The dreaded HSG

November 11, 201518 Comments

I am not going to pretend to be brave here. I am actually a little bit nervous about tomorrow’s HSG procedure.

The Hysterosalpingogram – AKA the HSG – is an x-ray procedure to check whether the fallopian tubes are open or blocked, and if the uterus is normal. Iodine dye is inserted into the uterus to allow a contrast to be seen on the x-ray. It allows the doctor to see on the free flow of the fallopian tubes and any abnormal lining of the uterus. The procedure is relatively quick -about 5 minutes. But for me it really was painful. I took 800mg of Ibuprofen an hour before the procedure as instructed – it still hurt.

For my first test I was naive and had no clue it might be painful, so I wasn’t nervous. But now, knowing what I know now! I AM anxious! The crappy thing is that Chris isn’t allowed in with me, there is nothing more I would like than for him to hold my hand whilst the dye is injected and I feel that burning cramping sensation run through my body.

When I called the clinic to make my appointment the receptionist who now recognises my voice (OK so I bet they don’t have that many Brits as patients) asked me why I hadn’t had an HSG already. I pointed out I had one in January but I had to have another one after the possible ectopic pregnancy thing and how much I was dreading it. She was very sweet and apologised, her tone also changed to be more somber for the rest of the call. Bless, it was nice that she sounded to care. It must be a hard job working in a fertility clinic – it must be a bit bi-polar with so many highs and lows everyday.

Perhaps I will do some meditation to help me relax a little before hand :-s

On the positive side about this – once we have the results of this test we can go ahead and hopefully firm up plans for IVF round 2.

My HSG X-ray with my retroverted uterus (it’s hard to see because it’s hiding behind the catheter)

The sugar monster

November 10, 2015November 10, 201513 Comments

Hello, my name is Dani and I am a sugar addict. Phew. Glad I got that out into the open now :-s

After reading ‘It starts with the egg’ by Rebecca Fett I decided to give up sugar about 2 months prior our 1^st IVF cycle.

Actually what I really gave up was simple/refined carbohydrates. The science behind it all is rather compelling so I thought I’d give it a go. It turns out that women who follow a diet of low-glycemic/slow carbohydrates have a much lower rate of ovulatory infertility. Research shows that high blood sugar and insulin levels significantly decrease egg quality. This in turn reduces the proportion of embryos that can successfully implant in the uterus, reduces IVF success rates, and increases the risk of early pregnancy loss. As we have no clue what causes my infertility, I thought it has got to be worth a shot.

Well fat lot of good that did me! Although, as it was my first time doing both the diet and the IVF, it is difficult to know what would have happened had I not followed the diet. I mean, it was the first time I ever saw two pink lines, so there was definitely something that helped!! Whether it was the IVF or the diet we will never really know. I’m not willing to experiment.

Chris helped me and we made some general food choice changes. We swapped out white rice and pasta with the brown and black stuff. We bought quinoa, lentils and whole wheat cous-cous….all slow release carbohydrates. Our portions also became smaller because we got fuller quicker. I bought a bread machine and we made our own whole wheat breads. We got rid of the chocolate, cookies and other bads and replaced them with nuts, fruits and plain yoghurt.

After the news of our unviable pregnancy the comfort food came out and the diet went out of the window. At first, everything was too sweet and I couldn’t eat much of it! But it soon became easy to eat the bads, and we treated ourselves to whatever we liked.

Today we are back onto the path of a low glycemic diet and exercise. I got a call from my nurse co-ordinator who went through some dates with me for our second round of IVF and we are looking at starting Birth Control Pills around my Birthday (yey! Happy Birthday Me! Have a BCP!!!), starting stimulation injections around about 7th Jan 2016. So that is 2 months of healthy eating (minus Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays).

At the weekend we bought a new book called ‘the sugar free kitchen’ and we have stocked up the cupboards with the good stuff.

Does it seem ironic that there is ice cream on the front cover of this ‘sugar-free’ cook book??!

Our menu for the week looks like this:

Breakfast:

Toasted oats cereal with banana and milk

Lunches:

Chicken salad (no change this is what we usually eat, we just vary the meat and vegetables week to week)

Snacks:

carrots, celery, pistachios, wholewheat cracker bread with butter

Dinners:

Avocado, bacon and chile frittata with peas
Quinoa, squash and pine nut salad
Flat bread pizzas with garlic zucchini ribbons and salad
Squash and chorizo quiche
Italian meat sauce with whole wheat pasta

Homemade Treats:

Raspberry and mascarpone ice cream, frozen yoghurt cups, Ginger and oat no-bake cookies.

Quinoa, squash and pine nut warm salad. Actually pretty darn tasty and easy to make.

We are generally healthy eaters and cook all our own food from scratch anyway, but the biggest change is the treats. I get the sugar-low cravings in the mid-mornings and after coming home from work….this is when I typically snack and eat a lot of sugary things. So for the next week or so my body will hate me as I come off my sugar high. Hopefully it won’t be quite as bad as last time :-s

We are also getting back onto the exercise. I was going to be playing dodgeball this winter season, but the league was cancelled. And our local yoga centre shut down. So we have to motivate our butts to get moving. Chris is still recovering from his sprained ankle earlier in the year so we can’t do anything too energetic like insanity….but we will do some P90X again. We won’t follow the programme religiously, but enough to get a bit fitter than we currently are. So, here we go!

Bodies………………. ready??!?!?! Three….two……one…….*Whistle blows*

(If you ever watched the gladiators you should shout that sentence out loud in a Scottish referee type accent, if you have never watched the gladiators, I am sorry for my randomness but here is a video to help explain it)

Coping with the holiday season when dealing with infertility

November 8, 20159 Comments

Resolve – The national infertility association – posted an article today on ‘tips for coping with the Holidays’.

I thought I’d take a look because the last article I ‘Pffftt-ed’ from Resolve I ended up regretting – coping with Halloween. I ‘Pfffft-ed’ it when I saw the headline ‘Coping with Halloween’ on my facebook feed because I honestly thought it was a ridiculous idea. Why would it be difficult to deal with Halloween? And then Halloween came along and by the end of the evening I completely understood.

I had actually never experienced the Halloween fun since moving to the US because I had been on work travels the past two years. This year I was excited to actually be in the country because Americans go all out when it comes to Halloween. I had to yet to experience American Trick-or-Treating.

I bought a couple of pumpkins and two of the biggest bags of fun pack sized sweeties (candy) I could find. I made Chris go and dig out all the halloween decorations from the shed. I wanted to get into the spirit of things. On the eve of halloween we dressed up as ghost muskateers and went to a friends party – adults only! It was so much fun.

On halloween night itself, we went to a friends house to chill out. We sat outside in their front garden around a fire pit, making ‘smores and giving out candy to the tiny terror trick-or-treaters. It was everything I imagined trick-or-treating to be in the US. The kids had fantastic costumes – some kids even turned up in a limo! After a bit of questioning we found out that the kids in the limo were from a neighbourhood that perhaps one wouldn’t go trick-or-treating (the adults followed in a different car). It was the sweetest thing, and they were by far the politest children too. Adorable. All this cuteness around – our friends have a newborn baby too who dressed up too! It was a bit too much for me and I felt a bit sad by the end of the night.

If we do fall pregnant with the next round of IVF we might have our own newborn to dress up in a cute costume. Chris said that next time we will just have to borrow a kid for the night and actually go trick-or-treating with them if we haven’t successfully produced our own by then!!

So now I actually understand what the Resolve article was all about. Halloween is not an easy holiday to cope with when dealing with infertility. I just had no clue.

Resolve’s article today contained some useful tips for coping with upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. I won’t replicate them here, you can take a look for yourself here. They are worth a read.

But I will mention the one tip that really stuck out for me:

“Begin your own family traditions: a special ceremony or ritual that says that you and your partner are already a family, and that you can rejoice in your love for each other, with or without children”

I liked it because it is so true. In particular as we are thousands of miles away from our family it is even more important to create our own family traditions. Chris and I brainstormed ideas for what could be our tradition – we talked about food and drink (making our own things), activities like volunteering at a shelter, going for walks etc. And playing games….

One of our favourite hobbies together is playing games. We even have our own games night tuesday where we switch off the TV and play some games. We also have our own cribbage league. The day after we got married we started counting the cribbage wins in a little notebook. We carry a deck of cards, mini travel fold out cribbage board and the little score notebook where ever we go. It’s a bit of a talking point in cafes and restaurants as we get our crib board out and play away! Each year there is a decisive winner (Chris is currently winning!!!)…we will continue this tradition forever! We also hold games night dinner parties too. As you can tell, we like playing games!

But what has all this got to do with coping with the holidays? Well, we decided to create our own family game. It will be called “‘Insert Our Family Name Here’ Fluxx”. Fluxx is a card game where the rules are constantly changing – it is a lot of fun.

http://www.looneylabs.com/lists/fluxx-v4-card-list

There are many themed variations of this card game e.g. Pirate Fluxx, Monty Python Fluxx, Zombie Fluxx, Oz Fluxx etc…So we will create our own Fluxx like card with the theme of…us!! And this will be the game we play at Christmas. The great thing about Fluxx is that it is suitable for all ages, so it really will be a family game. I am so excited to get started on making this game – just in time for Christmas! A small thing to get us started on creating our own family tradition over the holidays 🙂

The Legal Alien

November 7, 2015November 7, 201511 Comments

It was almost 3 years ago that I handed in my security pass and said goodbye to my office of 7 years. I actually shed a little tear on my way out. I was about to leave a job that I really loved. But a new world was calling us – we were about to move to the United State of America!

My initial contract for working overseas was 3 years, and now that we have been living here in the US for almost 3 years I have been offered an indefinite contract. So we signed another year’s lease on our house…and unless something crazy happens, e.g. World War 3, we will be here in Virginia for another year.

I’m both excited and sad. I’m excited because we get some time to do more travelling and keep working at the infertility treatment. But I am sad because I miss my friends and family.

There also the more material British things that I kind of miss too…..

I miss Greggs (the bakers). I miss their iced buns and even the sausage rolls. People of America, your corn dogs suck in comparison. Why have you yet to discover the sausage roll? Someone at the New York times has realised the error of their ways and yesterday wrote an article about them. There was a bit of interest on twitter. But I am not sure it was enough to start a sausage roll revolution.

Will the sausage roll gain as much traction as craft beer has? I hope so if I am going to stay here for any longer….

Christmas is coming and mince pies are top of my wish list this year. What’s a mince pie I hear you ask? They are beautifully crumbly pastry pies filled with juicy, spiced raisins, sultanas and dried fruits typically eaten around Christmas time. They can be served hot or cold, eaten on their own or with Brandy butter or cream. To be served with hot mulled wine. Mmmmmm, I’m just salivating at the thought of them.

Lastly, I am also getting a bit bored of having the same conversations over and over again! Sometimes I fake an American accent just so no one notices I am British and asks all the same questions. This video shows the struggles…for real.

By the way, if you are an American and like British culture, the BBC American has a webpage called Anglophenia that might interest you: http://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/

You can also follow them on facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/anglophenia they post a ‘British word a day’ which is rather amusing!

Paranoia

November 7, 2015November 7, 20159 Comments

It’s not always an easy subject to talk about – abortion. It’s not an easy subject to talk about in any country, but for some reason it is something I feel is even harder to talk about in the US. Why? Because it is so politically charged here. It comes up in political debates a lot, and as much as I can debate my socks off about the subject, I don’t really like confrontation. Particularly in front of strangers. Actually, I just don’t like to upset people. So my blog post yesterday about “abortion and the grey space” made me a little bit nervous….talking about abortion publicly, I was afraid I might upset someone –unintentionally of course. Not because of where my points of view on abortion lay, but just because I started a conversation about abortion.

I talked it through with Chris what I was planning on posting. He thought everything I was talking about was interesting. We ended up having our own debate against the world. (I love that we can do this together).

So in the end, I decided to press the ‘publish’ button because I promised this month I would write about things on my mind and open myself up a little…go a bit deeper.

I am now completely paranoid that I have upset someone. Not on purpose of course. But I am also paranoid about attracting haters! Have you ever used the key word ‘abortion’ to search for blog posts about the subject? Probably not, but I can tell you that there are some haters out there. I once got so emotionally upset about one post I ended up correcting someone on their blog. I immediately regretted it.

If I ever see an article about abortion on facebook I like to read all the comments because it educates me on both sides of the argument. But really, I get sickly engrossed in how intense other human beings get towards other human beings who have never met. It has heightened my awareness (or made me paranoid) of just how nasty people can get online. I have never experienced trolls on my blog or facebook page, but I know that if I did I would probably consider giving up blogging quite quickly. As I said, I’m not one for confrontation. I only meant to highlight some issues I’ve experienced as a direct result of experiencing loss and not upset anyone.

Abortion and the grey space

November 5, 2015November 5, 20158 Comments

We hear this word used in everyday life – abortion. We can all formulate an idea of what abortion is….someone choosing to end the life of their baby. But this isn’t a wholly accurate or fair description and is certainly not what medical professionals use the word ‘abortion’ for.

According to Wikipedia, the term ‘abortion’ can be defined as:

“The ending of a pregnancy by removing a fetus or embryo from the womb before it can survive on its own.”

The unintentional expulsion of an embryo or fetus before the 24th week of gestation is called a ‘spontaneous abortion’. This is the clinical term that is used by medical practitioners in their notes to describe what most lay people would understand to be ‘miscarriage’.

The intentional expulsion of an embryo or fetus is called an induced abortion. Reasons for intentionally inducing abortion are either therapeutic or elective:

Therapeutic abortion is performed to save the life of the pregnant woman; prevent harm to the woman’s physical or mental health; where indications are that the child will have a significantly increased chance of premature morbidity or mortality or otherwise disabled.
Elective abortion is voluntary when it is performed at the request of the woman for non-medical reasons.

And then there are the methods of abortion, including medical abortion and surgical abortion: Medical abortion (sometimes also called chemical abortion) is induced by drugs or pharmaceuticals. Where as surgical abortion includes procedures such as vacuum aspiration, Dilation and Curettage (D&C), Dilation & Evacuation (D&E) and hysterotomy.

The use of methotrexate to terminate my pregnancy of unknown location or ‘ectopic’ pregnancy is described as a medical abortion and can also be described as therapeutic abortion. Clinically, I did not miscarry. Although I am sure I had started the process of miscarrying before I took the methotrexate, and would consider it to be a spontaneous abortion – or – miscarriage – or – early pregnancy loss. However you want to ice it, in my medical notes it will be described using the word abortion.

For those who are not aware that this is actually a clinical term it can come as quite a shock to see those words on their medical records. For example, here is a link to a news article: “Mom to be shocked when miscarriage called ‘abortion’ in medical records” that shows how easy it is mis-perceive the term abortion.

But definitions of abortion vary across and within countries as well as among different institutions. Language used to refer to abortion often also reflects societal and political opinions and not only scientific knowledge. Popular use of the word abortion implies a deliberate pregnancy termination, whereas a miscarriage is used to refer to spontaneous fetal loss when the fetus is not viable (i.e. not yet unable to survive independently outside the womb).

Paul Freeling and Linda Gask* explain the problem well:

“As children many of us learnt the old rhyme “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me”. As we grew older we discovered that the adage was untrue. For most of us whose profession involved interacting with other people it became obvious that clumsy or inapposite use of language could cause pain. An attempt to avoid such pain has provoked…to suggest that distress in women who have miscarried would be reduced if changes were made in the language used by professional carers…the word “abortion” should be avoided because the lay public interprets it as applying to a termination of pregnancy.”

And then there is the grey space in between all of this. This is where in the US definitions and clinical descriptions are all important for insurance companies.

I recently read about a lady who fell right in between this grey space….

At a 13 week scan several doctors told her that her baby had a heartbeat, but the organs were not inside its body, the hands and feet are curled, one limb was missing, the neck was not right. Overall, the baby was unlikely to survive and should be removed as soon as possible before it could cause serious health issues. By definition, in Ohio, this situation was considered by the insurance company as an optional abortion because there was still a heartbeat, therefore, they would not cover the cost of the $10000 operation at the hospital. Planned Parenthood would be able to perform the surgery at a cost of $800.

Eventually, after the doctors re-worded the case, the insurance company agreed to cover the costs. But it came at a cost. You should read the whole article to fully appreciate what this poor woman went through: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tamara-mann/heartbeat-involuntary-miscarriage-and-voluntary-abortion-in-ohio_b_2050888.html

This blog post is not about pro-life or pro-choice. It is merely a brief peek into the complexities of the use and definition of the term ‘abortion’.

For me personally, the insurance company did not initially cover the cost of my methotrexate treatment because it was being used as an abortion drug. Eventually we managed to claim the cost back directly via our European insurance provider.

I don’t have a solution to propose, I just know that abortion – whether it is spontaneous, elective, optional, surgical, medical – is a confusing grey mess of an area in the US.

* Freeling, P. & Gask, L., Changing terminology is no substitute for good consultations skills BMJ 1998; 317 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.317.7165.1028 (Published 17 October 1998)

Being Chipper

November 5, 2015November 5, 20154 Comments

Today two people commented on how ‘chipper’ I seemed to be. Was it a coincidence?

The first, my husband: At 0645AM this morning as I was bouncing around the kitchen preparing our packed lunches, Chris pointed out how chipper I was for first thing in the morning.

The second, my boss: At 0900 as my boss logged into his computer, I gave him a brief update on what had happened whilst he had been away for the past two weeks (not much). He pointed out how chipper I was.

Wow. Apparently I am chipper today! I know it had absolutely nothing to do with getting a good nights rest, because I had a crappy nights sleep due to our dear cats running around in the middle of the night like there were 500 mice loose in the house. But actually, I did feel quite cheerful and energetic today. Perhaps there really was something in the process of writing down about how I wasn’t depressed, just lost. in my blog post yesterday evening…may be thinking it through and ‘labelling’ where I was at helped me feel just that little bit chipper today? Or perhaps I have just been a bit of a grumpy old cow for a while now and that the simple act of smiling is a change for me!?!

I don’t know….but today I was just expressively happy!

Woohoo!!

(But knowing what I know about what the phenomena of ‘coincidences’ and what they truly are – they are not really coincidences, but rather events that happen to be similar because we like to look for those patterns that are important to us…for example the old saying, bad luck comes in threes…only because we look for the bad luck we find that it comes in threes. … Now if 4 people had said I was chipper…..)

Depressed or just lost??

November 3, 201513 Comments

My husband asked me last weekend if I thought I might be a little bit depressed. It wasn’t a surprising question because I had been moping for most of the day with very little to do around the house. He also pointed out to me that I have mentioned depression a couple of times in some of my more recent blog posts. I quickly said, ‘no, I really don’t think so’. I was able to answer it quickly because I have spent some time thinking about.

I have had “training” with all three of my deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan on recognising the symptoms of depression in other people. I also have to complete annual training with my Army reserve unit on mental health awareness (although because I live in the US at the moment I have missed this over the last few years) I googled the symptoms a couple of months ago just to be sure. I don’t really fit. But if Chris is asking me, perhaps I should reconsider? Or is this one of those self-perpetuating moments where I end up actually becoming depressed because I think I might be depressed. And so I couldn’t help but think about it whilst at work today.

I am an ambitious woman. But my ambition has never been to be the greatest at everything. Somehow in my life I have managed to be successful in achieving whatever I want to do. I like to try new things, but I am not an innovator. I like to win, but not at the expense of others. I like to be busy, but rarely to exhaustion. I like change, but I don’t like surprises. I like to develop myself, but I rarely put my head out of the cockpit. Overall, I’d say these things have helped me to achieve success in everything I do, but there is always room for me to do better…and so I keep on going to achieve great things.

I have two degrees, various extra-qualifications, a successful career in defence, I’ve given something back to my country with my reservist duties, I have been awarded an MBE, I have various commendations and awards to my name. In my personal life I have an amazing husband, an amazing relationship, a supportive family, kind and loving friends, a ridiculously big house, a car, two of the cutest kitties, a nice pot of savings in case of a rainy day. I have travelled the world, I get to meet fascinating people and go to fascinating places. I have a body that is capable of achieving pretty much anything I want it to do – whether it is climb, ski, snowboard, hike, play softball, volleyball, squash, run a race, do yoga – do insanity!!! OK enough of my bragging, that is not my intention…my intention is to say just how damn lucky I am. What more in the world could a girl possibly want inlife?

Of course there are many more material things I could always ask for….but….

Two years ago we decided we wanted to grow our family and this is the one thing I want and can’t have right now. And it is completely out of my hands.

Previously I filled the void with my ambition, I compensated by taking courses, being busy at work, travelling, making new friends, planning epic holidays, buying new cars. And now…I’ve done it all. Really? Have I done it all? Of course not. But it feels like it. And now I am suffering. I’ve never been here before. Chris has never seen it in me before.

So, until I find some redirection, please forgive me whilst I wonder aimlessly (probably talking to myself). I’m OK. I am not depressed. I am just a little lost.

Source: http://www.cwmt.org.uk/parents-guide-to-depression/

My Mountains Monday Memoirs: Healing Holidays Days 10 to 16

November 3, 2015November 3, 20154 Comments

Well after starting NaBloMoPo15 yesterday with a mantra to write more meaningful and deeper posts I have lost my way already! But it is Monday….so I will finish off My Mountains Monday Memoirs post from last week. You won’t find anything deep in this post – just a recount of my healing holiday part 2 😉

(If you missed part 1, you can read about our first 9 days here)

Day 10. Albuquerque (NM). We thought we would be in Albuquerque as the worlds biggest hot air balloon festival would be going on because we found it difficult to find a campsite for that night. But in reality we arrived about 2 hours too late. The festival was over. Booooo. Anyway, we headed off to the Petroglyph National Park (A petroglyph is a rock carved drawing) for a mini adventure. We took a hike and viewed some incredible old rock carvings. We tried to imagine what people were expressing when they carved them into the rock hundreds of years ago. Here is one that looks like a stork carrying a baby – although it is actually a frog…but apparently the whole image may represent thankfulness for fertility or water. Because, you know, these things are so similar (!??!! the sign told us this, I didn’t just make it up!).

The stork and the baby story originates from Europe so we know that this is meant to be a frog!

The stork and the baby story originates from Europe so we know that this is probably actually a frog!

We decided not to head into Albuquerque city centre but rather spend more time getting outdoors instead – at the petrified forest.

Day 11. Petrified Forest, AZ. We took a spectacular hike into the wilderness – i.e. there was no path. You had to ask the park ranger for the ‘special’ instructions to do this hike. So armed with the ‘map’, instructions and a compass (my iPhone because we forgot to bring ours!) we headed out into the wilderness to look for a giant petrified log that crossed a wash (a temporary river when it rains).

A ‘wash’ in the petrified forest wilderness – no paths to follow here!

I felt in my element here. I was sooo happy. No one else around. No sounds of vehicles, very little wildlife except for lizards and ravens.

A lizard on a piece of petrified wood

The petrified logs were incredible. I had never seen anything like it.

Petrified wood in a valley

It is very tempting to just pick up a piece of petrified wood and put it in your pocket, but of course that is illegal so we didn’t!

The different colours are caused by different minerals the wood absorbed a few million years ago

There was so much wood lying around, especially from the giant logs I could really imagine what the forest would once have looked millions of years ago when the dinosaurs roamed. Now just a desert. Apparently this is the most ‘driven’ through National Park in the US. If you ever head this way, don’t just drive through it….get out and see it! There are many natural surprises that lay hidden throughout the park.

Day 12. Grand Canyon, South Rim, AZ. This time around we had planned to arrive in the Grand Canyon in style by taking the Grand Canyon train! Although, this did mean we only had 3 hours actually at the Canyon. We managed just 3 miles of hiking, the canyon was cruelly teasing us. BUT! this time we got to see the canyon in its finest. Not a cloud in sight. Once we escaped the crowds I was a happy bunny.

For the return trip on the train we bought luxury parlour class tickets – it was fantastic! A bit of a treat to ourselves because quite honestly it is a bit of a frivolity. Our tickets gave us full roaming of the train, including the back porch of the train. It was very cool being able to stand outside as the train was clickety-clacking along through the national park with the sunsetting. By the way, at no point do you get to see the canyon from the train (the pictures on the website are totally misleading), but it was still a wonderful journey. Our train was ‘robbed’ on the way back by cowboys – quite an amusing little bit of entertainment.

A wild west train robbery in action – apparently a pretty casual affair.

To end the day we went back to our campsite to finish off with a little bit of relaxing Jacuzzi action. Spoilt rotten.

Day 13. Lake Mead and Hoover Dam (NV & AZ). Mostly a day for driving, but at the end of the day we ended up at the Hoover dam. Wow, I learned a lot about this dam! We took the ‘full works’ tour of the dam and got to go inside the actual concrete dam itself. An incredible piece of engineering. I can understand why it is one of the seven engineering wonders of the world.

Hoover Dam – One of the 7 engineering wonders of the world

We ended up at Lake mead RV park with an amazing lakeside view. Sadly this was our last night in Trippy 😦

Lake Mead Camping

Day 14 & 15. Las Vegas baby! (NV). We handed Trippy back first thing in the morning and took a taxi to our hotel, the SLS. I had some Hilton points to use that I have collected over the last year so this was definitely a treat of a hotel. By the way, it was sooooo good to be in a real bed!!!

We gambled a little on the slot machines and learned how to play ultimate poker (where you play poker against the dealer only). We didn’t win big. But Chris did win 2 half dollar coins with 2 flushes, which we will keep and not be spending!! Half dollar coins are not commonly used any more, but it is possible to get half dollar coins to collect. Unfortunately, neither of them were the Kennedy half dollar coins that are worth something. But hey, it’s a novelty!

Our total sum winnings in Vegas…2 half dollar coins

We decided to be a bit different and went to the mob museum…you could even buy a beer to take around the exhibits with you! This was followed by a seafood buffet at the Freemont Casino. It was totally over-the-top with Vegas cheese, but we decided to go cheap rather than fancy because we thought it would be a waste of money spending money on a buffet when we are not big eaters. Chris was surprised at how much food I actually did pack away! We were both ill with funny tummies almost immediately afterwards, not because of food poisoning, just from the sheer amount we ate! We are clearly not well trained in buffet eating.

We treated ourselves to a dinner and show package. We chose to see ‘Absinthe’ at Caesars Palace – a variety show in a small intimate circus tent (there were only 10 rows of people!). It was comedy mixed with erotica, show dance girls and circus acts. There was something for everyone! It was excellent entertainment– not for the faint hearted or the straight laced! There was absolutely no political correctness here!

All in all, Vegas was highly entertaining, but I don’t think I could spend more than 2 nights there.

Day 16. Time to fly home. Reflecting upon our epic adventure, it made me realise that there is definitely a whole lot of America we have yet to see and experience. But most importantly, I came home refreshed and ready for whatever life wants to throw at me back in the real ‘non-vacay’ world.

Bye Bye Grand Canyon! ’til we meet again…

How writing a journal can help heal, grow and thrive

November 1, 201511 Comments

This month I am challenging myself to write a blog post every day as part of National Blog Posting Month. And without a doubt, it will be a challenge for me! I am not a natural ‘writer’. I am a scientist! I like facts, I like being to the point. I rarely read fiction, I have little interest in poetry or story-telling. But I recognise the benefits of writing a blog and so this is why I am pushing myself to try it for a month.

My blog is like my personal journal that I choose to share with others. The benefits of writing a journal are well founded in the treatment of depression, stress and anxiety disorders. In addition, journaling can help with day-today problem solving and clarify the mind. Dealing with infertility means dealing with all of these issues as well; so as well as taking medications to overcome the physical, blogging is my way to overcome the mental.

It has been scientifically proven that people who write about their deepest thoughts and feelings about events that upset them have stronger immunity and visit their doctor half as often as those who write only about trivial events. So I shall also be challenging myself not just to write something every day, but write something deeper.

I’m not sure what the coming month holds for my blog posts but I am excited to try it!