ICLW - Welcome!

Wow, it really snuck up on me this month! I wanted to make sure that I had an introductory post to welcome you aboard but hadn’t had a chance – so here I go. I noticed last month, some people did some nifty things to introduce themselves, here are the top 10 things to know about me:

1. Big things seem to happen to us in July! JourneyMan is my husband, we were married in July 2007. JourneyDog is our Shitzu cross miniature poodle (who is called The JourneyDog that is Woolly) who we got as a puppy in July 2008. July 2009 was when we had our last cancelled IVF cycle and then we decided that we would pursue donor eggs in Thailand.

2. I have just booked our flights to Thailand, we leave on 10 December and return on 24 December. We will be having one fresh donor egg cycle while we are in Thailand. We are going to stay at the same hotel in Bangkok that we stayed in for 4 days on our honeymoon.

3. This blog came about when some of the people closest to me told me that ‘I should get over it and stop letting it run my life’ and that I was ‘becoming bitter and twisted’. At the time, I felt like I didn’t have anywhere to turn to vent my feelings (apart from my bestie and honestly, I didn’t want to load the poor girl up with anymore venting, she has been fabulous!!). It has been invaluable for me to explore my feelings and I have found it an extremely cathartic experience. Also a very supporting one – I have felt a great warm hug from the blogosphere.

4. JourneyMan and I originally started IVF because he had had a vasectomy a couple of years before he met me. On the IVF journey though, we have found that I have one kidney, a unicornuate uterus and I am a low responder to the drugs. I now have an entourage of doctors that I consult with – GP, Fertility Specialist in Melbourne, Fertility Specialist in Bangkok, Haematologist, Bariatric Surgeon and Bariatric fill doctor (another story).

5. JourneyMan would like to me to mention that I am incapable of remembering band or song names, though I usually know every lyric of the song. I also have an amazing memory for spoken conversations but am crap visually so never notice what anyone is wearing or if they look different in any way. I would like to mention that JourneyMan knows ridiculous amounts of trivia, so much so that they banned the afternoon quiz at his work because he always won but cannot argue his way out of a paper bag.

6. Mostly I am a glass if half full type of person, though you wouldn’t guess that from reading my blog (lots of venting / whinging going on) but I do like to prepare myself for any eventuality. I always like to have a contingency plan for anything that I am doing and although we haven’t come up with the next step for our journey – we have options: 1. Import remaining embryos into Australia and do FET’s or 2. Surrogacy. We will decide closer to the time what we will do next.

7. I am a recovering alcoholic. I had stopped drinking 4 years before I met JourneyMan so he never saw me when I was under the influence – thank goodness. My life has changed exponentially since that time and I am proud of the changes that I have made in my llife.

8. I have travelled extensively in my life and it is one of my life goals to see the seven natural wonders of the world. I have seen four – Great Barrier Reef, the Grand Canyon, Mount Everest and Victoria Falls. JourneyMan has only been outside of Australia twice – to Thailand both times and on his first trip (with his mates) he confessed that he didn’t eat Thai food at all. On the honeymoon, he remember a Thai guy from our hotel in Koh Samui who he played soccer with on his previous trip (4 years prior!) – he has an excellent memory for faces.

9. I love reading and my favourites books are still The Lord of the Rings (yes, a bit geeky I know) and To Kill A Mockingbird but I love anything – thrillers, chic lit, biographies – I am not a snob, I will read anything. JourneyMan’s favourite author is Lee Child – I am sure that he thinks that he is Jack Reacher (main character of Lee Child novels) but he doesn’t have any military history or any of the other features of Reacher. His other favourite authors are Matthew Riley and John Grisham.

10. Our relationship is strong, we have a great bond that is mostly based in laughter – we are pretty goofy and we absolutely delight in making each other laugh.

Well that is it – will be back in the next couple of days to talk about the break between IVF #4 and #5.

Cheers,

JourneyGirl