Chinese Accupuncture

[Vonn]

nobump--Sounds like you will get to the bottom of the bleeding mystery next week. I hope you get resolution! Sorry to hear about the tonsilitis, yuck! Feel better!

Everyone else doin' okay?

AFM--Had blood draw this morning and bad news this afternoon. Even though I knew this cycle was a long shot, it still feels like a blow. My heart was pounding when the dr office called. I will stop the progesterone and see how long it takes to get AF. Any insight from others who've been here? Is it the next day? Two days later?

 

[Blythe]

Vonn - I am so sorry to hear your news. Its all a shot in the dark, iui, clomid, IVF...all of it but the thing i have noticed from being on these boards for so long is that most women get there one way or another in the end. Just keep moving forward and it will happen for you

with regard to the progesterone i have never had any issues re delay but then again i have never taken it all the way through the 2ww. I think cyclogest is fine and AF usually arrives day or two after stopping but some other brands can delay for longer - i think Briss was using a stronger one from CZ and that caused longer delays. Briss - please correct me if wrong.

I hope AF comes soon and you can begin to focus on your new cycle and new chances.

thinking of you


AFM - really trying to stick to blood type diet although as i have been running just very hungry in the evenings and snacking on choc! That aside it is very interesting.....I mentioned before that O types can have issues with thyroid regulation but also certain blood clotting factors. Type O's apparently have thin blood which resists clotting so i may give up my baby aspirin. Other interesting things are that sweetcorn interferes with insulin production and can slow metabolic rate. And also cabbage, brussels sprouts, cauliflower and mustard green inhibit thyroid production - or so this chap says!

anyhow, i have discovered sprouted wheat bread [essene] which is ok to eat because the gluten lectins are destroyed during the sprouting process. I have a couple of slices with butter on top - which is ok even though other dairy discouraged.

 

[Briss]

sorry ladies, I've been so busy at work, have not slept properly for a week had my scan this morning and got seriously depressed. zero follicles on my right side and only 2 on the left the worst scan ever! my oestrogen is very high and at gennet they suggested skipping this cycle but Munich doctor just send me an email asking to do another scan on Monday so maybe we still have a chance.

I have a very embarrassing problem now, TMI: I am absolutely dry, we can't BD cos it's just too uncomfortable. I was even uncomfortable at the scan this morning. I have normal sex drive and orgasms and everything but no lubrication. I am so worried something is wrong after the MMC. this is just not normal for me, I usually have the opposite situation so DH even complains that can't feel anything. it was the same last cycle but I thought it was just to MC but this months I had normal (well almost normal) AF.

Vonn, I am very sorry this cycle was not a success. Even when you have little hope it still hurts.

I only had 3 cycles on progesterone and they were different. the first one I was on cyclogest and it was a chemical pregnancy so I started spotting from about 10 DPO and AF start the next day after I stopped progesterone. the second was BFN and I was on Czech progesterone which is quite strong so it took 4 days after stopping before AF showed up and it completely screwed my next cycle. my last cycle was pregnancy and again I was on czech progesterone and i think it was so strong that it even held off my MC so it took 5 days for MC to start after stopping it.

Blythe, I am so interested in your blood type diet. are you feeling better on it? I am doing my 5:2 diet and it's quite successful cos I can now comfortably fit into my old clothes but there is still about 3 kg that I need to lose. it's very slow and fasting days are absolute torture.

 

[Briss]

Briss - I saw Dr Zhai on a bbc documentary last night. You can catch it on iplayer. It's called "inside Harley street".
X

Juzzbird, thanks! that brought back some memories how excited and hopeful I was when I got my first bag of raw herbs! although these days she does not really treat you herself, she has assistants who do everything, I only saw her on our first consultation and she was talking about basic stuff that our TTC ladies usually know well anyway. If I had spare cash I'd probably carry on with her cos I still do believe in TTC but I know women who spent a few thousands and still did not get pregnant. I liked Dr E.

 

[Jazzbird]

Hi Briss - I actually thought the documentary was not very good journalism. It was very biased and lumped acupuncture in with leech treatment! Anyway I thought you might find it interesting. I am about to start working as an acupuncturist in an ivf/fertility specialist clinic. Have to do quite a bit of training first. When I spoke to the clinic the current acupuncturist is very mindful of referring onto ivf after a reasonable timeframe. She also tries to limit number of times per month she asks to see a patient.

I'm very mindful too after reading all your attempts with tcm. It does shake my faith in it a little. I hope I'll be able to help some ladies on their journey with or without ivf!

Always reading your updates and thinking of you all xxx

 

[Blythe]

Today i am 43 and so far i have:

dyed my hair ginger - not strawberry blond but actually ginger. It was meant to be blond.

run 3 miles and brought myself some new running shoes

cried a bit about babies - standard stuff

walked out of a hairdressers - having waited 40 mins for haircut they then said they would charge full price for a 5 min trim of the bottom bit!

went for a hot stone massage at my old acu place - it was lovely. My old acu doctor was at the reception and did not even ask how my iui went or how i was. Given that i have given her 1000s over the last 3+ years it would have been nice of her to ask....still hot stone massage was quite lovely.

actually yesterday i walked out of a tarot card reading yesterday and asked for my cash back. it was £45! i was with a friend and we went to a physic shop that is in covent garden for fun and booked a session with the physics and mine staggered in and did the cards and said what do you want to know. So i said about TTC and whether i should go with OE or DE and he said my cards look "fine". that was it so i said i am not getting much out of this. And then he started talking about mental blockages and that maybe i was blocking the pregnancy. I just looked at him and so he did the cards again and still said they look just fine and that i had made up my mind already. i hadn't hence going to see a con artist like him. I did get a refund.

I am looking forward to a long bank holiday weekend....I hope you have a good one

Jazzbird - its so great that you are going to use your skills and help other women get pregnant. Good luck with the training and i really hope it goes well for you x

Briss - im sure it is just a temporary glitch and that things will return to normal. I brought some preseed - the prefilled little ones so will be using them this month.

I always have stupidly high E2 - what was yours? I hope very much that the next scan will give you better news.

The diet is going ok and the running is still going so together they are making a difference. I am less bloated thats for sure. I have not been following it strictly but i may look at doing it along with a fasting day each week and upping it to two fasting days to get my stubborn weight off.

nobump - i hope so much the procedure goes well next week and that you get some relief from the bleeding. Hopefully it will make the difference and you will get your much longed for, and deserved BFP.

Vonn - i hope you are ok

 

[Briss]

Blythe, what a day! Happy birthday!!

I love ginger hair! I so wish I could pull that off but not with my skin tone. very bold colour. Do you like your knew look?

wow, 3 miles! well done. you are really becoming a serious runner.

I always cry on my birthday that's why i ask my DH to take me somewhere away. it just feels less traumatic when you are away on your birthday it's like it's not happening.

hot stone massage sounds wonderful. shame about your old acu doc though

that tarot card reading was just ridiculous! mental blockages??? what nonsense! well done on getting your money back. I have to say i accumulated so much fear over the last few years that I simply can't do tarot card reading or any kind of physics stuff, I cannot accept anything unless it's my future with 2-3 healthy (and my biological!) children in it.

Unfortunately I am working this bank holiday weekend, we are launching a new deal on tuesday so no break for me. I booked another scan for Tuesday so if all goes well I may have to take time off to fly to Germany but tbh this cycle just does not look promising. my E2 was above 900 on CD7 and considering i only have 2 follicles that's just a bit too high, maybe they are cysts rather than follicles.

 

[Nikki1979]

Happy Birthday Blythe. Our birthdays are so close -I turned 36 on April 30th.

 

[Vonn]

Happy birthday Blythe and Nikki!!

Blythe--the new hair color sounds fun and exciting! As for tarot, I've never done it, I'm too afraid of bad news.

Briss--I'm sorry about your dryness. I have that problem and it is a sexy time killer. (Well, that plus the non-existent sex drive.) Preseed helps, but you have to figure out the right amount. I haven't got it quite right yet. I injected the recommended amount and it was too much, got a little gross. Then I used it as lube and that wasn't quite enough. Experimentation is needed. But I bet this is a temp problem for you as your body bounces back after mc. I'll be curious to hear what Munich says after Monday's scan!

AFM--been crying tonight after a situation in a clothing store. There is a store that used to be called Hot Mama & it sold regular women's clothes (not maternity) but marketed itself to moms. I avoided it just cause I'm not a mom. Well, they changed the name to Evereve. I thought maybe they were trying to broaden their appeal so I went in.

A salesperson approached me and started pointing out all their cute "mom" t-shirts ("mom 4 life," etc.). I tried to brush her off but she kept picking them up and reading them so I finally had to say, "Well, I'm not a mom, so they aren't for me." Awkward. She made it even worse, though, by then saying something about how I'm still a mom if I have a pet. I told her that I still didn't qualify. I got a few tears in my eyes but didn't lose it in the store. Been crying off and on since I got home, though. It's those unexpected situations that get me. The ones that catch me off-guard and just make my heart ache with longing and fear. Tomorrow's a new day, I hope it brings AF and a new cycle.

 

[Briss]

Vonn, I am sorry about that shop assistant. unless you come across infertility you just have no idea but that's no excuse, I generally hate shop assistants cos they are mostly annoying and unhelpful. I would have reacted in the same way. i once ventured into mother care cos I needed a present for a baby shower (that was couple of years ago cos I do not do that anymore) and I ended up crying and even worse had a complete nervous breakdown later in the day after I left baby shower. even observing baby clothes as i pass by is traumatic. will I ever be buying a cute little dress for my own daughter?

afm, CD 9 but I still have some weird looking brown bits coming out, and lost my sex drive it might also be due to stress I had really stressful couple of weeks at work but I am trying to appear working super hard cos my evaluation is approaching and this year I have not hit my targets, in fact very far from it with all my time off for EC and being on sick leaves. as much as I fond my work stressful I can manage it but looking for a new job is just outside of what i can cope with right now.

I've been going through my medical records and I stumbled across my old blood tests. I completely forgot I did all these tests back in 2009 just before we started trying. I did not even check the results or maybe I did but I am sure back then I did not have a clue what it all meant. now unfortunately I am so clued up on all this stuff that they make a lot of sense to me. apparently I already tested negative for lupus so did not need to pay it twice I also did a proper blood clotting tests not the genetic one but the one that checked whether your blood is actually clotting well and it did, although i may want to redo this one cos it changes from time to time. I actually tested positive for quite a few IgGs so hopefully Dr G will be able to guide me through that. also My FSH was already 13 back then I was only 33...

 

[nobump]

Blythe hope you had a good birthday. Think I would have asked for a refund as well. I had a friend who did tarrot cards but just for fun not money. The hot stone massage sounds relaxing.

Vonn sorry to hear things have not worked this month. Always disappointing. I'm not sure about progesterone. I have started spotting and I am on northisterone which is progesterone. On third week but was going to continue next week was wanting to delay bleeding until after Thursday.

Jazzbird have downloaded the series will take a look.

Briss hopefully your scan on tuesday will be better. Have you tried conceive plus? As I am just getting over whatever hit me last weekend I have no sex drive at the mo. Will have to wait til after op on Thursday and I get the go ahead. Think I will have to wait to heal first.

 

[Briss]

How are you doing, ladies?

Had my appointment with Dr G, our main immunologist in London but I am not impressed. I do not know what I expected, somehow I thought I'd show him my test results and he would talk me through them and explain what's what and whether I have any issues. He did spent a lot of time going through my test results but mainly in his mind so I am still not clear on the outcome. lots of IgGs came positive which might indicate autoimmune issues i.e. my immune system is attacking my own tissue but was this the reason for my MMC? how serious this is in the scheme of things and considering that lots of other tests came as normal? I still have not got a clue. he wanted me to do additional tests to "complete the picture" but they'd cost well over 1K probably closer to 2K. in relation to blood clotting genetic testing he did say some tests were abnormal but not the most important once. so? what does this mean? still not a clue! my raised B12 levels did not impress him so he just said to carry on with ordinary prenatal vitamins. he did not have a concept of synthetic vs natural vitamins and how my body "presumably" cannot use synthetic forms. again, confused! In the end he prescribed prednisolone + blood thinners. I just feel frustrated I did not have it in me to do my research and figure out how to do embryo karyotyping on miscarried tissue. that'd help so much! To go with Dr G you really need to trust him completely and I cant because I question everything and deep down I just think adding more medical stuff to my natural IVf is not going to improve our chances. I just was not convinced.

I am very stressed these days because it looks like I might be out of work pretty soon… I am trying to be philosophical about it but I did have a cry today if only I had a viable pregnancy my job would have been protected.

we missed this cycle because I surged before the scan and my blood showed progesterone levels indicative of O. I kind of knew that would likely to happen when they asked me to repeat my scan on Cd12 because I usually O by day 11-12 but I was relaxed about this cycle after the first scan/bloods. high estrogen levels just put me off.

 

[nobump]

Briss that is disappointing your appointment didn't go well. Extra test are expensive, I really don't know what to suggest. You are really good at interpreting things. That is not good about your job situation, is your company downsizing? Are there opportunities elsewhere?

I had my op yesterday, doc didn't manage to remove all the fibroid, he is recommending I see another surgeon and have a procedure with him, will need to await the letter and then phone my insurance to get it authorised. Feeling a bit tired and crampy today, wondering if all this is worth it.

 

[Blythe]

NoBump - hope you are starting to feel better after your op and that what he was able to do results in a better cycle and much less bleeding for you. Where are you in your cycle now?

Briss - i cannot believe the costs of the bloods?!? I suppose western medicine is based on synthetic forms of medication....the food source stuff is probably seen as another fad.

Whats happening with your work? is it the upcoming review? i hope so much you do not have to deal with additional stress. They would be made to let you go after your dedication in spite of everything you have been going through.

 

[Briss]

nobump, it's great that they removed some of fibroid but really annoying the surgeon could not figure out in advance whether he can or cannot do this op properly so you won't have to have it twice. still, i hope this op helps you with bleeding.

Blythe, how are you? any progress with your diet and running?

afm, I had really bad hangover this morning, even worse more like alcohol poisoning. I was trying to figure out where I stand job wise and obviously pub is the only place where you can get people to talk so I went there with my bosses last night and got really p*ed I said more things than I meant to but did not really learn much unfortunately. it does seem like my situation has been discussed and there are partners who want me to stay but there are those who don't cos I did not make enough profit this year. I do not know what the final decision is but they are getting HR involved as well which is not great. looks like I won't know for sure until June-July. pretty distressing. and just to make things worse my MIL is visiting. she arrived last night and I turned up around 1 am totally drunk I am sure she thinks her son made a really terrible mistake marrying me...

I am seeing an endocrinologist on Monday to discuss my thyroid and whether i need to start taking the hormone. this doc work in a different hospital to the one I saw last year so i am hoping for a second opinion.

I talked to my mum who has been on prednisolone for years cos of autoimmune issues and she is very much against me taking this med on a just in case basis cos she recently got type 2 diabetes because of this medication, it has some terrible side effects and type 2 diabetes is quite common. when I asked dr G about it he just said nothing is without side effects... I may have to ask my mum to take my test results and discuss it with her immunologist but he is not reproductive immunologist like dr G so not sure how much he can clear things up for me.

what I really wanted from dr G is his honest view as to whether my MMC was most likely due to sporadic chromosomal error or not.but he would not talk about it he just said there are other reasons for mc except for chromosomal errors. I know all that but could not he just tell me based on my history, details of MMC and test results what is the likelihood of it being chromosomal? like 70% or 20%?

anyway, my next step is seeing a nutritionist I already found the one I want to see, hopefully she can help with my B12/folate synthetic vs natural dilemma.

I keep thinking about my supplements. it's really not healthy to be taking so many sups and for so long. even though I have breaks in between it's pretty dangerous and I want to quit supplement completely. not sure what replace them yet.

 

[nobump]

Oh Briss arriving home tipsy to be greated with your disapproving MIL does not sound like fun. Did you reveal anything about what you've went through this year? Do you know how much profit others have made the firm?

My doc had said if it was a polyp he will be able to remove it. But if it was a fribriod then he would need to assess. The doc he is suggesting takes over us an IVF specialist so hopefully he will be able to give me more info on whether another cycle is worth doing.

 

[Blythe]

Briss - I totally agree about the supplements. I wonder if taking such high doses for such a long time can in fact end up being quite toxic for our systems. I have been taking the following B12 recently and to be honest i cannot remember why i started taking it again [i took it before to combat effects of DHEA]....

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001LR5ONY?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00

I might start phasing stuff out...it has not got me anywhere. I will stick with my food source pre natals though and COQ10...and look to get my vit d, vit e and everything else naturally.

i have ran twice this week as i got v.drunk over birthday weekend and just did not feel like it. It was a real struggle but i am determined to stick with it. My diet went out of the window this week - hangovers have that effect but again im back on track. I really want to wear nice fitted clothes again - there is far too much stretch fabric in my wardrobe.....


Very stressful about your job and so frustrating having just half the story. I do hope that you are able to establish some facts soon and be prepared for whatever June/July brings you.

 

[Briss]

Blythe, I think I have the same B12. they are pink and rather sweet, right?

I saw an endocrinologist today and am very happy with her. she told me quite confidently that my TSH levels had nothing to do with my MMC BUT she still thinks my TSH was not optimal for pregnancy and baby's health. ideally it should be 1-2. anything above is unlikely to cause MMC but may affect your child's IQ etc.

One thing she said was really surprising is that she could not evaluate my previous tests because I did not know whether I had blood yes done in the morning or afternoon. apparently morning levels are quite high so they prefer you do your blood test after 2 pm for more accurate result. I had no idea! maybe my levels do not actually fluctuate that much it's just that i did some of them in the morning and some in the afternoon. I definitely remember that the one where I had TSH 2 last year I did after 5 pm so here's hoping. she asked me to redo all tests and quite a few others like iodine and mercury and B12/folate and lots of others. She properly examined me and asked lots of questions and explained things. I am very pleased. she also wants me to do a scan of my thyroid just on case.

One thing she said was that i should not lose any more weight... I need so little for my motivation to go out of the window, as soon as she said it I went out and had a burger! and today was supposed to be my fasting day!! I did lose quite a lot of weight and can easily fit into my normal clothes but i really wanted to reach my old weight. just needed 2-3 kg more to lose to be totally happy.

 

[tarot]

Hi Briss...

You probably don't remember me but I remember you asking about the menstrual blood test at Serum over on FF. I have followed your journey as I have many others and hope you don't mind me letting you know about an amazing improvement we have had with DH sperm after treating him with Serums protocol after infection was picked up on the menstrual test

I used to spend hours following ladies stories for ideas on things we could try so feel I would like to put something back by sharing our story.

I tested positive for Chlamydia on Serum's test but always negative I the UK.....never had a std symptom in my life. Penny at Serum wanted me and DH to take a long course of antibiotics which I initially felt very uneasy about as i prefer a more holistic approach but after a year of supplements,limited alcohol,boxers etc and DH sperm getting worse on each SA we decided to bite the bullet and go for it.

His sperm has improved from 3 million last test to 30 million, morphology form 1% to 10 % and DNA fragmentation normal. I totally believe this is the antibiotics. I had a hysteroscopy and had scarring in my uterus and red patches of infection still there which Penny said will go.

Please please please do not think this is a bragging showing off post. I was so saddened after the initial elation of our improvement as I could not help thinking of so many ladies who are desperate to improve their DH sperm and it could be this easy. I know you expressed an interest in the Serum test and just wanted to report back on our experience of it.

Good luck with your next cycle Briss.....we cycle in June......let the madness begin!!

 

[Briss]

tarot, thank you! very encouraging! I was wondering about menstrual blood test. Dr G actually offers this test as well, for 500 obviously more expensive than Serum but less challenging logistically and I guess they get a "fresher" sample. I'll think about it. I did not realise this could have an effect on sperm. I was not worried about STDs because I only had 2 partners (including DH) with whom I did not use protection but I recently got herpes which was quite a shock. apparently you can have an infection for years and years without knowing. In my case it was 13 years! I always tested negative for Chlamydia and the rest of it but I do wonder now.

did your DH have consistently low numbers on several SAs before you started antibiotics?

We have been to the best urologists and tried so many things, holistic and hard core medicine but his count is consistently between 1-11 million and morphology 0-3%. that's why we are doing IMSI now but my recent MMC makes me wonder if sperm quality was to blame. Although its most likely egg quality I think, really hard to say I can only guess.