My Dad

Happy Father's Day to the dad who has trained up a generation of Jesus (AND Church) lovers. The dad who was able to always lead God's church while never slacking on his family. The dad who never missed a dance recital, baseball game, basketball game, football game, cheerleading competition, awards day, graduation, birthday party, family vacation (because let's be honest, lots of pastors will sacrifice that time with their family to head back home to cater to another, just saying) or youth camp. Yes, my dad was going to youth camps WAY before any of us were able to go! And to the dad who has always valued his children's opinions and even sought our advice at a few transitioning points in his ministry.

Thank you for investing your time and energy not only into your own kids but in the lives of our friends and fellow student ministry kids. You've not only been a dad to Stephen, Jessica, John, and I but you've been a dad to a whole slew of other kids as well. I'm not sure how you've managed to give the churches you've served in, your family, and other families your undivided attention all at the same time, but you have; and for that, you will always be a hero. Happy Father's Day to the dad who's done it all, and succeeded!

Love you, Dad

PCOS Update

If you read this post, you will know that a month ago I was finally diagnosed with PCOS. Something I've known that I've had since high school just never actually diagnosed with. If you didn't read my post, basically while many women have cysts at some point, some women's bodies produce more androgen, a male sex hormone, than normal. That's me. Because of this, my eggs are never released from the follicles, and cysts build up in my ovaries. Normally, birth control pills are prescribed to help counter these things but seeing as though one day in our future, we'd like to have children, birth control pills won't help forever. So, enter lots of medications. 

Since my last doctor's appointment a month ago, I have been taking Clomiphene (Clomid), Medroxyprogesterone (Provera), and Metformin along with prenatal vitamins. They put me on 1500mg/day of Metformin (which if you know anything about this pill, you know that just taking 500 mg/day can be evil). I was struggling to keep any food in my system. I was sick around the clock and had to go to the bathroom every 5 minutes. I was scared to leave the house because if I was caught anywhere where there wasn't a bathroom then let's just say, it wasn't pretty. Not exactly the weight-loss system I was looking for...haha! 

Wednesday I went in for my monthly follow-up appointment with my doctor. To make a long story short, I had an ultrasound and they found "better-looking" ovaries than before and an excellent uterine lining which was good but they saw no follicles. If this doesn't mean anything to you, you have to have at least one dominant follicle on your ovary because this is where the eggs to have children develop. Normally, this would automatically mean, "Infertility" and at first, that's what the lab technician told me. However, my doctor came in and said they should have given me an ultrasound a week or more ago and so this ultrasound didn't mean anything and had to be thrown out. It's all about timing and dates with this stuff. She still wasn't convinced that I ovulated last month, so, that meant more and new prescriptions; Letrozole (Femara), Glumetza, and Provera. I'll go in again in a few weeks for another ultrasound and new news. Now, we play the waiting game and continue on the journey. Still hopeful and still at peace knowing God's plans are better than mine. I'm glad it's not up to me to plan my future. 

'Til next time,