Reunion with dildocam

When I was in my early 20s, I worked in a very demanding job, as I have mentioned before here and often mention in public as a way of legitimizing my existence. As a consequence of the long hours in that job, I neglected my health. As a consequence of neglecting health matters such as regular teeth-cleaning, I ended up with the first cavities I'd ever had. Once I was forced to go to the dentist for an emergency visit because I had a visible hole in one of my molars, I found that not only did I have my first cavity, but I also had 23 additional cavities to keep it company. Some teeth had more than one cavity. I ended up having four root canals, which were done by this insane guy with dyed-black hair who barked at his little assistants (who were uniformly Asian) but was very quick and effective. For the rest of the cavities, my regular dentist scheduled me for fillings in groups - that is, I would come in, have one section of my mouth numbed up by nova.caine, and then get those cavities filled. Over time, I found that I was no longer afraid of the nov.acaine shot and in fact kind of relished the moment when that long, sharp needle would slide into my jaw. I thought they would never bother me again. That was incorrect. I've had a few fillings replaced recently, and I did NOT dig the needle at all.

You know where I'm going with this. With IVF, I got used to the needles and the dildocams, and I even felt a bit tough since I could give myself my shots without flinching, and giving up some blood for e2 levels was hardly worth even sighing over. I won't say I ever enjoyed the dildocams (if you did, you may want to keep that to yourself), but I did get used to them. But by the time I had to give blood for one of the pregnancy-related tests (glucose?), I had grown soft again and may have even clenched my teeth as the needle was sliding into my arm.

I had my midcycle ultrasound this morning to check for scarring from my c-section or other abnormalities. This was my first dildocam adventure since I was about six weeks pregnant with So.ren, and I found it deeply uncomfortable. That said, the clinic has moved to some shiny new digs, and they had a monitor installed on the ceiling that you could watch from the examination table. Here's what we saw:

- Lining was plush, striped, and, according to the ultrasound technician, "beautiful."
- Antral follicles were at 25, which was lower than the 29 or so I'd had during my first fertility workup, but I am three years older now, and so are my ovaries. I felt happy about 25 in case we need to do another fresh cycle.
- C-section scar had some fluid in it, but the RE claimed that it wasn't enough to leak back into the uterine cavity and disrupt the ambience.
- There was a HUGE ovulating follicle on my right ovary - I've never had any midcycle monitoring before (outside of fresh IVF cycles, when you don't have a dominant follicle), so this was interesting. I thought it was a tumor at first, but instead of being upset, I just felt this was typical behavior from my right ovary. I believe this means I am ovulating on day 12 instead of day 14. It's nice to see an uptick in productivity from the old reproductive system.
- The right ovary had several endometriomas on it, but they are small at the moment. We'll see what happens after they get all juiced up on Es.trace.

So that's the latest. Now, we wait for my next AF to arrive, and then I'll start the Est.race. The clinic is ordering me some PIO suspended in something lighter than whatever it is normally in so that I can use 25-gauge needles instead of the thicker 22s. I requested this since I will be giving them to myself due to my husband's inconvenient geographic location. I'll need to figure out a place to hide the needles from So.ren, who would be delighted to find a hazard that held the possibilities of both injury and overdose, and the people who will be looking at our house once we get it on the market.