Wednesday 24 July 2013

Escape (how I spent my summer vacation)

Thank you to everyone who is dropping by as part of IComLeavWe.  It's fun to check out new blogs and hear from  new people! Thanks again to people who check in regularly. So much  appreciated.  For anyone new to the blog, Mr. Turtle and I are in between appointments at The Fertility Clinic, waiting on yet more test results to determine a direction for fertility treatments. We have a double diagnosis of Male Factor Infertility (severe motility/morphology factors, possiblly as a result of disruption to lymph system caused by Crohn's disease) aaaaaaaaand on my side, Premature Ovarian Failure, or Diminished Ovarian Reserve, which I call DOR/POF on the blog. Dorpoff. Sounds like some hypothetical Russian ancestor.  Possibilities going forward include hormone supplementation followed by Flare Protocol IVF with our own gametes and/or IVF/ICSI with donor eggs. Although we haven't investigated the latter option much. In addition I have an appointment with a TCM practitioner which may lead to fertility-related naturopathic treatments or just a little TLC to stop my back muscles from seizing up under tension. I'll take all the help I can get. I love to read stories from people at all stages and places in their journey through IF so do leave a comment and bridge back to wherever-you-are.

The past week I was offline as Mr. Turtle and I took the opportunity to spend a week on one of Canada's Gulf Islands, Gabriola. We have taken a trip somewhere around our anniversary since we got married in 2010.  The very first trip after our wedding (i.e. honeymoon) was memorable in part because I had a broken metatarsal in my foot.  I broke it about 3 weeks before our wedding, so I was in a cast and crutches for wedding and honeymoon. Despite that (maybe because of it?) we had an amazing wedding and honeymoon (we did Arizona and BC, including the Grand Canyon (that is a story in itself) and basically lived life with no limits.  It was a reminder that it really is possible to enjoy life even when it throws painful (or sharp, or sticky, or stinky??..) things at you. Since then Mr. Turtle and I have aimed to have a great trip every year the week of our anniversary. This is however the last year we will be able to do it exactly this way because Mr. Turtle has started grad school and will need to be in classes over July.

Here's a few snapshots of highlights:

The B&B we stayed at was on 13 acres of property, with trees (conifer and arbutus), an extensive garden, and 3 roaming cats.  There was a swing on one hanging tree where I liked to spend some minutes every day.




 We visited the different beaches, which were beautiful, whether sandstone or sandy.


I love trees....




Apart from beach bumming, we rented bikes on the island and did some riding, and we also tried kayaking for the first time, which was so much fun! We went on a sunset kayak one day and saw bald eagles and seals. Then we went on a personalized trip where we paddled for an hour and a half, and ended up at another tiny island where we had a picnic. That was amazing! This tiny island had a sandstone beach and (we counted 'em) nine trees, so we called it Nine Tree Island.






Mr. Turtle and I have such fun on our holidays. We are plan 'em really well if I do say so myself.  Mostly we feel lucky and blessed not only to be able to go on holiday together but to share life with each other. Not many years ago I thought I would be lonely and weird forever. Now I can be weird together with the man I love. I cannot believe how lucky we are so many ways. Reflecting on that helps to put the "bad luck" (youknowwhatImean) in its place, instead of letting it take over our whole lives.  I will continue to remind myself of our special week together and everything we are grateful for, and remember that really, no matter what we are excited about the future.

Thanks again for reading. xo

21 comments:

  1. I love this post, Torthuil! Those pictures are absolutely gorgeous. And I adore the picture of the cat (I know, crazy cat lady here).

    I especially enjoyed the last paragraph where you talked about just enjoying your time with Mr. Turtle. When you said, "Not many years ago I thought I would be lonely and weird forever. Now I can be weird together with the man I love," I almost cried. I feel the same way about my love/marriage/friendship with L :) You said it so well.

    So happy you two had such a wonderful trip! Thank you for sharing with us :)

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    1. Thank you Annie! I'm glad you enjoyed the photos and the blog post took you to a happy place. The cats were awesome. We don't have any cats our own, but I so enjoy visiting with other people's cats if they are social. These 3 cats had 13 acres to roam (lucky cats, the birds were not always so lucky unfortunately. However they also hung out with me sometimes and provided cat-therapy. The picture of the cat I included was the best one I got. One cat in particular was very hard to photograph because every time I got the camera out he would start checking it out, but he wouldn't "pose."

      IF can be a burden on a relationship so it is so important to honour the relationship and keep working on it!

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  2. hi from iclw! we deal with severe male factor too! Glad you had a wonderful trip!

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  3. Thanks for dropping by Team Harries! we do have some similar challenges and I am interested to see how your approach works out. :-)

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  4. Looks like an awesome vacation. Can't believe I've never even heard of Gabriola before!

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    1. Neither had we until we started looking online for somewhere to go! I had been to the Gulf Islands before so I had an idea what they were like.

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  5. That looks like a great trip! Glad you had a good time, and i'm glad you too have some one to share your weird with :P

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    1. Thank you! it's all about sharing the good, the bad, the normal, the weird, and everything in between!

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  6. What a lovely tradition to take an anniversary trip! I may have to work on my husband to do something similar. Best of luck as you continue to talk with the doctors and figure out the next steps! /MMB

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    1. It's never too late to start a tradition! thanks for the good wishes. We'll need them in the coming weeks.

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  7. Hi from ICLW...I know of many people that have benefited from TCM.

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    1. Thanks for stopping by. I have heard lots of positive anecdotes about TCM too. Worth a try - in some form!

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  8. Lovely pics! Glad you are enjoying yourself. I really like your positive attitude!

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    1. thanks! great to hear from you Ariel. I was wondering how you are doing.

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  15. Anyone who's wondering about the string of deleted comments - the blog was spammed :-( Bummer! I hope this doesn't become a regular occurence.

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