Cassandra Dwight

One small and exciting piece of news is that Gordon won us a Tempurpedic bed at a fundraising auction, for about half the price it would have cost us to buy it retail - we had just decided the week before the auction that we were going to buy one, and I hadn't even scoped out prices on the internet. He called me and said that he'd won an auction item for $1200 and my heart leaped into my throat. Then he said it was a Tempurpedic bed, and I got very excited! So that should be delivered in the next couple of weeks.

I'm doing well with all my supplements and the BTD - Dr. D tweaked my diet a little bit to enhance pre-pregnancy/pregnancy stuff, and I'm doing well with it. Not even trying to get pregnant for a few more months, though, so I can get my body as strong as possible beforehand!

We flew to New York last month and I wandered around the city for a few days and met up with some friends of mine. (Photos here: http://picasaweb.google.com/casswoman/NYCMay2007) We had a ball in New York and then I was in a frenzy of activity to prepare for my school weekend.

Somewhere during my trip to New York I went to see Dr. D'Adamo again and got some good information on how to get my body to hang onto a pregnancy. I'm slowly incorporating the information and supplements since I tend to rebel against major changes. Baby steps. One little thing at a time, and then incorporate the next one and then more baby steps. Hey, it works for me.

More updates as things develop.

I was born and raised in Virginia, went to college in Virginia, and while I didn't go to Tech, many of my high school classmates did. My heart aches since the events of yesterday.

I'm finding myself quite emotional about the shooting there - more than I would have thought. I'm searching the website from my hometown to see if any kids from Winchester were among those injured or killed. I hope that none of my friends kids were involved, that the families of the deceased find peace after what happened, and that the injured recover quickly and are not haunted by the events of yesterday.

I'm also finding myself even having compassion for the shooter and his parents - the pain that his parents must be in knowing what their son did, and the pain he must have been in to do such a thing.

Blessings and speedy healing to everyone involved in any way, even if it is just to have heard about it on the news.

Okay, I know. I haven't blogged in WAAAAAY too long. I know.

Here's the deal. Shortly after I blogged in January, I found out I was pregnant again. (I have NO trouble getting pregnant, apparently. Staying pregnant is a whole other issue.) Then I started spotting and my OB/GYN and I were working at making sure my progesterone levels were high enough, etc. It wasn't high enough, I did the progesterone supplements, and it still didn't come up high enough to sustain the pregnancy. I miscarried again at the end of January.

After this last miscarriage, I haven't bounce back very quickly, and have been fighting a great deal of fatigue and depression. I haven't been able to concentrate very well for the last couple of months, and doing anything that requires any brain power has been next to impossible. I've been doing lots of medical testing to see if there is a medical reason behind the miscarriages and behind my not bouncing back. So far we've eliminated a number of possibilities, which is good. I'm still dealing with some concentration issues and depression and fatigue, but things ARE improving - somewhat. My current theory behind the miscarriages is stress. I have a LOT going on in my life right now between work and school and the general 'life' stuff that we all have to deal with.

One test that did come back with a result is that my Secretory IgA is very low - less than 5 mg/dl. Normal is considered to be 25-60 mg/dl. My web research indicates that this is often a factor for celiac disease (which we've ruled out) and for people with high levels of gut inflammation and food sensitivities (which I have). I did find one article that mentioned that it can be a factor in early miscarriages, so who knows. One thing that is very clear is that a low SIgA level can be adversely affected by stress, which I know I have a lot of right now.....

So the big question is how do I reduce my stress levels given that nothing going on in my life is going to be resolved in the very near future? Aaaaagggghhhhh.

It occurred to me yesterday that it had been a while since I've blogged. I hadn't realized it had been since Thanksgiving!

So - Happy Hannukah, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

The holidays were lovely and quiet around here - we spent time with Gordon's family and ate too much and enjoyed some time off.

Had one other couple over to ring in the new year and ate too much, drank too much, and generally had a good time. The good news was that since we had them over here, everything was BTD appropriate! Okay, except perhaps for the champagne.

Today we went to my mother-in-law's for brunch to celebrate Gordon's birthday, which is Tuesday. Had a lovely afternoon, but I was so tired that I stretched out on the couch and closed my eyes for a bit while everyone was talking! And now I can't sleep.

Busy preparing for school next weekend - lots of papers to finish and reading to complete. I'm almost done with the reading, and I'm mostly done with MOST of the papers. I'll complete them with no trouble at all over the next few days.

Hope all is well for everyone else, and I'll try to be more diligent about writing!