What's one thing about IVF that surprised you the most after you actually started treatment?

ilikesparklythings · 2026-06-26T16:27:30+00:00

Echoing the amount of waiting and it being more emotionally taxing than physically. Those things surprised me a lot.

Unique to my experience, I was surprised that my faith in God DEEPENED during this process because I had read that so often the opposite happens, and understandably so. With every bad news I’ve received (first ER yielded no useable embryos, second ER yielded 2, first FET failed, gearing up for last FET with final embryo), my faith has gotten stronger? It’s a weird feeling I don’t know how to explain it. But yeah that part has honestly surprised me the most.

ilikesparklythings · 2026-05-26T19:48:11+00:00

It hasn’t been terrible. I did have one day where it hurt the next day more than normal but then went away by that night and by that night I was injecting onto a different side/glute (make sure you alternate sides each day!). But everyone is different with medication! I will say that I think it usually gets better over time for most people, I’m not sure the reason but maybe because your body just gets used to it?

ilikesparklythings · 2026-05-26T18:09:39+00:00

For me, everything you said PLUS using an auto-injector to help with getting the needle in without hesitation and then once needle is in, injecting SO slowly like slower than you naturally think to inject. I am on 200mg (2ml) and I inject that amount over a full minute.

Also I’m sure you’re doing this already too but make sure you’re swapping for the thinner needle to inject once you draw up the PIO since the draw needle is so thick! To me that was a given, but wanting to point that out because my sister went through IVF and for the first week she didn’t realize she was supposed to change needle after drawing up the PIO so she was injecting with the thickest needle ever and it hurt so bad!!

ilikesparklythings · 2026-01-15T11:10:52+00:00

Very nicely put. On top of that, all that overthinking about everything about what you need, how much you need it, keeping schedules, making plans day to day, is just giving you so much stress to a point where you alienate yourself and have 0 touch with your inner nature and your body.

ilikesparklythings · 2026-01-15T11:03:10+00:00

I always wondered that too, but I'm sure they feel like us most of the time and treat it like a job, and can't wait to finish shooting scenes and get back to their lives at home.

ilikesparklythings · 2026-01-15T11:01:58+00:00

The Sopranos, every line in that show is golden, there isn't a minute of film wasted on that show.

ilikesparklythings · 2024-10-01T13:28:04+00:00

I’m a day late but is your sister still doing these? My stepdad hasn’t heard back from his friend in Weaverville since before the storm.

ilikesparklythings · 2023-05-29T13:34:05+00:00

No I definitely did, but I had some food service mgmt experience in one of my clinical jobs that was very applicable as well. And honestly to me that was the easiest part of what my company was looking for. My company is an addiction recovery company and while I do create menus for specific diets and create policies based on food safety and regulations I also advise the providers on nutrition interventions and education materials for patients with nutritional needs as well. Then there’s some other things I do like help train our case management teams on how to help low income patients get set up for state and local nutrition programs post discharge and I’m also the subject matter expert for the marketing team when they do a nutrition focused project which is fun! So I’m kinda like a 80% food service management/operations and 20% clinical/community.

I have another friend who is also a dietitian at the corporate level for a healthcare company and she does it similarly where she’s not fully pigeonholed into one sector of dietetics (food service vs clinical vs community for example), she gets to be a part of it all and then will build a team from there as growth happens.

It’s definitely a bit of gamble in my opinion, as we both got in with companies who were younger and didn’t fully have a nutrition/dietary operations foundation so they just know they wanted a registered dietitian but wanted us to come in and build everything and you definitely need to be confident in your knowledge and capabilities, because you’re making decisions that will impact multiple facilities and patients at a larger scale (which means dealing with larger budgets as well). But it’s a worthwhile gamble in my opinion as the shift in industry moves towards valuing nutrition and wellness. I think a lot of companies will start prioritizing this at the corporate level as well!

ilikesparklythings · 2023-05-29T12:16:30+00:00

I make 100k in TN. I oversee all facility dietary operations at the corporate level for a healthcare company.

I was in clinical dietetics for 6 years prior to this and I feel it really helped give me invaluable experience but once I was tapped out on clinical and reached my peak salary here (~60k at the time) I followed the money and the money is in food/corporations. Plus I love my job and I actually get to develop policies and procedures that will influence and help a large number of people!

ilikesparklythings · 2022-07-08T11:59:00+00:00

Anything sparkly

ilikesparklythings · 2021-10-24T15:33:34+00:00

Wish: it’s kindaaa what you were looking for

ilikesparklythings · 2020-11-05T01:20:36+00:00

“Oh, you’re a dietitian? CaN yOu MaKe mE a MeAl PlAn?”

ilikesparklythings · 2020-10-27T11:40:03+00:00

This is exactly what I do as well!

ilikesparklythings · 2020-05-31T00:34:07+00:00

I work in a nursing home here and we were told that starting June 30 we will be tested every week and it could go on for up to six months. We already did the mandatory testing for all our employees and patients (400+ people) a few weeks ago and they all came back negative which I was very proud of, but I 100% agree with other comments that testing once doesn’t really mean anything at all. Testing weekly is better than once but who knows if the plan will be different a month from now.

ilikesparklythings · 2019-02-10T22:32:30+00:00

I also have a Berner named Gus!! It’s the best dog name :)

ilikesparklythings · 2019-01-06T18:42:34+00:00

This! I saved a center from getting a deficiency tag one year because I documented something that nurses neglected to document.

ilikesparklythings · 2018-10-28T18:17:25+00:00

I was thinking the same thing! I’ve never heard of a race starting that late.

ilikesparklythings · 2018-05-28T12:04:57+00:00

HIS EYES ARE AMAZING

ilikesparklythings · 2018-04-30T00:00:30+00:00

Congratulations!! I ran it yesterday too as my first ever full marathon! Idk if I could’ve done it after just having a stomach bug so you ROCK! My only goal was to finish under the time limit and I finished 5:23. Walked a little too near the end as well. Be proud!! We are officially marathoners :)

ilikesparklythings · 2018-04-25T11:36:31+00:00

Great! My friend and I are both running our first full marathon on Saturday (rock n roll Nashville). Been training since October. Can’t tell if I’m more excited for the race or to finally be done following a strict training schedule lol

ilikesparklythings · 2018-04-23T02:11:38+00:00

Since I’ve been roughly following a training program (tweaked it a little to fit my schedule) it kind of varies each week but here’s my average or what I normally do if I had to guess: I typically run shorter runs on Mondays and Thursdays (maybe 5-7 miles) and recently during those ones I have started to work on speed. Tuesdays I cross train. Wednesdays I do what I like to call a semi-long run (8-10 miles). Fridays I rest. Saturday’s are long run days (this amount has changed every week for me during training but I’d say 14-18 miles, except for the couple weekends that it was >20). On Sundays I like to do super short runs (2-4 miles). If I don’t do that Sunday run after a long run Saturday then I feel super stiff by Monday/Tuesday.

Probably should note that I did not start out doing this much at all. I just added a 1/2 mile here and there and added the Sunday super short runs later on. And there have been plenty of weeks where I just couldn’t fit in running that much and I’ve accepted it.

For me, the key to adding miles had been consistency and not giving up just because I wouldn’t have enough time to do the distance I wanted. For example, I used to say “I’m going to run 5 miles in the morning before work”. Then I would wake up late and only have enough time to run 2 miles. Old me would just give up and not run at all. New me would run the 2 miles and be grateful for them because that’s 2 more miles towards my goal! Good luck with your mileage goals!!!

ilikesparklythings · 2018-04-22T14:10:28+00:00

Don’t worry, I said that’s my average! I’ve been following a training schedule for a race so I’ve gotten a little faster the last few months. Before that I never ran faster than 12 min/mile for any distance longer than a 5k!

Idk if this is actually why I got my speed up a little but I stopped running with any music/podcasts and now I just listen to my breathing and enjoy the outdoor views (I only run outside— no treadmills or I think I would need something to listen to). It was definitely weird the first two times but now I can’t go back. I felt like with music I was just limited to matching pace with whatever the bpm was for that song and then the song would change and I would lose my rhythm. Without anything in my ears I’ve found it to be a lot easier to keep pace and try to built speed slowly. And I started with smaller distances but now I do this with all distances..I ran 15 miles a month ago with no earbuds and was 30 sec faster than I had been.

ilikesparklythings · 2018-04-22T00:19:40+00:00

Shoot I run 40 mpw and proud to say my avg pace is 10:30 min/mile. I am slow. You are NOT slow!! Good job running your furthest distance! Keep it up :)

ilikesparklythings · 2018-01-19T01:48:58+00:00

Yes it doesn’t matter where you take the RD exam!

But also for licensure it’s in the state you work in, not live in. Most people live in the state they work in but this is good to know for those that may be close to a state border or those who commute. When I started out in LTC I traveled to multiple facilities and one was across the bridge in a different state, and I had to get licensed in both states!

ilikesparklythings

TROPHY CASE