MIA Conference

I know, I know...get on to the results, right? I'm sorry but yesterday we had the Inaugural MIA Conference and it was too amazing to not blog about it right away.

When we headed to the conference, we had almost 160 people register and ended up with about 130 that actually showed up! There were a few hiccups but after discussing it at dinner after the conference and ALL day today with my mom, I'm going to focus on the positives rather than the negatives. You can't please everyone and in the end, we reached so many people going through the crazy infertility journey that it's just so OVERWHELMING! One couple came up to all three of us after the conference, not knowing any of us, and both the husband and wife gave us big hugs and thanked us...that my friends, it what it was all about!
Dr. K spoke on egg donation and Dr. Miyagi (the fellow) attended the entire conference. I FINALLY got to meet him! He was my inside guy & gave me feedback throughout the afternoon. Even though I hadn't met him, only dealt with him the night of the missed meds & tweeted him 5 million ?s (which he always answers), I felt like we were good buddies. At the end of the conference, he came to me and said, "I really like male infertility..." and I said, "Well I don't!" He laughed and nodded that he knew that but made a great suggestion that he could lead a discussion next year on male infertility for all the husbands or something along those lines.

I'm so glad they were both able to attend and support us. I'm hoping that maybe I can work with them to get more patient to patient support at my/their clinic.
During the general session, I saw this husband reach over and grab his wife's hand. I almost cried because really, the most important thing during your infertility journey is support.
We raffled off a FREE IVF CYCLE! Yes, you heard me right a FREE CYCLE! This was the couple that won, well, actually we drew the husband's name so HE won. They were stunned, shocked, grateful, amazed...I could go on. I was (again!) almost crying because you could just see how grateful they were. Dr. S, who donated the cycle, didn't bring a gift certificate or anything so he just wrote them an IOU note!
So, overall, MIA conference year 1-done! I'm so exhausted but it was soooo worth it. Thanks to everyone who attended and supported this!

Blah Blah Bedrest

August 27, 2011
You know how great and fantastic is sounds when you're told to take it easy for three days? Well, after about one day of bumming around, I'm ready to being doing something! I made it through the first night after transfer although I slept like CRAP. You never realize how much you tighten your ab muscles until you're trying not to plus I'm paranoid about laying on my stomach so yeah, I basically tossed and turned all night. The alarm went off at 6am for the PIO and other meds so we woke up for that and then headed back to sleep.

Luckily at 9:30am, I had a conference call for MIA. It was nice to chat with the girls and we're all really about the conference (that happened a few days ago). When we finally got off the phone a little before 11am, DH was STILL sleeping! I headed to the Man Cave (the only place in the house with a DVD player since my laptop crashed) and started my Twilight marathon. I had left my phone upstairs and the alarm going off for my noon estrace pill which was a good thing because DH FINALLY got up. He came downstairs and watched the end of the movie with me. But then he started complaining about how bored he was and this and that and TOTALLY started stressing me out. I went upstairs to work on the computer some in which he followed me upstairs and he insisted on playing the TV as loud as he could. I informed he that he was majorly stressing me so please go get out of the house!

After he left, I left to start New Moon. He came home towards the end of the movie and started dinner. Delicious hamburgers, tater tots and a dill pickle-yum! Then we got in a heated discussion about violating each other's privacy which I won't rehash but I did my best to lay back and let things roll although had it not been the day after transfer, the $*** would've hit the fan. Are you catching on to a theme here? That DH doesn't understand how he stresses me out??? He went out with his friend after dinner. I decided I'd had too much fun at the house and decided to venture out but not without a shower first because I was beginning to smell my own funk.

I showered, drove to the bank to deposit money, return some movies and then hit up Dairy Queen for a French Silk Blizzard-yum! Then the pups and I settled in for Eclipse. Can I just say that I've had enough bad acting for an entire years since I've watched all three Twilight movies in one day? I'm REALLY hoping they don't butcher "Hungry Games" with bad acting too.

Okay, so I'm sure you don't all really care about my lamo boring day. How am I feeling? Off and on, here and there crampy but nothing horrible. I'm trying not to inspect the TP every time I go to the potty although I do feel ewey and gooey (sorry-just being honest!). And every now and then, I do get extremely hot but that could just be from being under the blanket with a 100 lb black lab on your feet. My boobs feel HUGE and a bit sore but I'm sure that's PIO and my butt hurts where I've been getting the PIO shots. That's about it for now! Just trying to stay busy because when I'm not is when I get stressed and we don't want that. So babies, I hope you're happy and healthy in there and growing and hatching and doing your thing!

Registration is OPEN for MIA Conference

Registration is now open for the Inaugural Midwest Infertility Awareness Conference. This conference will be held on Saturday, November 12 from 2-6pm at the Lodge Des Peres in Des Peres (St. Louis), MO. Registration is FREE but go here to save your spot. If you're not a Midwestern-er, please share this with your IF friends that are. Thanks for all your support in my journey through infertility and with this organization!

Midwest Infertility Awareness

For all you Midwest IFers out there, my good Twitter friend has started up this great organization called Midwest Infertility Awareness (MIA). Along with the help of the nurse at the "other" clinic, she's putting on a conference November 12, 2011 that's open to all ladies (and men) starting, going through or finishing their IF journey. More details will come if you're interested in attending the conference!

I'm helping her out with the social media so be sure to follow us on Twitter: MidwestIF or Like us on Facebook by searching Midwest Infertility Awareness. If you're in the area and want to help out, leave me a message. For everyone, leave me a message what you'd expect to see at the conference, topics covered, giveaways, etc...I'm really excited!!!