Today's Doctor Appointment

Well today I made another trip to my awesome OB/GYN. I love my doctors if you need a good one in the Louisville, KY area just let me know I will refer you.

Today I was told to start taking my fertility pills, Femara, on Friday. I will take them for 5 days and then will have to start testing for ovulation. She advised me not to worry if nothing happened the first month my dose will likely need to be increased. She did say that I could get lucky and only have to do the one round. I am just going to keep my fingers crossed and keep it in God's hands. I am not going to get my hopes up because there is still a chance that I may never be able to have a child and I am still trying to cope with that. It is very difficult to be told that you may never become a mother. But I have faith in my doctors and in God and know that if it is meant to be it will happen.

I will try to keep this updated as I go along my journey. I say try because I cant make any promises.

On another note I also went to my beloved ENT today. I also love this doctor. I went to 3 different ones before finding him and getting some sort of relieve. Back in September he put tubes in my ears because the stirrup and anvil bones have started to deteriorate. Occasionally, even after having the tubes put in, I will get some pretty sharp pains in my right ear. Well today at my followup I learned that the tube in my right ear is not functioning properly because it is clogged with dried blood. Disgusting right!! I was given a script for some drops to use 3 times a day to try and clean it out. I have to go back to see him on Monday. If the blood has not cleaned itself out with the drops he will have to numb my ear with Novocaine again and go in to clean it out mechanically. FUN FUN!! Lets just say I am praying the drops work.

Until next time,
AAJ

Along my journey!!

Well it has been quite sometime since I made my last post. No I haven’t dropped off the face of the earth. I just didn’t take the time to sit down and write. Well, over the holiday weekend my cousin brought it to my attention that I hadn’t posted anything in awhile, I started thinking about it and decided to write again.

My previous post talked about me soon going to the doctor and getting started with the fertility process. I went back in April and was started on Necon which is a mild oral contraceptive, otherwise known as birth control. I know you are probably wondering why did they put you on birth control, I was wondering the same. The reasoning for this is so that I will actually have a period. Once I have a period then I will take the Femara which is the fertility. I have finished one month of the Necon and didn’t really have a cycle just a little spotting so I am currently on my second month. I will be finished with it in about a week. We shall see if it causes me to have a cycle. I go back to the doctor on June 8th to see what the next step is going to be.

My last visit back in April my doctor talked about possibly having to refer me to a different specialist because my PCOS is so severe. I am really hoping that she gives my body a little more time to get started with a period so I can see whether or not the Femara will work.

Until next time

aaj

PCOS and Infertility

One of the main issues with PCOS is the Infertility that it causes. Women that want kids so badly struggle with not being able to bear a child or have to go through so many fertility treatments they eventually give up. I myself am getting ready to start the journey of fertility. I had always told myself that I did not want children and was completely content with my nieces and nephews running around.
Read more on that here.

For a while I was right in saying this, but then my husband came along. I am completely happy in my life right now but we want nothing more than to have a child to share our love with.  So off to the doctors I go to find out what exactly needs to be done for me to have a child.

Enough on my life this get on with some facts about this issue.

With PCOS it is likely that you will have 9 or fewer menstrual cycles per year. This is a result of your ovaries not producing hormones to keep your cycle normal. Because you are not having a normal period of course you are not ovulating to become pregnant.

During the beginning of a normal menstrual cycle several follicles develop, each of them contains an egg. As your cycle continues you will be left with only one follicle. This follicle with produce the egg during ovulation. Once it has matured, LH levels will cause the egg to burst from the follicle causing ovulation.

Women with PCOS produce excessive androgen (male) hormones due to insulin resistance. Because of the excess male hormones being produced it affects the production of female hormones needed for ovulation. Therefore there is not enough hormones being produced to cause any of the follicles to mature. They may grow and collect fluid but none become large enough for ovulation. Some of these follicles may develop into cysts.

I go back to the doctor in April and she will likely be putting me on Provera to force a period. We had also talked about trying Femara so my best guess is after I have a menstrual cycle I will start it.

Until Next Time,
AAJ

Stupid Cancer!!

Tonight's post is very short. I found out tonight that one of my very best friends father has Stage 4 Gastric Cancer. For every one who reads this post please pray. He is such a hard working, devoted father and so very young. He will be 55 at the end of this month. I hurt so bad for my friend because I honestly don't know what I would do without my Daddy. My Daddy is my life and the one man that I can always count on for everything. Yes I know I am married and could count on my husband but not like I can count on my Daddy.
With all that being said. I just want to say;

I LOVE YOU DAD!!!

With Love,
AAJ

NASCAR Sundays

I know, I know........it has been a little bit since my last post. Well today was a great day in the Ashley-Jones house. Today was the Official start of Nascar will the Daytona 500. You see my hubby and I are big Nascar fans and have been pretty much waiting since November for February to get here. Not only does the Super Bowl happen in Febraury but racing comes back also. So all in all its a pretty good month.

Today's race at Daytona was full of excitement. Of course there was the wreck in which they bing "The Big One"
 

Then of course my favorite driver, Kasey Kahne, had to blow and engine with 11 laps to go. What luck HUH??

Then the winner of the whole thing was a Rookie named Trevor Bayne who just celebrated his 20th Birthday the day before. Man what a Birthday Present.

Happy Birthday Trevor,

aaj

Hirsutism

So you may be asking yourself, exactly what is Hirsutism? Well, it actually effects about 10% of all women. I know, I know that's a pretty low percentage. Well I just happen to be part of that 10% so to me its not so low.

Per Wikipedia;
Hirsutism is the excessive hairiness on humans in those parts of the body where terminal hair does not normally occur or is minimal - for example, a beard or chest hair. It refers to a male pattern of body hair (androgenic hair) and it is therefore primarily of cosmetic and psychological concern. Hirsutism is a symptom rather than a disease and may be a sign of a more serious medical condition, especially if it develops well after puberty.

Layman's Terms;
Excessive hair growth in areas where hair does not typically grow on women.....chest, back, face, etc. The medical term for excessive hair growth is Hypertrichosis.

Valentine's Day

So for those of you who know me then you know how I feel about this day. I have never been the one to truly like Feb 14th. As a matter of fact I despise this day. If you ask me it is way to over rated and commercialized. With that being said I hope you enjoy the following article that can be found over at http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Opinions/Columns/14-Feb-2010/Love-versus-Valentines-Day

 Happy UN-Valentine's Day,
AAJ

Migraines Suck!!!

As I am sure each and every one of you know, MIGRAINES SUCK!! But they suck really bad when you keep one for 5 days. It started as just your regular ole headache so I took some Excedrin. Well it never went away and just progressively got worse. Finally on day 4 I went to the Doctor. Because I had been so irritable and miserable when I called the office I simply told them that if there was not a shot or something that they could do for me then not to waste my time because I wasn't going to come in anyway. Yeah I realize that was a bit rude but HEY my head was killing me.

Male pattern baldness (androgenic alopecia)

Okay so I wrote about this yesterday a little. But today I would like to go into a little bit more detail about it and how this affects my everyday life. As I reported once upon a time in my life I had a full head of thick hair. As shown in the following picture which was taken in 1998.



1998

More on PCOS

In my last blog about PCOS, I ended stating that I would report more on it being inherited. It appears that there is a genetic component to PCOS and believed that you may be born with the predisposition to acquiring later in life. The following is the words of Samuel S. Thatcher, MD, PhD, F.A.C.O.G;
PCOS is a "final common pathway" of a variety of disorders and the diagnosis PCOS itself remains one of exclusion. It is a near universal finding that PCOS is genetic, but the heritage is complex. This genetic predisposition is not as simple as brown eyes or blue, but has a complex heritage. The tendency to develop PCOS may be inherited from either the mother's side, (maternal origin), from the father's side (paternal origin), or from both sides. A paternal origin is equally likely, but often is overlooked.

SUPER BOWL

I am super happy tonight because Green Bay won the Super Bowl so with that being said I will leave you with a few pictures.

Good Night Folks,

AAJ

Missed Snow Day

So I reported yesterday that we was suppose to get some snow today so I was going to bake cupcakes. My new found obsession. Well needless to say the weather man was wrong (Imagine that)!! It did indeed snow today but not the 1"-3" that was called for. As a matter of fact it did not stick at all. I went about with my original plans and my sister in law and I went to Zappos to look for her some Cowboy Boots.

Cupcake Junkie

So I have been watching way to much of the Food Network and expecially the show Cupcake Wars.

This has really got my brain going and I have been compiling some awesome cupcake flavors in my head.

We are suppose to have some snow this weekend and so I am going to the store and get the ingredients I need to make Peanut Butter Banana Cupcakes this weekend. I am super excited about this and can not wait to see how they turn out. I have gotten my recipe from over at Baking Bites but am not using Marshmallow Frosting. I think I am going to put Chocolate on this one. I will let you know how they turn out.

Best Wishes for the weekend

AAJ

What is PCOS?

So you may be asking yourself the question. What is PCOS or Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome? When first diagnosed I asked myself the same thing over and over again.

PCOS ~ a common female endocrine disorder affecting approximately 5%-10% of women in the reproductive age (12-45 years of age) and is thought to be one of the leading causes of infertility.
This is the answer that I received and did not find very comforting. I guess you could say that it did not sit well with me at first. I continued to do my research to find out as much about this as I possibly could. After all you want to be able to tell the person that you fall in love with that you may not be able to bear him children and why, right.

Living with PCOS

I happen to stumble across this today and so I thought that I would share. ENJOY

The Dreaded Endocrinologist

So I dreaded going to see the Endocrinologist for as long as I had the appointment. Going in I really wasn't sure what he was going to tell me or even why I was having to go see him. After all my Dr had given me the birth control pills that would help with my menstrual cycle. I wasn't even remotely ready to have a baby so I didn't need to find out anything else about what was going on inside of me. Boy was I wrong.

Learning you have PCOS

About 9 years ago I was diagnosed with something called PCOS. This stands for Polycystic Ovary Syndrome.  At the time I was 20 years old and I been dealing with very sporadic menstrual cycles and no answer as to why.  So finally my doctor at the time decide to do some testing. There was a complete blood panel done, ultrasounds, and biopsies. Finally finding out that I had PCOS. I was then told that this would affect me having children. Well at the time I was like most 20 year olds and didn't really stress about that. The only treatment for PCOS is birth control and this really only keeps your periods regular. So the Dr gave me the choice of birth control or some type of medication that could help me get pregnant. I opted for the birth control.