OCD Much?

Let's begin this post by just stating that I might be a bit of an overachiever when it comes to academics.  I was definitely in my "element" when the doctor gave me homework.  My doc says to chart my temperature?  I would have the best dang chart she'd ever seen!  So the next day, I started charting my Basal Body Temperature.  My doctor had said that this would help determine if there were problems with my ovulation.  She made it very clear to me that my temp had to be taken at the same time each day and had to be taken before I did anything in the morning.  Also, I had to make sure that I had at least 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep before taking it.  This was important enough that I was given an entire sheet devoted to the directions of this process.  How difficult could it be to take your own temperature?  I was more than willing to follow my doctor's orders if this is going to help us have a little one, but just let the record show that this little task (which we will find out later didn't matter at all) created several problems for me...

Since I run an afterschool youth center, I wake up later and go into work later than most people.  I, however, had just joined a local service club that met once per week at 7am for breakfast and a meeting.  I got up at 6am one day per week to go to this meeting.  Due this whole consistency thing, I had to now set my alarm for 6am every day to take my temperature.  But I was determined to do this charting thing correctly, so 6am it was.

My other problem is that my bladder is not very big.  In turn, I often get up sometime between 3am and 4am to relieve this small bladder.  If you're doing your math, you will see that this meant that I did not get a full 4 hours of uninterrupted snoozing prior to the temp taking.  I tried to not wake myself up too much on these nightly trips to the bathroom in the hopes it wouldn't completely ruin what my temp-taking a few hours later.  (But then I'd worry about it, which made my heart beat faster, which I'm sure made my temp go up even further than it needed....)

By the end of this experiment, I had gotten so used to taking my temp each morning that my alarm would sound, I'd stick the thermometer in my mouth, wait until it beeped, and write the temp down without even really waking up.  I even was so anal about my charts that I printed off 3 blank ones the night before my follow up appointment and copied them neatly onto the new charts.  Hey, I wanted the homework I was going to turn in to be neat, so give me a break!  I didn't have OCD or control issues when I went to the doctor almost a year ago.  This process has created them for me. (WINK WINK)  At least that's the story I'm going with.