There's Something Wrong with My Pipes!

No, I'm not talking about "those pipes"...I'm talking actual pipes.

I came home from work today and I swore it sounded like the sprinklers were on.  I mean, there wasn't any sign or sound of them being on outside, but inside I could hear what sounded like water rushing through pipes.  When I washed my hands I noticed the pressure was low and then I got a little worried.  Of course, my husband is out of town and so I was on my own to investigate.  First, I inspected the walls and ceilings of each room in the basement.  No signs of flooding. 

Then, I followed the sound down to the furnace room.

There are several valves and levers and knobs and I know that they all have some special job, but I'm never really sure which is which.  I think I should label them.

Anyway, when I turned off what I was pretty sure was a lever to the outside pipes/sprinkler system the sound stopped.  That made me curious, so I switched the lever back to "on" and the sound returned...but it was much louder and more threatening sounding.  So I turned it off again real quick-like. The faucets all had restored pressure...problem solved?

I'm not sure...it's been so cold over the past couple weeks and I've heard all kinds of news stories about frozen and busted pipes...I was feeling paranoid.

I studied the control panel for the sprinkler system.  I swear that thing has a mind of its own.  We would set it in the summer and it would randomly turn itself on and off at times completely different from what we had set.  I was wondering if it had pulled another one of its little voodoo tricks and decided to turn itself on.

Next I went outside, armed with a flashlight, and checked the sprinkler heads and hose spigots.  Sure enough, I found our hose frozen to the place where it connects to the house...and a big block of ice making it impossible to disconnect.  Oops.  We weren't on the ball with winterizing this year...

That made me nervous that water had backed up into the house via the hose line, so I returned to the basement for another look.  I took my flashlight into our creepy crawl space and, yes, I crawled on hands and knees under cobwebs and over dirty plastic peering around at any and all pipes...searching for signs of leaks or damage. 

I didn't see anything...so I am keeping my fingers crossed that it stays that way.

And now, (because what KinderCoaster blog post would be complete without some mention of my lady parts??), a word about those pipes.

If you didn't already know, I am taking at least one cycle off from any hormone treatments (although I am still on Metformin)...mostly because I had no choice and partly because Clomid cycles are completely draining emotionally and physically. 

Recently, as in for three days now, I have been in a considerable amount of pelvic pain.  The first day it started in my back; I have a retroverted uterus so lots of my girly pain radiates from my lower back (ahahaha, spell check wants me to change retroverted to "extroverted").  The following day the pain circled around to my lower abdomen and that is where it has been since.  It seems to get worse as the day progresses and by night time it is only made bearable with a heating pad. 

That delightfully pesky little Hope Gremlin has emerged from hiding and keeps  piping in with comments like, "Ooooo, wouldn't it be something if you spontaneously ovulated on your own this cycle?!?"  I would love to think that the pain I am experiencing is because my ovaries are finally growing some nice plump follicles...but I can't help but picture it more like this:

*Sorry!  Removed the Fat Cat trying to escape a bath tub video because it was causing some problems from the administrative end of the blog.* 

 

Imagine the tub as overstimulated ovaries and the cat as some big fat wanna-be egg turned cyst that just can't get out! Except now imagine that the tub has 40 of those fat cats in it...who not only can't get out, but have the tub full to bursting! 

 

Okay, so there is no evidence to back up this line of thinking.  Maybe the gremlin is right.  I have no idea what's going on in there really...but I can't imagine any good coming from so much pain!

 

I called the doctor's office again.  Partly because of this new pain, partly because we still haven't heard the results of our SA from a month ago, but mostly because I still had a lot of questions about my last cycle that never got answered (or even relayed as far as I can tell).  I made a list of notes and questions and called prepared to stand my ground and be more assertive. And I was...with a cherry on top.  A different nurse than last week called me back and she at least feigned more interest and concern than the woman from last week.  She obviously didn't have my answers, but I feel like she listened better and she said she was taking notes...so hopefully things get communicated better this time around.  I really wish I could just talk to my doctor!!

 

*This woeful rambling brought to you by Pipe Dreams Plumbing: Your pipes are our priority!