Quick Takes (6)

1. I'm so excited for summer prayer buddies!  It's fun to have someone else to pray for during this summer time and this time around I have someone I already know, so I can regularly comment on her blog as I always do without her knowing I'm her prayer buddy!  This is great.  Last time I participated, I had a new blogger for my prayer buddy, which was so neat to get to know someone else, but I couldn't comment until the revealing since I was a new blogger to her and didn't want her finding out it was me.

2. DH and I got up early this morning to go in for the final day of our microflora gut research study.  We got to drop off our stool samples (that was a fun, new experience yesterday) and get our blood drawn.  Now we just wait for our test results. I'm so glad DH participated with me.  It makes being a research subject that much more enjoyable.

3. My blood pressure was 90/55 this morning when they took it for the study. We had been fasting for 12 hours, but that seems extremely low, doesn't it? The first reading was actually 85/50, but they throw that one out and record the next two.  The girl couldn't believe how low it was and the plebotomist was surprised it was that low because she had no problem collecting 3 vials of blood from my arm.  I usually have low blood pressure (90-110/60-80), but now I'm starting to wonder if that's an actual medical diagnosis?  Everyone always congratulates me on how low my blood pressure is, but I'm starting to wonder if it's connected to my fatigue?  Hormones?  Thyroid? Adrenals?  Anyone know?  I've asked my Napro Dr. about if before, but he didn't seem too concerned.  Do I have a heart problem I should look into? 

4. Afterwards, DH and I headed up to our favorite mountain lake that I wrote about from last week.  We were off to see what the wildflowers looked like one week later, and we noticed a big difference.  Some of the flowers that were in abundance last week (the Columbines and Lupines) had died off and now there were new varieties. At one point while we were walking around the lake, we just stopped and counted the number of different wildflowers we saw right there.  It was over 15! All in all, I think we saw over 20 different types of wildflowers.  I haven't looked at the pictures I took yet, but I'm hoping I have some beauties.

5. Tonight we're going to pick-up our 2nd CSA order of free-range chickens.  We get 2 fresh chickens each month for 6 months.  We'll freeze one of them and cook the other one fresh this weekend.  Yummy.  They are so juicy.  We need to decide if we want the hearts, livers, and feet of our chickens too.  What do you think?

6. DH and I are thinking of heading over to the county fair tonight to check out the exhibits.  He was surprised that I suggested it, since I usually don't enjoy that type of thing, but I'm turning into a small town/country girl I think.  He's the one who grew up on a farm in the South while I grew up in the suburbs of a Midwest city.  I thought the rodeo would be fun tonight as well, but he wasn't interested. I'm holding out then for the demolition derby next week:-)  I've never been to one and I think that's about to change.

7. Tomorrow is pick-up day for our Bountiful Basket, which means lots of fresh fruits and veggies for cheap.  It's also the Farmer's Market tomorrow, and I'm going to get some more of this fabulous gourmet jam that is all natural and virtually sugar free.  It tastes amazing in my plain 'ol oatmeal in the morning.

Enjoy the weekend, everyone! Head on over to Jen's for more Friday Quick Takes.

In Bullet Points

Bullet points because I'm too lazy to connect all of my thoughts/experiences about a variety of random things.  I know you are still waiting on Russia updates, but I'm still sorting through and processing from that trip, so bear with me.  I'll try and have some Russia things for you soon.

1. Last week was our week of eating out.  We were given a bunch of restaurant gift certificates for our anniversary, so we decided to use all of them up last week before I jumped back into my food intolerance diet.  It was so nice not to have too cook much and to have leftovers, but that just made it that much harder to jump back into my diet, which requires I cut out gluten, casein, sugar, eggs, and almonds.

2. I mentioned being in somewhat of a funk, so DH and I decided to head up the canyon for a wildflower hike last Friday.  We thought it might be too early for the peak viewing time because of how cold and rainy our spring was.  We were right, but we still enjoyed seeing some new sights from the beginning of the wildflower season.  Here are a few photos:

As we were driving up to our favorite spot, we caught a glimpse of snow leftover from winter!  Can you believe it?  It was August 5th and there was still snow on the very top peaks.  Amazing.

Our favorite spot involves walking around this lake.  We love it because it's not too far (less than 2 miles), but you get to see such a wide variety of flowers from the beginning point to the end.  It's incredible the different diversity that we see as we walk around.

 Indian Paintbrush was in bloom.

 As were Columbines.  I love their wispy tails on the back end.

I've seen Columbine before when we've been up, but it must be an early season wildflower because the Columbine was thick this time.  I always thought it grew on a single stem like the above picture, so I was shocked when I saw 3 or more blooms on the same stem.  I don't know if you can see that here or not.

We literally saw fields full of Columbine.  It was great as it was a new sight for us because we usually wait to go up to the mountain lake until the flowers have peaked.  This was pre-peak, but it was still good.

 I loved all the different colors we saw- the blues of the Lupine, the white from the Columbine, red from Indian Paintbrush, there was pink from Sticky Geranium, yellow from mule's ear, and more.  I always appreciate the distraction from life (and IF) by going into nature and taking pictures.  I love God's handiwork and creativity!  Dh said he's taking me up to the lake again this weekend to see if more flowers have come out, and I'm thinking they will have because we saw so many buds just waiting to open.  I can't wait!

3. Friday night we also went to see a show because we got 1/2 price tickets.  Can't beat that price.  We saw "South Pacific" and they started off with a 91 year old WWII veteran leading the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance.  It had me in tears as I thought of my grandfather who pass away in November as he was also a WWII veteran.  I thought of how I'll no longer be able to hear his stories from the war.

4. DH's little sister gave birth on Sunday, which put a damper on my otherwise good weekend.  I should be happy she chose life for her child, but somehow it just seems so unfair that God has blessed her with 2 children now as she continues to live with her abusive boyfriend.  She claims he won't allow her to have either of the kids baptized.  I don't know if that's true or just her excuse, but I can't help but think of their eternal destiny at the moment.

5. Dh and I gave our Russia presentation Sunday after church and it went really well.  We ended up talking for 30 minutes about our trip and people had lots of questions and comments afterwards, which makes me think they were really interested in what we had to say.

6. All this week I've been taking pictures and recording everything I've eaten because I've been participating in a research study.  The study examines the microflora in your gut, so I get to finish the study tomorrow with a stool sample and bloodwork on Friday.  Is it nerdy that I'm excited to get the results back from the bloodwork and stool sample?  I'm hoping maybe I'll learn something new about my gut or the inflammation in my body as a result of the test results I'll get (for free!).

7. Fall feels like it is right around the corner here. Our daytime temperatures are still in the upper 80's, but overnight it's been dipping down into the low 50s!  It makes for great, free air-conditioning overnight as we open up our windows and cool the house down, but I'm afraid fall is coming early.  I even saw a few of the trees in town starting to turn yellow and it's only mid-August.  I have a bad feeling fall will come early and winter will last long.  I hope I'm mistaken.  Maybe the weather will just stay like this for awhile because I absolutely love it.

8. I have found an amazing new way to satisfy my chocolate cravings without sugar.....roasted and ground cacao beans!  Have you heard of them before?  I hadn't until I saw something at a local artisan/specialty grocery store.  I absolutely love chocolate, but haven't been eating any since I'm trying to cut out sugar.  This cacao drink, however, I could not pass up.  Basically, you brew the beans like you do coffee- in a coffee maker or french press.  They smell like milk chocolate, but after they are brewed, the drink has a much softer, milder taste.  You can add milk, sugar, or coffee to your drink to change it up, but I just drank the beans brewed black.  It was so good and satisfying and evidently, the company claims the beans to be extremely high in antioxidants.  It's low in calories and has no sugar, no fat, no dairy, no sodium, and no cholesterol.  Intrigued like I was?  Try it out. The one I bought is called Crio Bru, but I'm sure there are other brands of roasted cacao beans as well.

9. Finally, I'm back seeing a chiropractor again.  I have a love/hate relationship with chiropractors.  I love being adjusted and feeling better, but I hate the fees and treatment programs they try to get you signed up for.  Our budget doesn't allow for that.  It's actually been over a year since I've seen a chiropractor, and my lower back and neck were in serious disarray (guess where I carry my stress?).  So off I went to a new chiropractor.  If I could find one that did acupuncture, I'd definitely be excited. I've had 2 adjustments this week and feel amazingly better already, but he tells me I have a terrible curve in my neck (only 1% and it should be 18-20%) and am starting to get bone spurs in my neck already.  I do believe it because my grandmother has battled back pain for years, has numerous bone spurs, and has had back surgery a few times.  But I know he's going to try to sell me on a regular treatment program, and I'm just not sure I want to invest the money into that, but then I think....the 1st time we got pregnant I was being treated for my lower back by a chiropractor.  I wonder if there was any connection??

Phew- I had a lot of updates.  Congrats if you read your way through.  I can't wait for Prayer Buddies to start tomorrow.  I'm anxiously awaiting my assignment!

Lacking Motivation

Well, I've been back in the US for 6 days now and am adjusting back to the time change.  Melatonin has become my best friend.  Seriously, where was Melatonin 10 years ago when I was living in Asia and traveling back and forth?  It is amazing and so much better than Tylenol PM or other sleep aids.  I've slept mainly through the night and have woken up refreshed (not groggy or hung-over feeling like the other sleep aids do).  This is my new wonder drug for traveling- not that I have any more trips planned, but still.

The adjustment back has been hard.  I'm seriously lacking motivation to do much of anything.  It could be slight depression- coming down off of the high from our trip,  CD 1 that started this week, the environment in which we live, the fact that DH's sister is about ready to give birth to her 2nd child out of wedlock, the news that my little brother and his wife are having a girl, the jealousy that I'm filled with over those two previously mentioned children, the fact I still have brown bleeding this cycle, or it could be a combination of all of the above.

I think it's a combination of everything, but it's still not a pleasant place to be in. I'd much rather still be in Russia, and my DH said the same thing yesterday.  It was nice to be traveling and serving together and not thinking about IF as constantly as I find myself now that I'm home and not yet back to work.

Now that I've aired my complaint list, here's what my daily flip calendar had to say today: "Though your joy may seem fleeting, the Lord is constant."  "Rejoice in the Lord always.  I will say it again: Rejoice!"  Philippians 4:4

The exclamation point at the end of the verse is almost like a command statement- do it (rejoice)!  I'm really trying to look at the positives- of the trip we were able to take together and the encouragement we were able to provide Christian brothers and sisters in Russia.  DH and I are working on a presentation to share with people after church since many at our church supported us with prayers and financial support.  Once we get more of that done, the plan is to update you on our trip. 

So- what do you want to know about the trip?  Do you want just photos and short stories?  Do you want more detailed accounts to read?  Cultural observations?  Let me know and I'll look forward to sharing.

Back in the USA!

Just a short note to let you know DH and I are back in the US after 18 days in Russia!  Obviously, I did not have the chance to blog while I was away, and am severely behind on email and reading your blogs. That will come in time. Thanks to those of you that were praying for our trip and a special non-blogger/lurker who was saying her first novena for our trip while we were away.

I will update you with pictures in the coming days (I took over 1,400 photos), but just wanted to let you know all is well.  The trip was amazing and it was so neat to see how God has been working in Russia- especially since the fall of Communism. I enjoyed connecting with Christian brothers and sisters, even if we didn't speak the same language at times.  Shared faith in Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit is a powerful bond. 

Our trip went well and we had no major problems in Russia- all 8 of us on our team got along well, travel in Russia went well, colds were the only sickness we experienced, 10 and 15 hour time changes went surprisingly well, and our mission conference/leadership training in Siberia was a huge success.  Praise be to God!  I didn't do well on my diet, but I expected that to be the case with traveling.

Dh and I also celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary as well as my 33rd birthday in Siberia.  Definitely a unique experience.  It's hard to believe I'm so "old" and I still can't help but wonder if God has a healthy pregnancy in store for our future.  Those are worries for another day though.  

The only problem we had was a car that wouldn't start last night at the airport.  After a tow, a car rental, and a 90 mile drive home, we arrived at 3am to sleep in our own beds...only to have to wake at 8am to talk with the dealership and so DH could go to work for a bit.  It's back down to the big city today to drop off the rental car and I'm hoping our car will be ready for pick-up.  Fun, fun.  But-  I still can't help but thank God for our smooth travel in Russia.  This car issue in the US is only a minor inconvenience at the moment.

Enjoying God's Creation

We are packed and ready to go!  Sorry I haven't blogged more, but we've been frantically trying to gather up everything we need.  I had such great plans to post so many different things.  Sigh.  There's never enough time in a day for what I want to accomplish.  The good news is everything fits in our luggage and we even have a little extra space!  We're each taking a medium sized suitcase to check and then backpacks as our carry-ons.  That's all for 18 days!  And we have a lot of gifts we're bringing- cross wall hangings for the churches in St. Petersburg, materials and gifts for the women at the retreat, uno cards for the couples with kids, stole sets to present to the pastors in Siberia.  Let's just say we have a lot of room for souvenirs to bring home!

We leave early tomorrow (Monday) morning for JFK where we will meet up with the 5 others in our group, and then head onwards to Moscow.  I'm not looking forward to all the time spent sitting tomorrow (16 hours roughly).  It's still hard to believe our trip is here.  A trip that we've been planning and praying about for over 2 years.  It hardly seems real and probably won't be until we are walking the streets of Moscow on Tuesday.

I haven't a clue if I'll be able to get online and give you updates, so if you don't hear from me for 18 days, just know I'm out of the country, but still thinking of and praying for all of you.  I thought I'd leave you with some pictures of God's creation that I've taken with my new camera.  I've been trying to get out and practice using it in preparation for our trip, and so far I've been pleased with the shots compared with my little point and shoot.  I've only begun to play around with aperture, shutter speed, iso, and white balance, so most of these are taken from Program mode or Scene mode. Still, it's been fun to resume a hobby of mine that has been dormant for several years.  I also completed my 4 photo classes the past month in preparation for the trip as well.

My husband and I took a drive up our nearby canyon one morning to practice with my camera.  Waterfalls were plentiful as were budding wildflowers.  It was beautiful. Here's what my neck of the woods looks like:

Mountains and wildflowers- nothing more magnificent.

Numerous waterfalls due to all the snowmelt.

Budding flowers.

Flowers near the river.

Different layers of flowers and water.

The puffball flower (sorry, no time to look up all the official names).

This one might be lupine.

God's beautiful creation.  I love being out in nature and witnessing the creativity of our Creator.  I hope you get the chance to as well.  Next, I'll show you pictures of God's creation from another part of the world.

Blood Spot Results

Things have been so busy here.  5 days until departure, and I'm starting to freak out at all the things that I need to finish before we go.  Tomorrow we're doing a test pack of our suitcases, so hopefully I'll feel better once we've done that and see all the extra space and weight we have left (right?  hopefully it's true and I'm not just dreaming.)

I'm 5 doses into this low dose naltrexone, and it is kicking my bum.  I only started with 1.5 mg and take it before bed, but I am so tired during the day.  My doctor said this is a side effect that should wear off, but man, this is really messing with my preparations that need to take place.  I also seem to have had more headaches than usual since starting the LDN.  I'm wondering if something else is going on (maybe a UTI??) that I need to get checked out before we go.  I just hate that.

I got my blood spot results back this week and thought I'd share because I share all my other lab results here.  This was a CD 3 blood spot that I did from Canary Club (along with the saliva tests I posted about earlier).

Free T4: 1.8   range: 0.7-2.5 (optimum 1-2 ZRT lab says)
Free T3: 3.3   range: 2.5-6.5 (optimum 3-4 lab says)
TSH: 1.7    range: 0.5-3.0
TPO (thyroid antibodies): 14   range: 0-150
LH: 11.5 (high)   range: 1.6-9.3
FSH: 6.7    range: 2.4-9.3
Vitamin D2: <4   range: <4 if not supplementing
Vitamin D3: 55   range: 32-100

So what do you think about the results?

So it's no surprise the LH is high given my PCOS.  I've often thought that the reason I don't ovulate during most cycles is because my LH is so high all the time it never increases to trigger the release of an egg.  It's hard to get pregnant if I don't ovulate.  That's why Clomid helped us get pregnant, I suppose.  The FSH seems high to me because the last time I had it tested in 2008, it was 3.4, but it wasn't done on CD3.  Does FSH increase with age?  My Vitamin D has gone down from 67 when it was last tested in February, but Napro dr. said we'll retest when I see him again and see where it's at then.

So my questions are....how do you decrease LH?  And how do you decrease DHEAS?  Mine was dreadfully high (like off the chart high) from the saliva tests.

Back to Russia prep.

Quick Takes: Saturday Edition

I had the best of intentions to blog yesterday, and it's very clear that didn't happen.  I have so many blog spots I want to write, I even made a list of them all!  Yes, I'm a nerd, type-A personality.  Even though I'm not working at the moment, my days are full and my list of posts grows longer and longer.  But I'm here now- better late than never.

1. Cycle news: Thanks to those of you that commented or sent sweet emails asking whatever happened with my cycle.  AF showed her ugly head one week late. It was a crazy cycle.  I did my CD 3 blood work on Monday, but it meant I didn't have the results to show my Napro Dr. at my appointment on Thursday.  I'm still waiting for those Day 3 test results.

2. Napro appt.:  I had a follow-up appointment with my Napro Dr. on Thursday.  It's been 3 months since my last appointment, and we talked through the food intolerance testing, my saliva test results, and my wacky, late, brown bleeding cycle.  For whatever reason, he was really compassionate at the appointment talking about how frustrated I must be since I've been at this for so long (2 1/2 years seeing him).  He admitted that we're heading into uncharted territory because everything that usually works on patients hasn't worked on me.  In other words, I'm a special case. Lovely.  I'd rather not be a special case.  I did joke that he's getting lots of extra research practice with me because he's a research professor.  He laughed and agreed.

3. New medication: Because of all my brown spotting lately, we talked about doing antibiotic cycles for my dh and I as one option to see if the brown was due to infection.  Or the other option was to try low-dose naltrexone.  I was fine with either, so he suggested the LDN because I still have some fatigue in the afternoon.  We're going to try it for 2 cycles and see what happens.  I start with 1.5 mg in the evening for 2 weeks, then I go to 3 mg for another 2 weeks, and finally I'm at 4.5 mg indefinitely.  I remember reading about LDN from Dr. Boyle's research as well as some of your blogs, so I was familiar with the name of the medication at least.  I know it's used to treat autoimmune issues, but I'm curious as to what some of your experiences were with LDN.  What did it do to your cycle?  Other things to be aware of?  Let me know.  As with any new medication, I'm hopeful that this might be the magic pill to get my health in order.  I can't not have hope when a new treatment begins.  I thought Cortisol or T3 would due the trick, but they didn't.  We'll see if LDN does.

4.Napro blogs: My doctor was surprised I was familiar with LDN and I told him it was because of Napro blogs!  He was very curious and wanted to know more.  I talked about how supportive the community is and how I learn more about Napro through other girls experiences.  He wants a few of the blogs to look at and possibly refer other patients to for information or support, so which ones do you suggest I give him?   I'm not giving him mine, but which blogs speak about Napro the most/best?

5. Weight loss: I'm currently at 7 pounds lost in 6 weeks and still going strong on my gluten-, dairy-, sugar-, and egg-free diet. I've actually cut back on my exercise because I've been losing so much weight.  I never thought those words would come out of my PCOS mouth!  Now I try to get in 30-45 minutes of exercise (walking, Zumba, or resistance training at Curves) 5-6 days a week, but that's all.  I'm down to a size 4, which I don't think I ever have been in my entire life- at least not as long as I can remember.  Less chub equals better hormone function, in my opinion, and the doctor said I'm still in a healthy weight range and could lose up to 15 more pounds before he really would get worried!  15 more pounds...I don't think I could do that, nor am I going to try.  

6. A free concert: Friday night dh and I were able to enjoy a free concert from the comfort of our front porch thanks to the direction of the wind.  A popular group from the 70s-80s was in town to play at the fairgrounds, and since we only live a mile or two from there and the wind was blowing the right way, we could hear most of the concert and the talking clearly.  It was so fun. We made margaritas and sat out front enjoying the cooler night air and listening to songs we knew most of.

7. 4th of July on July 1st?: Last night our local town had its 4th of July concert and fireworks show.  They never do it on the 4th, or on a Sunday or Monday, and I'll probably never understand why (it's a predominant religion thing).  On a day when Canadians were celebrating Canada Day, we were celebrating American independence...ha, ha. We went to the concert- a Christian country music group- and the fireworks display, so now we're done celebrating the 4th and don't have celebrations planned Saturday, Sunday, or Monday, which seems so strange.

8. Packing: In our free time, we've been trying to pack for our trip.  Russian airlines have different baggage restrictions than US airlines (think smaller and lighter), so we're trying to pack to meet the Russian requirements.  In the US, we could check a70 pound bag, have a carry-on and one personal item with us on board.  In Russia, we can check a 44 pound bag and have one carry-on and no personal items.  So we're trying to pack for 2 1/2 weeks into a 44 pound suitcase and one carry-on.  Quite the challenge, but I'm finding it's best to pack clothes, shoes, umbrellas, etc. that will not come home with us because we throw them away or donate them to the hotel staff. In other words, we might look a little tattered, faded, or mismatched in our travel photos, but we'll have plenty of room in our bags for souvenirs to bring home!

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!