I can't remember if I've used this post title before, but even if I have, I don't care. It's too perfect to not use right now so forgive me if it happens to be recycled.
On Saturday night, Husband turned on the stupid whole house fan just as I was stepping into the shower.
The whole house fan is a huge point of contention between Husband and I. I hate it. He loves it and is convinced that when it's 3000 degrees outside, all he has to do is open the windows and turn on the whole house fan and suddenly the house temperature becomes bearable.
Wrong.
So in any event, he wisely decided to turn on the fan when I was in the shower and couldn't complain about it.
Unfortunately, this also meant that the fan went into its whole house sucking glory right as the furnace was cranking up to give me some hot water.
The result: the pilot light burned out.
Husband didn't realize that the pilot light had burned out until I walked into the living room twenty minutes later and asked what the unusual smell was. After initially claiming that it was coming from outside, Husband did some investigation and realized that without the pilot light functioning, gas was just flooding into the house.
We immediately panicked, which turned out to be appropriate when a few minutes later the carbon monoxide detector went off. At that point, Husband practically shoved me and our Boston Terrier Abbie into the car and told me to pull out of the garage and into the street. Ten minutes later, he came skittering out of the house, holding Izzy, who had snuck under our bed (I can only imagine this involved continued Festivus-style Feats of Strength because our bed is freakin' heavy!).
We sat in the car for a bit, waiting for Husband's beloved whole house fan to suck the carbon monoxide out of the house. Then Husband decided that he didn't trust our silly little detector so he called the fire department.
Which was awesome. They showed up with a full fire truck and three other vehicles. Our neighbors were freaking out, coming outside to ask what was going on.
The good news is that the carbon monoxide was gone. The bad news was that the firemen couldn't get the pilot light started again.
Our hot water heater is more than forty years old so we knew going into buying the house that we'd need to replace it eventually. I'm just glad that (1) the heating company I like had an appointment to install the new one this afternoon and (2) this didn't happen in January because even with 80+ degree temperatures, a totally cold shower is pretty ridiculously miserable. This morning Husband heated up water for us to bathe "Little House on the Prairie"-style. It was pretty awful.
The hot water heater is just one of a few things that have been breaking down recently (our cars seem to be tag-teaming being in the shop: we pick up one and the other has an issue), which partially explains my absence here. I've been spending all my free time shopping online for new cars and hot water heaters! Arg!
Such is the downside of home-ownership, I guess!
Happy Tuesday!
Showing posts with label My Impending Death. Show all posts
Showing posts with label My Impending Death. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Royal Oil: Progesterone in Oil Shots (as administered by Husband)
You might think from all the shots that I've had to give myself during the IVF process (click here and here and here), that no new shot would phase me. Such is not the case: I was actually super terrified of the fourth and final shot of the IVF process.
The progesterone in oil shot is different from other shots for two major reasons. First, rather than an subcutaneous needle, it requires an intramuscular needle. And second, because the shot has to go in my back, I couldn't administer it myself...meaning I had to trust Husband to give me the shot.
I love Husband. Obviously. And I really do trust him, in every single regard. But truthfully Husband has not handled this whole medical situation very well. He had a panic attack at the doctor's office when we found out about the miscarriage. And another in the middle of my HSG procedure.
Despite him having the very best of intentions, I just couldn't shake the mental image of him sticking me with the needle, promptly passing out, and then me having to retrieve a 1.5 inch needle from my own backside before driving him to the hospital.
It wasn't a pretty picture, readers.
Husband assured me that he could get through it and to show him that the shots aren't that painful, he watched me inject some Follistim when we first started the IVF cycle. I purposely neglected to tell him that the shot for which he was responsible involved a needle three times the size of the Follistim needle.
Before the first shot, I did a ton of research online, looking for tips on how to make the shot less painful or reduce the likelihood of bruising. My search did not yield very successful results: most women offered some tips, but still stating that they had bruising and welts all across their backsides. This did nothing to ease my mind.
Luckily the nurse at my retrieval had asked if I wanted her to draw circles where the shot needed to be administered. Brilliant! I agreed right away and when the circles started to fade, we redrew them. Walking around with two huge Sharpie circles on my backside was no small consolation for Husband knowing exactly where to give me my progesterone in oil shot.
On the first day, I used ice to numb the spot. Afterwards I ended up finding it unnecessary, but for anyone else going through these shots, this will help you relax. I climb onto our bed and lean all my weight to the side opposite where I'm getting the shot: we alternate sides and Husband moves around within the circle so that one spot doesn't get too tender.
When Husband pulls the needle out, he immediately takes a wet warm washcloth and massages the area with it. This supposedly helps disperse the medication throughout the body without allowing it to get all clogged up in one area. On the package, it recommends activity following the shot, but that's not been possible since I was on bed rest during this time. I didn't find that the lack of movement led to any significant discomfort; however, the one day that we didn't use the warm towel (we were traveling and had to do the shot at a friend's house), I definitely felt more discomfort than most days.
I joked that my doctor will want to hang Husband's picture on the wall of his office as a Super Star Progesterone in Oil injector since after ten days of injections, I don't have a single welt or bruise.
Unfortunately I did have some side effects with the progesterone in oil, some seriously uncomfortable side effects. The worst being constipation. Husband being the stickler for rules that he is, he refused to allow me to take any medication until we contacted the after hours doctor on call. Thankfully the doctor called right back and gave us a list of "more natural" remedies, including warm prune juice.
I've never had prune juice before but figured it can't be all that bad. After all, there's a recurring storyline on Star Trek: The Next Generation involving prune juice. Worf loves prune juice! It's the only Earth drink that he allows Guinan to serve him! Prune juice! If you had to pick one drink that you enjoyed above all others, wouldn't it have to be a pretty nice tasting drink?
BLAH!!!!!!!
Prune juice is awful. Warm prune juice is even worse.
I finally came to the conclusion that Worf must like prune juice because he considers himself a warrior. And to be a proper warrior, one must deal with horrible, terrible, unthinkable things...like prune juice. I swear he must drink it as part of a pain regime designed to strengthen and/or deaden his taste buds.
After choking down two full glasses of warm prune juice, I waved the white flag. The doctor had listed out a few other safe remedies that I could use, including Colace and Miralax. Once Husband saw my prune juice-related misery, he ventured out to the store to get a few of the recommended real and thankfully tasteless medications.
Progesterone injections are really important during the IVF cycle: so much so that after a week, my doctor increased my dose from 1 cc to 1.5 cc. For some reason my body doesn't generate enough progesterone on its own so I'll likely have to continue the shots well past the pregnancy test, which is scheduled for two weeks following the retrieval (assuming it's positive, that is).
I'm so glad that Husband has managed to be such a great shot giver. It turns out that when I really need him, as expected, he rises to the challenge!
Again, I'd emphasize that, like most of the IVF process, the anticipation of the progesterone in oil shots is much worse than the actual shots. Surprisingly, I don't even find that they hurt much beyond a small prick when Husband first puntures my skin. I mentioned to the nurse at my embryo transfer that I should be thankful for my "extra padding", but she says that when someone is super thin, they use a shorter needle so these shots will be relatively pain free for most everyone! Good to know!
We started the progesterone in oil shots the night after my retrieval and then two days later, I went in for the final stage of IVF: the embryo transfer. Check back on Tuesday to read about that!
 |
| Subcutaneous needle (top) and intramuscular needle (bottom). |
I love Husband. Obviously. And I really do trust him, in every single regard. But truthfully Husband has not handled this whole medical situation very well. He had a panic attack at the doctor's office when we found out about the miscarriage. And another in the middle of my HSG procedure.
Despite him having the very best of intentions, I just couldn't shake the mental image of him sticking me with the needle, promptly passing out, and then me having to retrieve a 1.5 inch needle from my own backside before driving him to the hospital.
It wasn't a pretty picture, readers.
Husband assured me that he could get through it and to show him that the shots aren't that painful, he watched me inject some Follistim when we first started the IVF cycle. I purposely neglected to tell him that the shot for which he was responsible involved a needle three times the size of the Follistim needle.
Before the first shot, I did a ton of research online, looking for tips on how to make the shot less painful or reduce the likelihood of bruising. My search did not yield very successful results: most women offered some tips, but still stating that they had bruising and welts all across their backsides. This did nothing to ease my mind.
Luckily the nurse at my retrieval had asked if I wanted her to draw circles where the shot needed to be administered. Brilliant! I agreed right away and when the circles started to fade, we redrew them. Walking around with two huge Sharpie circles on my backside was no small consolation for Husband knowing exactly where to give me my progesterone in oil shot.
On the first day, I used ice to numb the spot. Afterwards I ended up finding it unnecessary, but for anyone else going through these shots, this will help you relax. I climb onto our bed and lean all my weight to the side opposite where I'm getting the shot: we alternate sides and Husband moves around within the circle so that one spot doesn't get too tender.
When Husband pulls the needle out, he immediately takes a wet warm washcloth and massages the area with it. This supposedly helps disperse the medication throughout the body without allowing it to get all clogged up in one area. On the package, it recommends activity following the shot, but that's not been possible since I was on bed rest during this time. I didn't find that the lack of movement led to any significant discomfort; however, the one day that we didn't use the warm towel (we were traveling and had to do the shot at a friend's house), I definitely felt more discomfort than most days.
I joked that my doctor will want to hang Husband's picture on the wall of his office as a Super Star Progesterone in Oil injector since after ten days of injections, I don't have a single welt or bruise.
Unfortunately I did have some side effects with the progesterone in oil, some seriously uncomfortable side effects. The worst being constipation. Husband being the stickler for rules that he is, he refused to allow me to take any medication until we contacted the after hours doctor on call. Thankfully the doctor called right back and gave us a list of "more natural" remedies, including warm prune juice.
BLAH!!!!!!!
Prune juice is awful. Warm prune juice is even worse.
I finally came to the conclusion that Worf must like prune juice because he considers himself a warrior. And to be a proper warrior, one must deal with horrible, terrible, unthinkable things...like prune juice. I swear he must drink it as part of a pain regime designed to strengthen and/or deaden his taste buds.
After choking down two full glasses of warm prune juice, I waved the white flag. The doctor had listed out a few other safe remedies that I could use, including Colace and Miralax. Once Husband saw my prune juice-related misery, he ventured out to the store to get a few of the recommended real and thankfully tasteless medications.
Progesterone injections are really important during the IVF cycle: so much so that after a week, my doctor increased my dose from 1 cc to 1.5 cc. For some reason my body doesn't generate enough progesterone on its own so I'll likely have to continue the shots well past the pregnancy test, which is scheduled for two weeks following the retrieval (assuming it's positive, that is).
I'm so glad that Husband has managed to be such a great shot giver. It turns out that when I really need him, as expected, he rises to the challenge!
Again, I'd emphasize that, like most of the IVF process, the anticipation of the progesterone in oil shots is much worse than the actual shots. Surprisingly, I don't even find that they hurt much beyond a small prick when Husband first puntures my skin. I mentioned to the nurse at my embryo transfer that I should be thankful for my "extra padding", but she says that when someone is super thin, they use a shorter needle so these shots will be relatively pain free for most everyone! Good to know!
We started the progesterone in oil shots the night after my retrieval and then two days later, I went in for the final stage of IVF: the embryo transfer. Check back on Tuesday to read about that!
Saturday, July 31, 2010
New Weekly Feature: Keep on Running
This blog is supposed to be about Queen, fashion/shopping, and running.
I've got the fashion/shopping part covered. Between my daily What I Wore posts, Anthropologie Fitting Room Reviews, Fashion Challenges, and Outfit Polls, I think a good 75% of my non-working/sleeping day is spent shopping, thinking about shopping, or writing about shopping.
The Queen part, I've been pretty good about too. I've stuck to my plan of highlighting a Queen Song of the Week every Friday, detailed meeting Dr. May, wished the boys birthday wishes, and occasionally ranted about various business decisions.
The running part?
Eh - not so much. Sure, I ran some posts called "Running Essentials" but running is a pretty straightforward sport. Once you have a couple of things, you're pretty much good to go. I have a few more that I can write, but that's not enough to properly feature the third component of my blog.
I've also been slagging off a bit in my training. This summer has been the most hot and humid that I can ever remember. The temperature hasn't dipped below 70 degrees (nights included) in weeks and the humidity is frequently about 75%. In the winter, my treadmill is a viable option, but in the summer, it's a recipe for heat stroke: there's no air conditioning in that room and no matter how many fans I set up, I cannot generate enough air circulation to make me not want to die.
This is a bit of a problem, however, since my fellow princesses have convinced me to run my fourth half marathon in October.
Hence, my new weekly feature "Keep on Running", loosely based on Designer Me's Monday Training Posts (click here) and named after a song originally by the Spencer Davis Group that Roger Taylor recorded (and didn't release) during his 1984 Strange Frontier sessions.
Basically I'm going to post my half marathon training plan every week and then I'll say which workouts I successfully completed. If I have a good week and follow the training plan, you will all congratulate me and I'll be happy. If I have a bad week and slag off, you will all yell at me and I'll be publicly embarrassed.
See? Fun for everyone!
To generate my workouts, I use the SmartCoach training program on the Runners World website. You have to be a member of Runners World to use SmartCoach, but membership is free. I plugged in my recent 10K time of 1:05:00, selected a 10 week training program, that I typically run 15-20 miles a week, and that I wanted a moderately hard program.
I'm also going to try to work in yoga at least twice a week. Occasionally, I'll combine shorter runs (like the 2 milers this week) into one longer run.
Now, here comes the fun part: did I stick to my workout schedule for Week 1?
Sunday: Yoga
Monday: 2 mile easy run
Wednesday: 5 mile tempo run
Thursday: Yoga
Friday: 2 mile easy run
Saturday: 7 mile long run
What this week has taught me is that not running in the hot/humid weather makes running much more difficult that a tough run in hot/humid weather. Typically your pace slows in the summer, but when you combine that with basically being lazy for an entire month, your pace ends up essentially a crawl. The best thing I can say about my runs this week is that I got through them.
I will say this though: already this feature is having an impact on my training. At about 3 miles in today, I really really wanted to call Husband and make him come get me, but then I thought to myself, "Geesh - I can't run the silly feature for the first time and not have completely made it through all the runs," so I sucked it up and got through 4 more miles. Hopefully this shame will carry me through the next nine weeks until the Diva Half Marathon.
So Week 1 of my Half Marathon Training Program was a success. You can now commence the obligatory congratulatory comments!
I'm off to the Red Sox game now. I'll be back tomorrow with the wrap-up and final outfit in my 18 for 18 Challenge.
Happy Running!
And GO Red Sox!
I've got the fashion/shopping part covered. Between my daily What I Wore posts, Anthropologie Fitting Room Reviews, Fashion Challenges, and Outfit Polls, I think a good 75% of my non-working/sleeping day is spent shopping, thinking about shopping, or writing about shopping.
The Queen part, I've been pretty good about too. I've stuck to my plan of highlighting a Queen Song of the Week every Friday, detailed meeting Dr. May, wished the boys birthday wishes, and occasionally ranted about various business decisions.
The running part?
Eh - not so much. Sure, I ran some posts called "Running Essentials" but running is a pretty straightforward sport. Once you have a couple of things, you're pretty much good to go. I have a few more that I can write, but that's not enough to properly feature the third component of my blog.
I've also been slagging off a bit in my training. This summer has been the most hot and humid that I can ever remember. The temperature hasn't dipped below 70 degrees (nights included) in weeks and the humidity is frequently about 75%. In the winter, my treadmill is a viable option, but in the summer, it's a recipe for heat stroke: there's no air conditioning in that room and no matter how many fans I set up, I cannot generate enough air circulation to make me not want to die.
This is a bit of a problem, however, since my fellow princesses have convinced me to run my fourth half marathon in October.
Hence, my new weekly feature "Keep on Running", loosely based on Designer Me's Monday Training Posts (click here) and named after a song originally by the Spencer Davis Group that Roger Taylor recorded (and didn't release) during his 1984 Strange Frontier sessions.
Basically I'm going to post my half marathon training plan every week and then I'll say which workouts I successfully completed. If I have a good week and follow the training plan, you will all congratulate me and I'll be happy. If I have a bad week and slag off, you will all yell at me and I'll be publicly embarrassed.
See? Fun for everyone!
To generate my workouts, I use the SmartCoach training program on the Runners World website. You have to be a member of Runners World to use SmartCoach, but membership is free. I plugged in my recent 10K time of 1:05:00, selected a 10 week training program, that I typically run 15-20 miles a week, and that I wanted a moderately hard program.
I'm also going to try to work in yoga at least twice a week. Occasionally, I'll combine shorter runs (like the 2 milers this week) into one longer run.
Now, here comes the fun part: did I stick to my workout schedule for Week 1?
Sunday: Yoga
Monday: 2 mile easy run
Wednesday: 5 mile tempo run
Thursday: Yoga
Friday: 2 mile easy run
Saturday: 7 mile long run
What this week has taught me is that not running in the hot/humid weather makes running much more difficult that a tough run in hot/humid weather. Typically your pace slows in the summer, but when you combine that with basically being lazy for an entire month, your pace ends up essentially a crawl. The best thing I can say about my runs this week is that I got through them.
I will say this though: already this feature is having an impact on my training. At about 3 miles in today, I really really wanted to call Husband and make him come get me, but then I thought to myself, "Geesh - I can't run the silly feature for the first time and not have completely made it through all the runs," so I sucked it up and got through 4 more miles. Hopefully this shame will carry me through the next nine weeks until the Diva Half Marathon.
So Week 1 of my Half Marathon Training Program was a success. You can now commence the obligatory congratulatory comments!
I'm off to the Red Sox game now. I'll be back tomorrow with the wrap-up and final outfit in my 18 for 18 Challenge.
Happy Running!
And GO Red Sox!
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