. Wasn't it just yesterday when we couldn't wait to be married to "Tokz", "Schrumy", "Bea", and "Witko"??? Time sure does fly! Our Valpo boys have such a closeness with one another. They are a true "crew" of guys. I couldn't be luckier to be just as close friends with all of their wives. Liz Schrum, drove from Wisconsin for the shower. She surprised both Stephanie and I. It was so great to see her and catch up. Here are some snapshots...

Me & Deana...only 6 more weeks until the Little Tokz arrives!

Deana & Stephanie
Cute little pregnant girls!

Yay! Liz came!!! We love you Liz!

The Valpo Wives
Deana, Liz, me & Steph

Steph, me, Liz & Tina Stanton

The Girls with the Daddy to Be!
We are so excited for you Brad & Deana!
We love you!

This week is a pretty big one...you know...with the biopsy and all. Please pray that all goes well and that it comes with a positive result. I'll update again later this week to give you the low down.

Mary Lou is coming back tonight for another shot at 6:15pm...Brian is headed home today, so she won't have to come tomorrow.

So, That's All Folks! Have a great week!

Are We Shooting Darts?

Mary Lou, my awesome home visit nurse, came tonight to give me my first shot without Brian. She admired my medication basket (see picture) and then got to work right away filling up the syringes. Tonight she had to give me both the Delestrogen and the Progesterone. She had them ready in a flash and then we went into my room so that I could lay against the bed. Mary Lou has given many a shot and had no qualms about quickly counting 1, 2, 3 and then darting the needle into my behind. She did it exactly like I've been telling Brian not to do it, just like she was shooting a dart...BULLSEYE! It was quick and easy. I guess I've been wrong - Brian should probably be doing it like that. I mean yeah...I did flinch like crazy but it was over in no time. She first did the Progesterone in the right cheek and then the Delestrogen in the left. The Progesterone shot bled more than it ever has, but with some pressure and massaging...yes, massaging! It stopped. Bing Bang Boom and Done!

hey, if you're going to have a ton of meds...
you might as well keep them in a cute basket!

Mary Lou and I had a very nice conversation while she was over. She even gave me a big hug when she left! I definitely have to think about getting her a bottle of wine or something.

It was pretty funny today at school, because I walk with a bit of a limp right now. There were many questions as to if I was okay. Around 10:30pm the Progesterone shots really start to bug me and it continues into the next day (and when you're getting the shot daily - well, then it is just a constant ache on both sides!) . My muscle feels very tight and if I sit for long periods of time I get really stiff. It's like I'm an old woman walking down the hall! When my little Austin wanted to hop on one foot down the hall this afternoon, I must have looked like a loony - the things you do to get a kid to walk down the hall!

Oh well!

By the way, I got my haircut today. Finally got rid of all of those split ends some really nice parent at school acknowledged the other day. Gotta love when people have no filter! Not sure if these are the greatest pictures...but you get the idea!


Tomorrow is finally Friday! Happy Weekend everyone!

...one more final comment...Aunt Kim, OF COURSE the camera will be in tow when we come for Sal's First Communion! I wouldn't miss an opportunity to get the Richfield Milazzo's on the blog! Love you guys, thanks so much for following! See you soon!

Happy Birthday...

...to my most favorite Mom in all the world! Thank you for always being there for me... and supporting me...and loving me...and for being my bestest friend! I hope you had the most wonderful day! You're the best! I LOVE YOU!

Now onto the fertility news update...

Today at 3:30pm I had my "Take Two" ultrasound for the week. Dr. Hickey wanted to see my lining for himself. Today it ended up being at around a 7 or 8...in one spot it was as high as 8.9! Dr. Hickey said that last week there was a quick increase of estrogen (due to my inserted pill) and it made my lining fluff up. Then within this past week it kind of sunk down into itself and became more dense; causing it to be thinner. I am already on a pretty high dosage of estrogen and increasing it wouldn't do anything. He said that it could be that I, myself, don't get a very thick lining, so this already may be thick for me. We're not sure...only the biopsy would tell us for sure or not.

So, we are going to go ahead with the biopsy. It is scheduled for Thursday, April 23rd at 2:15pm right in my doctor's offices.

There are two possibilities with the outcome of the Endometrial Biopsy. The first is that they find through the biopsy that I am "in phase" meaning that my lining is able to support pregnancy. If we find that this is true, our next step would be to enter in our "Donor Cycle"! It means that we can move forward with our plans of Mackenzie donating her eggs to us. I would complete this whole med/ultrasound/blood work cycle again, but the end result would be the transfer of Mackie's eggs (not the biopsy). The other possibility that we may find out is that I am not in phase. If I'm not in phase, it will likely be due to the thinner lining, so they will do a D and C. A D and C is a procedure to scrape and collect the tissue (endometrium) from inside the uterus. They would do this to completely clean out my uterus. Then we would start the "Biopsy Cycle" all over once again in order to see if we can get to the thicker lining level of 11 or 12.

I'm sure you can tell which one I'm rooting for!

In order to prepare for my biopsy next week I had to begin ANOTHER Intramuscular Injection tonight. I no longer take the daily Lupron injection (the one in my stomach). But :) I continue with my Monday/Thursday injection of Delestrogen (the one in my butt) and I add a daily injection of Progesterone in Oil...it is also injected into my rear end... The IM injections need to be completed by Brian on their specific evenings at 6:15pm. As we're about to leave the dr.'s office he realized that he is going to be out of town this weekend for Brad's Bachelor Party. He is leaving on Thursday and isn't getting back until Monday! Well, what the heck do I do now???

My wonderful, wonderful, wonderful nurses came to the rescue! We found out that one of our nurses lives right near our house. She is going to COME OVER on Thursday, Friday and Monday night to give me my injection! Can you even believe it! How lucky am I?! But that still leaves me Saturday and Sunday. Another one of my nurses, Amy, offered to have me over to her house both Saturday and Sunday in order to give the shot to me - she couldn't come over because her son has prom... I can't believe she even considered it. So on Saturday on my way to the city for Megan's Bachelorette Party, I'm going to stop off in Elmhurst to get injected and then on Sunday I'll head up there again after my friend, Deana's baby shower. Seriously unbelievable! I am so taken back by their generosity. This is why I stayed with Dr. Hickey and his staff. This is why I didn't second guess everything...they are just so kind. They really do want the best for their patients.

Next week's outlook is this:
Wednesday, April 22 at 8:00am - Blood Work
Thursday, April 23 at 2:15pm - Endometrial Biopsy

Keep those prayers coming that everything works out for the positive! Thanks for reading!

Side note...
Brian asked our nurse, Amy, if she had any tips about how to make the IM shots less painful, I think it's killing him that I cry every time! Well...they worked! She said to take a cold pack and hold in on the area while Brian prepares the syringes, then when he is finished giving me the shot take a warm wash cloth and hold it on the area. Laying down this time made it much better too - I couldn't flex my muscle as easy.....it only took us how long to get it right? Thank goodness we did though - I'm not sure how much longer I was going to be able to take it!

Seriously???

I don't usually post twice in one day, but I felt that this post didn't seem to fit with my "Happy Easter" post. The Easter post was just far too cheery.

I had another appointment this morning at 7:45am for blood work and ultrasound. If you remember, I've been going weekly for about 5 weeks now in order for Dr. Hickey to make sure that my meds are doing what they are supposed to be doing. My ovaries should be shut down and my lining should be getting nice and thick. Each week has brought me the same thing...there hasn't been anything too too crazy (well...there was the new med).

Two weeks ago, my lining was at a 6, last week it had increased to a 9. Right on target and the nurses told me "one more week!" (until the biopsy) Optimally we want my lining to be at an 11. Today I went in and my lining was BACK AT A 6! Seriously??!! Where could it have gone?!

Brian doesn't come with me every week; usually the appointment is so fast that it doesn't make sense for both of us to be late to work. What is interesting is that for some reason God knew that I needed him there today.

I had the ultrasound tech, Kelly today, so I didn't get any information about what it means just yet. The nurse and the tech don't really say much, they wait for Dr. Hickey to look over my ultrasound pictures and blood work and then they call me with his findings. So, we left with questions....and I left with tears....again...

I know that it probably doesn't seem like something to cry about, I mean really, we don't even know anything yet. But, let me just tell you...it is something that just continues to bring me down. I felt that we had a good thing going...a 6...a 9...well, it had to be a 12 this week, right? I don't get it. Why doesn't my body just do what it is supposed to do? I have medication completely running my whole cycle and yet it is STILL not working. What the heck! I'm getting shot in my stomach every day and in my butt twice a week, and I'm inserting a pill every night before bed! What more can I do! This was only supposed to be a 7 week process and here I am going on week 9. I'm tired of the "one more week"..."next month"... when is "now" going to come?

My wonderful, amazing, understanding, caring, and loving husband just always knows what to say to me as I'm crying, crying, crying over another not so good appointment. He told me that this is okay, that this is when we want these things to happen, during our trial run. He reminded me that it is much better to have it happen now then when we are in the middle of our transfer with Mackenzie's eggs. That's when we want it to go smooth...it's okay that it doesn't right now.

He's right...this is why they do a trial run, so that all of this hoopla gets figured out and that way when we are in the middle of transfering Mackenzie's egg to me we know what to expect. Why couldn't I be more reasonable?

The doctor's office called me this afternoon and asked me to come back tomorrow. I have another ultrasound scheduled for 3:30 tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully I'll have some good news and this post (and my tears) will seem silly. Only God knows.

I have a quote-a-day teacher booklet and today's quote was so fitting - amazing how that happens sometimes!

"I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much." ~ Mother Teresa

Happy Easter!

Brian & I have now officially entered adulthood! We hosted Easter dinner for the first time yesterday. We had a total of seven guests: my parents, my sister, Kristen, Brian's parents, Brian's Uncle Doug, and Rich's (my father-in-law) cousin, Collin. Dinner was delicious (Thank you Mom and Barb for helping me out!). Everything was perfect! Here are some pictures of our day!

There's nothing like a delicious Mimosa while
you're beating up a Bleu Cheese Dip!

The Men...watching the Master's

The Women...chatting

me & my cupcakes

mom & Barb

me & my daddy-o

Here are Brian & I with each of our guests....
we missed Krissy - she left too early! :)

Mom, Dad, Brian & I

Brian & I with Uncle Doug

Brian & I with Collin

Brian & I with his parents

Later that evening when all of our guests had left and my kitchen was somewhat back to normal, Brian & I headed over to my Aunt Lynn and Uncle Rick's house to say hello. Grandma Mary and Grandpa Dick Dudek were in town.

Mom, Aunt Lynn, me & Grandma Mary

Grandpa Dick, Uncle Rick, Brian & Dad

We hope you all had a wonderful day with the ones you hold
near and dear to your heart!
With Love,
The Witko's

OUCH!

Picture taken this morning at the Dr.'s office!
(see I told you...camera with me at ALL times!)

Doctor appointment went as usual today, blood work was taken, ultrasound was done. Dr. Hickey did my ultrasound, which was nice, but also meant that I was late to school. (Thank goodness it was just School Improvement Planning and we didn't have students.) I like that Dr. Hickey turns the ultrasound monitor toward me so that I can watch what is going on. I'm becoming very good at reading the ultrasounds!

My lining was at about 9.2, which is a huge improvement from the 6 I had last week. I guess the new meds really did the trick! But, it's still not as thick as we want it. Ideally we want it to be at around 11-12. He said that 9 is okay, but we really hoping for the 11. We are going to wait one more week and hope that it gets nice and thick, but of course, not too thick! He says a 14 is too thick - I asked why - because when it is at 14, the embryo has a much harder time finding a nice cozy spot with both a gland and an artery in which to attach and you need it to find both in order to be successful. At 11-12 it is the best scenario for coziness - so keep saying those prayers!

We'll continue the Lupron stomach injection, the Delestrogen butt injection, and the Estrogen insertions for atleast one more week. Next week I'll go in and have my usual appointment and we'll set my biopsy appointment. Dr. Hickey said that we're going to go for it next week even if I'm still at a 9. So, I'll keep you posted.

I just got a voicemail from one of my nurses. She said that my labs came back good. My estradiol was at 1500 and my FSH was 0.2. Like I said, we're staying with the same meds, same dosage, and just keeping our fingers crossed that my lining continues to grow.

It has been awhile since I've talked about my injections and really it was because they were becoming nothing...you know...just another part of my day - 6:15pm every night. Well, last night was the worst yet. My stomach injection went just fine, as usual. Brian went to give me my Delestrogen shot and he actually poked me twice because the first poke hurt so bad I screamed out and started bawling. Then I was mad that he hadn't done it! I was freaking out once again over the anticipation of the shot hurting again. I don't know if this shot is just in my head, but it is hurting me more and more. I am beginning to HATE Mondays and Thursdays. Thank goodness it isn't the daily injection. Brian decided that this Thursday we're going to try to numb the area with an ice cube to see if it helps. Maybe I just need a few ML's...I don't know.

Weekend Fun!

Nothing new to report yet this week on the baby/donor front. I will post again tomorrow after my appointment to give the new update. Hopefully they'll have some sort of idea of when my biopsy will be. Tonight is just yet another round of injections...

I know that my purpose in writing this blog is to share our baby journey with all of our friends and family, but I will say that I have really enjoyed sharing our life with all of you as well. Plus, I have had requests from friends and family to get them on the blog! So, I'm just making my followers happy... :)

On Friday night, Brian & I met some friends out at Quigley's, a downtown Naperville bar. We have become close with some of my sister, Lizzie's friends and they invited us out - we surprised Liz, she didn't know we were coming!

One side of the table~
Eileen, Dan, Joanna, and Lizzie

Other side~
Brian, Evan, Ashleigh, me

Lizzie & Brian

Me & Eileen

Me & Liz

Our best friends, Brad & Megan, are getting married on May 16, 2009. Brian is the Best Man and I am the Best Girl, cool huh!? Just to clarify, I prefer the term "Best Girl" to Matron of Honor, I mean really, we all know I'm no Matron! On Saturday Megan had Bridal Shower #2, here are some pictures from it...

Some of the Bridesmaids with the Bride-to-be

Me, Laura Lucas, Megan, & Megan Fitzgerald

me & the soon to be Bride and Groom

The boys came to load up all of the gifts

I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to be able to live here in Chicago. Seriously, on my last day of SPRING break, APRIL 5th, we got snow - and lots of it. Here is our 'hoe all covered in snow...yuck!

Brian & his snowman he made on the Tahoe

So there you have it - the Witkowski Weekend Update! I hope you all have a great week! LOVE YOU ALL!