The Really Useful TCM Thread

[Coley1974]

Second OPK today... not positive but darker than yesterday's!!!

 

[Coley1974]

Just back from today's acu appt. and I feel WONDERFUL!!!!

At first, I didn't think I was gonna fall asleep because my mind kept thinking about all the stuff I have to pack for our camping trip this weekend and various other junk. But I passed out HARD! She came in and said "Wake up", I opened my eyes briefly as she started to remove everything and they drifted back closed again. Once she was finished she giggled and had to tell me "Wake up" again! Soooo lovely!

Got a new addition to my herbs today. Not sure what it is since I didn't look in the bag until I got home. I'll have to Google it. I'm actually in a bit of a Brew-fest at the moment. Since we're heading to my IL's for the weekend, I'm brewing tomorrow's herbs today. We'll be home on Sunday, so I only need to take a day's worth with me. I'm also gonna have to do my OPK a touch early today. I had been doing them at 2pm, but I've gotta be on the road by then. Then I get to OPK in an outhouse!! Now that's dedication!!!

I know my step FIL is gonna have beer... and gonna want me to drink with him since my soon to be BIL won't be there. Maybe I'll just have one... or two...

 

[TurboTurtle80]

Yay Coley! Good luck with your OPKs! Glad you had a good acu visit. I can't wait for mine tomorrow. I need to relax. Have fun on your camping trip. Hopefully it helps you relax to catch your eggy.

 

[Lulu 07]

Coley~ I'm glad your visit went well

TurboTurtle~ Anything new?

My temps went back up, yesterday and today they were at 98.3. Nothing new other than that. I have my next appointment on Monday and I can't wait.

to all

 

[fitzy79]

Coley, I think a few beers will do no harm whatsoever and in actual fact can only help aid relaxation!! My FS used to tell me to have a couple of glasses of wine the night I took trigger shot and have fun!!!

 

[fitzy79]

My temps went back up, yesterday and today they were at 98.3. Nothing new other than that. I have my next appointment on Monday and I can't wait.

to all

Great sign Lulu!

 

[PoppyPainting]

Coley, I think a few beers will do no harm whatsoever and in actual fact can only help aid relaxation!! My FS used to tell me to have a couple of glasses of wine the night I took trigger shot and have fun!!!

I like the sort of fs who tell you to have fun!

 

[Coley1974]

This. Month. SUCKS! Where, oh where do I begin?

All went well with leaving on Friday... got up to Lockhaven and drove around... and around... and around... and around. It's really rural, so you have to go by miles on your odometer to find the road to turn on. Well, my MIL said it's 6.8 miles when it's actually 6.2

We got to Lockhaven University while it was still light out. We finally pulled over after turning around for the 1000th time and a blue pick up truck pulled over right in front of us. THANK THE LORD, it's my IL's!! My step FIL said that's the first thing he heard me say when they pulled up. Apparently they drove into town where there's cell service, tried calling us and when they got vm, they figured we were somewhere between town and their road.

So we get there, all is good, we make our beds (not sharing a bed ) and hang out by the fire before heading to bed. I wake up the next morning to the sound of rain, temp and it's 97.47 I'm like "What the... that's awfully high from yesterday."

It literally poured 3/4 of the day. DH, MIL, BIL & I sat in their trailer playing Rummy and listening to my MP3 player for most of the day. Once it stopped raining, I had a shooting lesson & few beers with my SFIL (not at the same time!), which was pretty cool. I've always thought it was a good skill to have, and there's no one better to teach me than him!

Saturday's OPK was really pale. I figured maybe from drinking water, beer, etc... Maybe my pee was a bit diluted.

Things took a further turn for the worse today... Temp went back down, so I'm like "Okay..." On the drive home, we discovered that, somewhere between Friday and today, I didn't have my acupuncture money, the rest of our grocery money or the rest of the pet food money.

We get home at 2pm... OPK time. Held my pee from the time we left at 9am. I go, test... freakin' pale as crap, but cm is slippery. What the...? I look everywhere for the money... and it's gone. I don't know how or where... but it's gone. DH's back has taken a few steps back and I just break down and bawl

Everything is going wrong. I lost all the money, DH's back is jacked, my OPKs hate me and we haven't had any sex at all. Luckily, I don't have to cancel my acupuncture appt for Friday... but I'm not feeling good about anything right now.

I'm trying not to read too much into my temps, considering they were taken while sleeping, basically, outside. I really hope my OPKs are either just being weird or maybe it's the stress about the money and everything. I dunno.

I put 2 Salonpas pads on DH's back after he got out of the shower and after being told there would be "no sex in the champagne room", I gave him a back rub which he said made things feel better.

I'm still not holding my breath for any reindeer games though...

 

[Lulu 07]

Coley~ I'm sorry things haven't been so great for you this lately. I hope things get better really soon

Fitzy~ Thank you! I might have spoken too soon because temp is back to 97.9. It might be due to having slept for only 1.5 hours before taking my bbt. I have an appointment tomorrow so I'll ask him about all this. How are things going with you so far? Did you make your first appointment?

 

[Lulu 07]

I'm going to try to attach a pic of my bbt chart.

 

[Lulu 07]

Yaaay! I guess it worked. I hadn't been charting from the beginning of this cycle but started the day after my first acupuncture appointment. What do you guys think? I feel like I'm out for this cycle with those dips. It's ok though because after all, acu needs some time to balance my body. Hopefully next cycle will be my month for a BFP (wishful thinking)!!

 

[TurboTurtle80]

Hey girls. Sorry I haven't had a chance to check in. its been a long weekend. Sounds like we've had a rough weekend alltogether. It's 11:30 PM here so I'll write more tomorrow. Keep your chin up girls. It will get better.

 

[Coley1974]

Things are looking up...

After my posting I went to grab a shower. We'd been invited to some friends to hang out. I decided to do another OPK before jumping in the shower just on the hope that maybe it'd be darker. Once I was all dried off & good stinkin' DH comes by and says "You ready to do this?" I said "Do what?" he said "Make a baby"

So as you can see on my chart... we've found a way to BD that doesn't make him want to die!! I won't lie... it makes things go a little quickly... but considering I'm about to have my 10 year old niece stay with us for a few days, that's probably NOT a bad thing!

Oh yeah... and the 5:30 OPK was darker than the 2pm OPK!

Anyway... I get my first round of BD'ing in... that makes me As we're driving over to our friend's, we saw a rainbow! It was kinda like something telling me "It's gonna be okay" Then when we got home, I noticed that the tails up penny that had been laying on our living room floor... was now heads up! Silly I know... but it just felt like things were turning a corner.

Today's temp was a touch high, but I've got EWCM that's slippery as all get out, my cervix is high and I've got partial ferns on my saliva-scope. So it looks like we're still headed in the right direction... Maybe my weekend was more stressful than I initially realized and my eggs decided to wait for it all to blow over.

DH's got a 1:30 Dr's appt. for his back in Claymont. This works out FAB, because while he's in with the doc, I'm gonna run down the road to my most favorite-ist $ Tree in the world and get a few more OPK's since I used an extra one yesterday.

Keep those fingers crossed and that Baby dust comin'!!

 

[TurboTurtle80]

Coley, your little story brought a tear to my eye. So precious! Isn't it neat when they are just on board?? I have a hard time with mine sometimes. There are moments when I just have to rape him! So happy things are looking better for you. I hope your eggy waited for your right time!

So I had my treatment Saturday. Dr. Nguyen is working on getting AF to visit. I thought she'd be here by now cuz I was cramping sooo bad yesterday, but I guess she doesn't feel like showing up. Awesome. :/ Thankfully doc got my motivation returned full force. I was eating terribly and hadn't worked out at all for 2 weeks. Normally I'm good with the low carb and running, but idk what's up lately. Doc also said that my pulse is way stronger, which is exciting cuz I'm one of those ppl who never seems to have a pulse. All in all I feel much better after my treatment. I'm a little sad and worried that she'll be out for 3 weeks. Its neat that she volunteers doing acupuncture in Asia though.

 

[Coley1974]

Turbo - Yeah... I hit the jackpot in the DH department. He has been more than I ever could have hoped, asked or prayed for with TTC. So many times you hear stories about guys who are kinda like "Whatever..." but he's just as invested and hopeful as I am. That makes it so much better!

Great news about your pulse getting stronger! When I first went to Dr. Gong, my pulse was so weak you could barely even feel it. Now, it's so much stronger... even I can feel it on my own!!

Okay... goin' to grab a before heading out to DH's appt.

Will check in with today's OPK results!

 

[Chiclady]

Coley - What a great story!

Lulu - Did you end up testing today? It's 12 dpo?!?

TurboTurtle - Good news about the pulse! And the motivation! Are you going to see any other acupuncturist while she's out?

AFM, FF keeps moving my O date. I'm not exactly sure why they would say I'm only 5 dpo today, because I got my first peak on the monitor/loads of EWCM day 17 and a slight temp rise on CD 18, but still a little EWCM. Then on Day 19 (the day FF says I ovulated) I had a slightly higher temp than the day before but no lovely CM. Anyway, I suppose I'm 6 dpo. My temp is much higher than it was at this point in my cycle last month. These are all promising things because my practitioner believes that I have a 'cold uterus" so I'm being treated with herbs and such to get the blood moving around and warming up. She seemed pleased that the temperature was up quite a bit compared to last month, but she noted still quite a bit of stasis in my abdomen. She says that she treats this sort of issue all the time in her practice.

When she looked at my tongue, she immediately asked me if I'd had a stressful week because my coating was coming off. I was sooo stressed this week and it's amazing how she knew just by looking.

She also mixed something in my herbs to help with my sleep. Lately I've been having very vivid dreams and she said I should be sleeping better. Very relaxing session and am already looking forward to Saturday.

On the Western medicine front, I'm going shortly for my "7 days past + OPK" bloodwork.

 

[TurboTurtle80]

Coley - Definitely sounds like you have a great man. Makes it way less stressful. Some days I feel like I just have a sperm donor. lol! Poor guy. I luv him either way.

Chic - She does have someone who will step in for her, but for whatever reason I feel I should just wait. I'm somewhat private about my issues and I feel comfortable talking to her. Although, I am starting school soon and I know I'll be stressed and likely need a treatment. I guess I'll take it day by day and leave my options open. Weird FF is being evil. I've heard that you can have less EW while you are truthfully ovulating since you are more fertile the days leading up. Maybe you had a weird cycle and not as much estrogen as usual?

Have you girls noticed a huge increase of fluids with acu? (Sorry TMI) I know I'm constantly gushing no matter what part of my cycle. I would rather be like this than as dry as it used to be. Bf is loving it too! Lol!!

 

[Lulu 07]

Chiclady~ No need for a test. AF is starting to make an appearance a little early this cycle. I had a temp drop and started spotting this morning.

I just came back from my acupuncture appointment. This time I could feel every needle as it went in and came out. He said it's because my body is more sensitive around AF and also said treatment is more effective around this time. He put more needles than usual this time. I had 7 in abdomen, 4 in each arm, 1 in each hand, 1 in each foot, and i think 2 in each leg. I also had a headache so I had 2 in my head for that. It was very relaxing.

I was in a bad mood the past 2 days and didn't know why because AF was supposed to be 3 or 4 days away and so didn't make the connection. Surprisingly I'm in a much better mood today even the witch is here. Also, Dr. Lee (the acupuncturist) said that as long as my pms pain level was still high, pregnancy won't be achieved easily and if it is, then most likely my immune system will attack it. I need my immune system to relax and stop being overprotective

I'm still on the same diet which is the only thing that is bothering with this whole TCM thing. I can't have any dairy, red meat, or garlic. All drinks have to be room temp or warmer. i have to have 60% raw veggies, 20% other types of meat like chicken, turkey, fish, etc.. and 20% carbohydrates. I also can't have coffee or any type of tea except red rasberry leaf tea. I could do with everything but the dairy. This diet is really difficult, especially the dairy part.

 

[TurboTurtle80]

Hey Lulu,

So does he mean that if you have cramping and what not then its harder to get pregnant, or does he mean the amount of pain you feel while putting the needles in? Scares me cuz I do get cramps really bad. On the other hand the needles don't really hurt me much any more and Dr. Nguyen had even mentioned I was taking them all very well, even better than usual. Curious...hmm.

 

[Lulu 07]

TurboTurtle~ he was talking about the menstrual cramps. On a pain scale of 1-10 ten being the most painful, my menstrual pain level is 8-10 usually, and he said he needs to bring it down to 3 or less before I'm able to get pregnant. As for the needles, I normally don't feel them at all either but this time I did because it's the first day of AF and he said that's normal.