Up, Up and Oy Vey Puns

Hi all!

I am 29 years old. I completed my IVF/Egg retrieval in July. We had 17 eggs retrieved. 15 of those were mature. ICSI was performed on all 15, and all 15 fertilized! Of those 15, we ended up with 9 day 5 embryos.

Due to my PCOS and elevated estrogen levels, all of my embryos were frozen and I was unable to do a fresh transfer.

Fast forward to today and we are on our way to the FET (frozen embryo transfer). I was just notified that in addition to the estradiol pills, I would have to be on Crinone (vaginal progesterone) and Progesterone in Oil injections in the butt. To be honest I expected the Crinone...but never the shots. Furthermore, if this FET takes, I will have to continue all three of these meds until 10 weeks into the pregnancy when the placenta can successfully take over.

My question? Has anyone else EVER had to do BOTH of the progesterone sources? It just seems like a lot. I will ask my RE next time we talk, but I was just hoping for some insight. It seems as if people are usually blessed with just one.

Not complaining, you gotta do what you gotta do. Grrrrr.

I posted this giant wall of text elsewjere which I'm sure no.one.read and I deleted.

I'm honestly really glad no one saw it because it would have been some dumb 20 year old telling me not to give up hope or some cliche. Or someone would make a funny joke about how I need a therapist and get several upvotes when my post discusses that I have one and they clearly didn't read it, they just came.in to put me down and have a laugh. Or other stupid bullshit that is alienating and ostracizing.

I''m really tired of this shit. I've had so many ups and downs and.flashbacks from this group therapy thing. I'm actually dipping into depression now because the emotions I've been experiencing have just drained and worn me out.

I know this all stems from trauma and if I knew how to fix it I would have done by now. I've read and done a lot.over the years, and I'm more resourceful than many (at least that is what I'm told). For all my resources and intelligence it seems like a waste because I get nowhere. All of those resources and weekly therapy just aren't enough.

But I'm relieved I'm not being betrayed, ghosted, or othered. I know it's not a big deal for others, but this has been a rough ride for me. I've hidden out for 3 years it's not easy at all to go back 'out there' and risk things I deeply fear, things that I was unable to even approach becauae I'd black out or go away or become overwhelmed and immobilkzed. I've been stronger and.less affected by things in the past, so it's kinda hard to accept that I'm struggling with this.

My short bio: CHARLES BUSCH is the author and star of such plays as The Divine Sister, Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, The Tribute Artist and The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, which ran for nearly two years on Broadway and received a Tony nomination for Best Play. He wrote and starred in the film versions of his plays, Psycho Beach Party and Die Mommie Die, the latter of which won him the Best Performance Award at the Sundance Film Festival. He is a two-time MAC award winner and has performed his cabaret act in many cities including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, London, Paris and New York. His CD of his play Judith of Bethulia is available on Roven Records.
Charlesbusch.com

My Proof: https://www.facebook.com/RovenRecords/posts/1369247116490267:0

Hi All, been a while. I mostly lurk, so my year-long absence was mostly personal, but this was probably my biggest break from the sub (save for a few minutes of browsing here and there) since I first started 6 years ago.

And I’ve been away for two reasons: I’m a very, very slow reader. And I just finished the Malazan Book of the Fallen.

It took me roughly 13 months to finish, and I knew if I browsed this sub too much I would be tempted to jump ship, which I only did to read the Hod King (very worth it).

So, having just dedicated a huge amount of my life to this series, I think I owe it a review. I care more about “who is this for?” and “Should you read this series?” than I do for serious analysis. That’s not to say that I don’t have a lot to analyze, but I tend to forget quite a bit of what I read and I don’t like diving deep without a fresh memory and plenty of answers.

So, without further ado, here’s a review of Malazan Book of the Fallen from someone who gave up a year of their life to get through it.

The World

Most people are drawn to Malazan because of the world. Erickson is a trained archaeologist and anthropologist, and it shows. He sets out to create a world where the history matters more than the geography, and if worldbuilding is the #1 thing you’re looking for, it’s hard to beat Malazan.

Malazan deals with multiple races and sprawling continents. Various humanoid societies with different geopolitical worldviews and plenty of different social classes. That being said, Erickson isn’t really in the business of experimenting with social structures that stray far from our own. He throws his own twist on various tribal societies, nomadic societies, Ayn Rand dream worlds, etc.

In my opinion, the world building will probably work more for you if you approach world building looking for a rich history with tons of things to discover (historically) as opposed to wanting a page-turner where you never know what the next magical vista or crazy landscape might be. Think more LOTR than Books of Babel.

So while worldbuilding is definitely one of Erickson’s strong suits, I do think readers that aren’t looking to do some mental gymnastics to figure things out or who are more interested in a fascinating world for its merits versus its history may not feel as strongly about Malazan’s world than a lot of people around here.

Is the series worth a year of my life based on the world alone? It was very cool, and the history is rich, but no, no

Alright, so marching a summer of corps is really important to me, but I’m also a pre-med and because of this I would have to pass up research for the summer. I already know I don’t care much about research and would rather do a summer of dci but my parents don’t understand, and anything out of the ordinary, especially drum corps, they don’t even try to understand and think it’s a waist of time. Does anyone have any tips on how to make my parents come around because this is super duper important to me?