Seeking but not finding...

Gordon men are known to lose all sense of perspective when it comes to our dogs. I am not sure why this is true. My Dad is so attached to his miniature Schnauzer that he actually called the kennel to check on the dog while he was being boarded a few weeks ago. Chester was unable to take the call as he was too busy playing with the other dogs at the time. Since we are all products of our environment then it should come as little surprise that I became a man on a mission when looking for a comfy dog bed for my two 4 legged friends. I had found a great bed at a Walmart several months ago but only bought one bed at the time. Since that purchase I looked and looked for a similar bed at all the local Walmarts and Lowes and Petsmart and Petco.....No luck. Amazingly enough I found one at a local small pet boutique in Arlington. I was totally psyched! Finally, my search was at an end. I bought that item and then went online to buy another one on Amazon. These beds are washable and that made all the difference to me since I have been known to leave the beds outside in bad weather. I was happy that my search was at an end. I brought home my trophy and placed Indy, my miniature goldendoodle, on the bed. Indy was also very excited. Really excited. So unbelievably excited that she promptly peed on the bed! Great. So now after 5 min it was time to wash the bed. I went on Amazon and to my dismay review after review said something like this: "Great bed. Dog loved it. I washed it once and then the thing totally fell apart"....or "Washed this bed and all the stuffing clumped together and I threw it out." Needless to say, I was not a happy consumer. But as an Eagle Scout I followed the Boy Scout motto and I was prepared. I washed the bed and then dried it with a couple of tennis balls (a trick I learned when drying sleeping bags after rainy campouts). Miracle of miracles the bed came out good as new...which it was since I had used it for only 5 min!

So does this have anything to do with fertility treatment? I guess I would consider the distressing information that I found on the internet prior to washing the dog bed insightful. Clearly these people were posting their experiences with the dog bed in an attempt to be helpful. However, it totally freaked me out that the washable bed was not really washable in a meaningful way. Same is true for patients who post information about clinics and treatments online. I have no doubt that these individuals are accurately describing their own experiences. But one size does not fill all in this case. Make sure that you don't become overwhelmed by the internet "experts." Your RE should be your best source of information. By all means, ask questions. Just remember that not all questions can be answered when it comes to infertility. We know a lot but some of it remains a mystery to all of us.

So here's the post script to my little dog bed search. Last week I was in Giant getting groceries and some dog bones. I look up and there on the top shelf in the pet care aisle are 4 of my sought after dog beds....at a better price than on Amazon. I almost sat down and cried.