A-Z Places to Visit - "B"

Even though stay at home policies are being lifted, traveling and vacations are still far in the future. So right, now we can still only create our bucket lists and dreams. Here is my list of places I want to visit that start with B!

Countries:

Bahamas- While I prefer exploring history and visiting cities, I am happy to have a beach holiday. Relaxing in the sun and sand. I would also do some snorkeling and eating delicious seafood.

Barbados- Another vacation spot to relax in the sun and ocean. I would love see the coral and go kayaking

Belarus- I think Belarus would be a great place to travel to see the beautiful landscape and historic castles. I also saw it on a list of places to go camping in Europe.

Belgium- When I was planning The Journey in the UK, I originally planned for three weeks and some countries in the mainland. I had Brussels and Antwerp stops on the list. So I definitely would like to add these into a trip in the future. I used Rick Steve's book for the planning.

Belize

Belize- This is a popular destination for people in Arizona. It is a mixture of jungle adventures and beach vacation. Also, if you are like me and have visited many vacation spots in Mexico it is just a bit more exotic.

Bolivia- I would love to visit Bolivia. It is a pretty country with a lot to do, which you can do inexpensively. Also, it is another country that my great grandfather wrote about in his journal.

Bosnia and Herzegovina- I would love to visit Bosnia, to see the Ottoman architect. I would also consider visiting in the winter for a ski trip.

Botswana- I didn’t have a particular interest in Botswana until my parents and aunt and uncle went visited during their Africa trip. They had amazing pictures and had a great time. I would love to visit the national parks and see the animals.

Brazil- I would love to visit Brazil. My great grandparents spent a lot of time in Brazil on their trip. They particularly liked Copacabana. I don’t think that is as popular as it used to be, but I would love to see the carnival and the Christ the Redeemer.  

Brunei- This is a safe, inexpensive country to visit in Asia. It is said that solo travelers always feel safe there. There are beautiful buildings, rain forest, and a great culture.

Bulgaria- Beautiful mountains, delicious food and full of history, this is a great place to visit.

Cities:

Budapest, Hungary- There is many cities in Europe that start with B that I would like to visit, but a top one is Budapest. I had someone tell me that it was the Paris of the east. I also had it on my itinerary for the Journey I took to the UK.

Bangkok, Thailand- I would love to visit Bangkok. I have been watching a lot of Thai dramas online and they are so campy and cute. I have learned more about the culture from the shows, even though that is dramatized, it is unique to American shows. It also really makes me want to visit for the food!

Bali

Beachview, South Africa- There weren’t too many cities in Africa that start with a B. This one looks like a nice place to visit. My parents also visited South Africa so I have the country on my list as well.

Bali, Indonesia- A family friend who doesn’t like to travel because she doesn’t like the plane rides (too uncomfortable) always talked about visiting Bali. It made me want to go, if even she wants to travel there it must be amazing. I like the beautiful scenery and the food would be delicious.

Buenos Aires, Argentina- I already listed Argentina as a country I would like to visit, and obviously I wouldn’t miss Buenos Aires when I visit.

Balboa, Panama- I would love to visit and see the locks. This is another place that my great grandparents visited

That is it for the B's lists. Have a great Revenge of the Sixth day!

Initial Doctor Visit, March 8, 2019

Luck of Irish!

I went to my first doctor visit to start my baby journey on Friday, March 8, 2019. I visited the fertility treatment center last spring, the last visit was in June. I decided to wait a year to start my fertility and baby journey.

Last year I had an internal ultrasound to start, followed by a consult regarding my options, which might be depend on my blood work. Once the blood work was in, I had a follow up consult to go over results.

The diagnosis/RX was 1. I had a regular cycle and age. That was good. The follicle count is the best measure of ovarian reserve. A normal result is 6-10, over 12 is high, my count was 24
I had 24 follicle count. So that is good.

My labs showed FSH = 5.9 and AmH = 2.2 which are both good results. My LH however is greater than my FSH which might mean that even though I have eggs they aren't ovulating correctly. It is very easy to fix and the medication will last about 11 months. It was not something to worry about until I was ready to get pregnant.

Dr. Craig estimated that I would probably be able to get pregnant naturally for about 8 more years. I believe by naturally he meant without IVF or IUI. I would still need fix my LH and FSH ratios with medication.

My thyroid levels were also a little low. Dr. Craig said it was minor enough that I didn't need to take medication, but I decided to anyway. It wasn't really a surprise since my siblings and dad have some thyroid issues. I'd rather take care of it now.

So, at this appointment we went over my results from last year. Then we went over my options.

Options:
1. Do nothing. Which is the option I took last year.
2. Do IUI - There is simple IUI and then more complex as go depending on success. For simple typical success rates is 25% of women will be pregnant after 2 cycles, after 6 it is 50% success rate. It also is the least expensive. It can be more complex by adding FSH inject and etc. The success rates of that is 50% at 3 cycles and 70% at 6. Cost is higher because there is more medication and procedures that take place.
3. Do IVF - Cost the most money. The success rates are 70% after 1 cycle and 95% after two.

Most people will do option 2 getting more complex as they go on and then go to IVF after they exhausted other options. The treatment center I go to is also a research center. They have studies and trials regularly which will cover a lot of the cost of the IVF. They will also freeze any embryos that are not used for later. I may qualify for one of the research studies. If I do I will probably accept, but meanwhile I will start the IUI process.

Plan: IUI

Step 1: Choose donor and buy vials. It is recommended that I buy IUI versus IUI-ART or ICI. I need at least 2 vials for IUI and for IVF. Since I'm not sure about the IVF I will just buy two for now.
Step 2: Have health screening for STDs, on menses. A psychological screening schedule for Wednesday March, 13.
Step 3: IUI cycle -
day 1 (about March 27th) of menses call to schedule blood work within 3 days.
days 3-7 (about March 29-April 2) I take femara, use to be clomid.
day 6-10 (about April 1-April 5) hysterosalpingogram x-ray
day 10 (about April 5) ultrasound
day depending on ultrasound tigger injection hCG
36 hours after injection IUI

Plan: IVF

Tuesday, March 12, I will meet with a research tech about the trials. After that I will know more about this plan.

Even though I have done a lot of research, watched a lot of videos, read blogs and books, I am a little whelmed by the process and the work that it takes. Sitting down with the doctor and nurse, I also felt really confident in my decision. So even though it is a little eye widening I am also getting really excited.

Tree has Sperm and Egg!

By the way I picked the champion.

The Journey (United Kingdom and Ireland): Flights

This post is a little different. I don't have any new trips to log, but I am planning a trip this fall. I am planning to go to the United Kingdom and Ireland. We are calling it The Journey. I just wanted to write a little post about that.

About nine months ago, I was with a friend and she asked if I wanted to go to Europe. Of course I did! I didn't take it that seriously when she said it, but I emailed her a bit later and she was serious. At the time, I was thinking perhaps we could go in two years, then I could take my time saving and mostly because planning a trip to Europe seemed daunting! However, after some discussion the idea was that we should go as soon as possible. At first we set our sites to spring of this year, but later we changed it to the fall. We didn't really want to go in the summer for several reasons: the weather, the crowds, and the costs. So we determined that spring or fall were the best times to go.

I am glad we changed our dates from the spring to the fall, mostly because by the time we were ready to buy tickets I realized we missed the best prices! I had been keeping an eye on the prices for a few months at that point, they held steady for the most part, but went down at the end of October, mostly because I think more airlines set their 2016 schedules which added more flights and more competition. I was mainly looking at Norwegian, as well as a few sites like Kayak for prices. Then, in early November the prizes jumped up. Not a significant amount, but after seeing how low the prizes could get, I was a little frustrated. Luckily, we did decide to go in the fall, which allowed me to revamp my strategy. In February, I started looking at flights for the fall, using different scenarios for dates and destinations in order to figure out which was the best. We didn't necessarily want the least expensive flight, especially if they were 36 hours, but we did want to find a good deal.

I found a lot of interesting things. First, most of the best deals are out of airports on the East coast. There are some good deals from California, but for there are more deals and often better deals from New York. Also, if you try to get a flight from the West coast to the East coast, then to Europe, it doesn't save you any money and sometimes it is more expensive than flying directly.

By the end of March and beginning of April we had our dates set, so I looked up flights on Kayak, Google and Norwegian every day for a few weeks. I started to see a pattern. When the flights went up on the weekends, and then dropped dramatically on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I knew what my strategy would be. We were able to get good flights with one stop each way, one to Ireland and one out of London from United.

Anyway, I learned that it pays off to be vigilant, to have a plan, but also to be flexible, and don't wait too long to buy flights. Flights are still by far the most expensive part about The Journey, but they were much more affordable than I had thought, and well worth it.