Hey Kathy

Doing OK. We are dog-sitting for some friends while they are on vacation. Muffin came over Monday night and we have him until Wednesday morning next week. He is such a funny little guy! He is being very good and it is a pleasure having him! And it gets me out for two hours of walking every day - in the mornings I go with him and when DH comes home, we go out with him again. During the day, the terrace doors are open, so he can go out in the garden if he wants - but he prefers staying near me

He is absolutely gorgeous, a flat-coated retriever, chocolate brown.
Other than that, had my second lot of acupuncture yesterday. And she things I should get my thyroid checked by a specialist. My levels are "normal" and they are not at a level when the clinic starts worrying - they worry from TSH 2,3 onwards. I have 2,1. But she says that when trying to have children, it is preferable to have around 1,8 or lower. I have just read up on it a bit and several sources confirm that where levels are over 2, miscarriages are not uncommon. I know a few of you are on thyroid medication, so you will probably know a lot more about this.
So next Tuesday I have an appointment and if the specialist determines that I should take medication, I will be able to start right away before we go on vacation. So that's great.
Also - and we might do this too - she recommended going to another specialist to get the immunology checked out. Normally, when your body detects a "foreign" object, it fights it / rejects it. The only exception to this rule is in pregnancy - where it is essential for the body to recognise the embryo as foreign, so that it protects it and supports the pregnancy. It can happen, when the information carried in the cells of the man and woman are too similar, that the body doesn't recognise the embryo as "foreign" and doesn't protect the embryo. She suggested that we get tested to see whether DH and I are perhaps too similar.
The reason for this - I showed her all my blood tests after all the tries we have had. Only one was where the values were high enough (the last try) that the clinic said we might have a successful implantation / pregnancy.
My first try HCG was 4,9 (they say + from 5) and another try was 2,3 ... she says that each of these plus the last one (at 7,1) were all faintly positive and you only get levels of HCG like this in your blood, when an embryo has hatched and started trying to implant. (Funnily enough I remember the first try and being convinced that I could feel implantation!! I was devastated when the numbers were so close). She said that they had cases where the first blood test was as low as 3,something and it ended up being a healthy baby.
So - anyway - she suggested that we get tested on this front as well. If it happens that we are so similar, then they would take DHs blood and more or less "immunise" me with it, so that I start developing antibodies. That way, when an embryo comes along, my body would recognise it as being "different" and that would potentially further support implantation + pregnancy.
I said that we could try to make an appointment, but for the time being I think we are doing enough, with the new protocol (which was so much more successful this last time around), with the chinese medicine, the acupuncture and if I do start treating my thyroid - having also had the inflammation when I got pregnant in August, with my gallbladder and that being out of the way, I am hopeful that we are doing enough.
We can always still go down the road of immunisation, if all else fails. Apparently, it takes forever to get an appointment there anyway, so I will make one and hope that we won't need to go
Somehow it is weird that she is confirming that the other times, when I felt that it had worked, that I was right - it just didn't develop
Hi Mamali - nice to see you again :wave: hope you're doing well!