PSA #1: Watch out for metal pipes.

Today was IUI #2!! Very exciting. Back to stage one again and I'm feeling very good about it. But that is not to say it's been an uneventful two weeks since my last post. Definitely not...

On day one of my cycle, exactly two weeks ago, I found myself at work. It was a normal morning of doing my rounds and checking things. At about 8:45am I walked my head into a metal steam pipe while blindly turning around in a circle, one of many exposed pipes around the old hotel. At first, the only thing I felt was a headache...to be expected I guess after hitting your head, right? At noon I had a meeting. As I sat there, severe ringing in my head got louder and louder. But it seemed to pass. By 4:30 I started having really bad dizziness and nausea, and at one point I almost passed out. I was having a hard time forming a sentence; words just wouldn't come out easily. That is when I knew something worse had happened; I had got a concussion.

I drove home without going to the hospital right away. My initial thought was to wait a bit longer; I wasn't having the 'severe' concussion symptoms I had read about online. After much thought, I decided to wait until Monday (naturally these things happen on Friday's, right??) and go to see my PCP for a check-up.

I worked through the weekend which proved to be interesting. Confusion, difficulty focusing, nausea, dizziness, blah, blah, all of it. By the time Monday rolled around I asked the HR department how I go about this workers comp thing and they sent me to their preferred physician instead of my PCP. It was good to finally go to a doctor, but the woman made me very anxious about what was happening with lots of information I couldn't focus on and lots of situations that could happen in the upcoming days. It was so much that I experienced a huge panic attack while I was driving home and actually called 911 from the road. Never in my life have I ever had such uncontrollable fear. I spent a few hours in the hospital, where they finally did a CT scan and gave me something to control the nausea and anxiety. The test came back negative, providing me some relief. My poor partner drove all the way to the north country to get me and bring me home. I then stayed home for two days on the couch calming down and resting.

At my follow-up with the doctor, I expressed my concerns about how the concussion would effect our efforts towards pregnancy. She reassured me that physically it shouldn't make any difference. It wouldn't reduce the probability of pregnancy or effect the outcome of the health of the hopeful baby. However, I may still feel the effects of the concussion for weeks, perhaps months. She encouraged me to continue IUI's as long as I felt emotionally up to it. After all, stress will definitely effect the outcome and perhaps make it more difficult to conceive.

Last night I had a huge dizzy spell, one much bigger than any of the others of recent. As I layed in bed unable to close my eyes because of the bed spins, I thought that maybe tomorrow would be the day I got the smiley face on the ovulation kit. Was I ready to continue? In a month or two, will I be confusing symptoms of pregnancy with my concussion symptoms?

Today is a better day. Not so dizzy, not so nauseous. And maybe pregnant.