IVF Consult Today - and - A "Brief" Entry On Boxers (heheh)

IVF

We have an appointment this afternoon to talk with the IVF coordinator, or whatever they call her, to get everything explained & scheduled and have whatever questions we have answered. We've been trying to think of as many questions as we can beforehand, and this morning we had a brainstorming session in the car. We'll likely do the same on the way there. Aught to be able to think of a few more during an hour drive.

The critical thing is the timing. We're pretty sure we can get one try in right away, but they have a gap in their scheduling during the summer to give their machinery a thorough cleaning. (It just occurred to me: does that mean we get the machines at their dirtiest? Probably well within tolerances.) If the first try doesn't work (~40% chance of success per try with ICSI at our age, they say) will we have to wait a few months longer for the second? I guess if the first try fails and we can identify one or more contributing factors a delay could give us time to do something about them, so if there is a delay there could be a silver lining to it. My wife just wants to power through this thing and get it done, though.

Boxers

As part of an attempt to do everything possible to improve my sperm count & morphology, I've now switched to boxers after having worn briefs my whole life. I got knit boxers, so the feeling would be a little more familiar. It's still a different experience altogether, I can say. Everything dangles, with no support to speak of. The first couple days there was some definite discomfort in my left testicle as it hung unsupported, but that seems to have passed.

My wife picked up a couple pair for me. Merona, I think the brand is. Then we picked up some others - a couple Hanes and a couple Jockey, plus one novelty pair with Homer Simpson just for fun. Then my back went out on me. I have a bad back, an inheritance from my father, and every so often it hits me. I believe it's the muscles of the lower back going into spasm. It seems to happen more readily if I wear pants with a waistband or drawstring that digs into them. Lying on the floor seems to help a lot, if only temporarily. Anyway, I took a closer look at the waistbands of the brands I got, and while the Hanes look smoother & softer - puffy with no bunching like you normally see with an elastic waistband in boxers - the elastic seems like it's going to hug tighter in a narrow band at the base of the waistband. The others seem to have more even pressure distributed over the entire hight. Because of that, I've declined to try wearing the Hanes until my back gets better. Search Amazon.com for merona boxer

The button fly is a new twist for me too. It's hard to unbutton those things while you're dancing.

Hurt Back

Yesterday we got about ten large packages from FexEx and UPS, and I think I strained a muscle lugging them around. I have a pain on the left side of my back, about midway or so between the shoulder blade and pelvis, on the ribs. It's worse today then yesterday. Evidently it's a muscle that is involved in adjusting the torso to maintain balance while sitting. That's when I most often get twinges, if I have nothing to lean on. I have a deep enough desk at work to have room in front of the keyboard to rest my arms and lean my belly against the front of the desk, but at home my desk has the keyboard on a slide-out tray. I found sitting backwards in my chair helped. I'm glad I didn't put the arms on when I assembled it.

I've tried both ibuprofen and tylenol, and neither seem to have much effect. But then the whole thing seems to have ramped up between yesterday and today, so maybe they did keep it from being worse than it would have been. Maybe I'll try aspirin next, on the theory that the blood thinning will improve circulation to the area and help get the damaged cellular material out and the materials needed to repair it in.

Sleeping was almost impossible. I usually sleep on two pillows, but I guess the alignment isn't really quite right like that because I had to switch to one to get comfortable. And every time I shifted position it would twinge. I could barely move this morning, and my wife had to drive.

Anyway, I had an oriental chicken rollup at Applebee's for lunch, and my wife had a BLT minus the B. (She's a vegetarian, by taste.)

Hopefully I'll be feeling better soon.

Spider Bite - Epilogue

As of this weekend all signs of the bite, including bruising, have completely cleared. No additional symptoms arose during the recovery.

The identity and whereabouts of the spider remain unknown. To date there have been no further attacks.

Spider Bite Examination Report

As some of you may have noted from my "blasts" on my Yahoo 360 page I apparently got bitten by a spider on the right little finger yesterday afternoon. By the time I went to bed it looked like a nickel-sized bruise. Today it's been about the same, but with a little swelling and a bit lighter color in the middle section.

Based on information & advise from various sources, I called in for an appointment with the doctor and got one late this afternoon. She looked at it and pronounced it not so bad, saying that if it had been a black widow or brown recluse it would have been crusty by now. She told me to take an antihistamine for the swelling & inflammation, and watch it for changes outside the normal course of a bruise.

So that's where things stand now. I have a standing prescription for 12-hour Allegra so I'll be taking at least a dose of that. I had been off it for a while due to the cold I've been fighting the last week and a half. Allegra dries up the sinuses, which is not what you want when there's something nasty living in there you need to get flushed out. I *seem* to be on the tail end of that, and a 12-hour mucinex along with it should counter the drying enough. Meanwhile, I wait & watch. So far other than the inflammation it seems to be going the bruise route. If it diverts from that path I'm to call for another appointment. Presumably they would start me on antibiotics then.

The picture was very hard to pose. The bite is on the side of the finger towards the next finger. (Proximal side?) Also the camera refused to focus except on the black printed line. The lighting was bad as well, so I had to adjust the color and contrast a bit. I think I got it fairly close.