the perils of temping

Funny story.

My temperatures were looking really stupid. Here's my chart so far this cycle.

I mean, seriously. 97.7 five days in a row? A bit suspicious, even if I was temping at different times (which I was). But then the numbers started going up a bit so I was like, OK, I guess my thermometer's not broken. But then I realized, Hey. It's Day 18 and according to my chart, I haven't ovulated, even though my most fertile days were Day 15 and 16, according to my opk machine. And I'd been waiting to ovulate so I could take the crinone gel.

(Not to mention that I'd been waiting to ovulate so I could put my stud horse out to pasture, if you know what I'm saying. My poor husband is exhausted.)

So I ordered a new thermometer, got it yesterday, tested it against the old one, and my temperature on the new one was a full .6 degrees higher. Which in the world of basal body temperature charting is the difference between ovulating and not ovulating. It's huge. So obviously there is something amiss with the old thermometer.

Lesson learned: Change the batteries in the thermometer every month.

The problem now is I have no idea if/when I ovulated, and I'm uncertain about whether I should just start using the crinone gel. If I haven't ovulated yet, excess progesterone can block the release of the egg. My number this morning was less than helpful: 97.7. Some past charts show delayed ovulation on Day 20, so perhaps I'll wait to see what tomorrow's number is and then start using the gel.

Anyway, yes, I did decide to start using crinone gel after I visited K the acupuncturist last week. She was as kind as ever, but I'm afraid she had zero insight after I showed her my charts and labs. I shouldn't have set my expectations so high -- I mean, at this point I already know what's going on. Or at least, I think I do; my wonky thermometer may have been leading me astray.

Another lesson -- last week's session was much less relaxing because my hands were freezing. Why didn't I just tell her my hands were freezing? I'm dumb. I will tell her next time.

She prescribed another herbal concoction. This one is in liquid form. You mix it with water and it is nasty. It's possible it's not herbs at all, and just worcestershire sauce. Ick. I'm still taking "gather vitality" as well -- 3 pills, 3 times a day.

On my way out I asked K basically if she thought she could fix me. And she said the same thing she told me the first time; we'll nourish the egg and my hormones will respond properly to that strong egg. I officially no longer believe this, but that's ok because I still think herbs and acupuncture are potentially beneficial. She advised me to go ahead and use the crinone gel, so I figured I should.

Meanwhile I'm on Week 3 of Paleo. It's significantly easier than it was mid-week in Week 2, when I was depressed and had begun thinking there is no way this diet is sustainable and I'm going to have to give it up and eat bread again and I'll be fat forever, etc. I was having the worst cravings. This week I feel much better (although the idea of pizza ... is a little heartbreaking). That said, the weight loss has slowed WAY down. I'm sure if I was sticking to it really well, literally eating only meat and vegetables, I'd still see a big difference. But I can't do a no-fruit diet. It's just unreasonable at this point.

What's baffling to me is that I really have cut out all grains and dairy and legumes and this weight loss-stall is still happening. Pretty interesting. I guess I need to really watch my fruit and up the exercise.

tcm

I don't know why it took me this long to try acupuncture. I mean, I've been studying Making Babies as though it were a holy screed for the last two and a half years, and the book clearly says acupuncture and Chinese herbs would be beneficial for me.

Timeliness is not my strong suit, I guess.

Anyway, I decided on Friday to just go ahead and do it. I called the office to make an appointment and they were like: Would you like to come in today? And I was like: Sure.

So I went in and met my acupuncturist, K. She asked a lot of questions about my medical history. She is officially the first person I've sought fertility help from who's asked me how I have dealt with my miscarriages emotionally. Just her caring enough to ask made me a little teary. She confirmed that Paleo is the best diet I can be on right now in order to minimize insulin surges.

I asked for her thoughts on the crinone gel I'd recently been prescribed and she said it can certainly help, but that her take on my condition is that my eggs need to be nourished and built up so they'll be strong. When I produce a strong egg, my body will react in accordance with the proper hormones. I'm not totally sure I agree, but I do agree that I'd like strong, nourished eggs.

For the treatment portion of my visit, she felt my pulse, palpated my stomach, and felt my cold hands and feet, at which point she declared that my yang is stuck. Although she pronounced it "yong." My qi is deficient and needs to get ... efficient. This information totally jibes with what Making Babies has told me.

She popped some needles in my forehead, lower abdomen, legs, and feet. Then she did this moxibustion thing I'd never heard of, where they heat some kind of dried Chinese plant and touch it to the needles. I think the theory is that it stimulates circulation. She placed a heat lamp over my belly and a heating pad at my feet. I was instructed to let my heart grow with unconditional love and send that love down my right arm, into my hand (which was resting on my lower stomach), and into my ovaries. I began to picture my ovaries as purple mirror balls. It was involuntary, what can I say.

I was left to relax for ... I don't know. Half an hour? I laid there and listened to the hippie music and got nice and deliciously toasty, and once I got bored of sending love to my glittering ovaries, I let my mind wander wherever it wanted to. I didn't fall asleep -- I'm simply not that chill of a person. Perhaps on a future visit I'll be able to relax that deeply.

When the session was over, K asked if I'm familiar with basal body temperature charting. Um. YES. She wants to see my charts. She is the first person I've sought fertility help from who's expressed the slightest interest in my charts. My personal belief on this subject is that most doctors have no clue what the temperatures mean.

K also wants to see my most recent blood work, so I got that for her as well. She prescribed some herbs and gave me a moxibustion stick to light and hold over my stomach. I told her I will try anything. Why not?

When I got home, there was an email waiting for me with my treatment plan inside. I'm to go for weekly sessions for one full cycle, and then reevaluate. She also strongly suggested I buy a certain book ... you guessed it! Making Babies! I believe I've stumbled upon the holy grail of acupuncture practices.

Because I had such a positive experience, I'm seriously considering not taking the crinone gel when I ovulate this cycle. Is that insane? I just kind of want to see how my body responds to acupuncture first ... maybe give it a couple cycles. We'll see how I feel after the next session on Friday.

To top it all off, I got a card in the mail today from K, just welcoming me to the practice and wishing me a happy weekend. Which is way more than I can say for the multitude of doctors I've seen and paid wayyyy more money to. Now, if it works? I'll be completely sold.

Guest Post: Combining Western and Eastern Medicine

There's been a lot of radio silence on good ol' Tired & Stuck, so today I'm bringing in a post from a gal I met on the Internet just over a year ago. I'd been a fan of her blog for some time, without realizing she is also "fertility-challenged." Since that discovery, we've bonded over our hatred of our periods, cramps, and mysterious lady defects. She's got a much more take-charge attitude when it comes to making a baby a reality for herself; I admire that and aspire to be more like her. 

She has offered to write this anonymously, as she and her partner are not ready to make this part of their lives public. But, she promises to follow up with further posts later on so we can read about how everything worked out.

I've been a follower of Tired & Stuck since day 1 and I've always found the stories posted here to be of huge interest to me. Even though I wasn't necessarily trying to conceive at the time, I knew that it would only be a matter of time before I was part of the I-want-a-baby-WHY-CAN'T-I-HAVE-A-BABY??!? club. (I'll explain that part later.)

Erin was gracious enough to let me do a guest post because, although I'm not following the Tired & Stuck methodology, I AM trying to get in on that sweet baby action. And if you readers are anything like me, you get big sighs of relief when you come across experiences similar to your own.

So before I get to the good stuff, let me lay out all the details, TTC-style.

-Early 30's.

-5th cycle TTC

-No previous pregnancies

-Left ovarian cyst

-Small uterine fibroids

-Endometriosis

So where do I start...?

I began having excruciatingly difficult periods around 3 years ago. I ended up going off the pill because I attributed my constant upset stomach and tiredness to birth control. Unfortunately, it was actually birth control that was keeping things somewhat in check. After doing tons of symptom research with my lab partner, Dr. Google, I kept ending up at the same answer: Endometriosis.

I was in my doctor's office on a regular basis for one ailment after another, all related to my period. Since most of my symptoms had to do with "the back end", my doctor scheduled me for a colonoscopy. A few days after I had the procedure done, the specialist called with my results: Endometriosis. (Yes. Endo in my colon. I get the best of both worlds.)

Up until now, I've avoided the laparoscopy route. Partly because I know there's a chance the adhesions will come back, and partly because I would have a whopper of a copay. And if I'm going to fork over that kind of money, I better be walking out of that hospital with a baby in my arms.

For the most part, I'm pretty old fashioned and "Western mediciney", and have always solved my ailments with a handful of Tylenol. And I also always assumed that my general practitioner would give me the 100% A+ right answer whenever I had a problem.

But it was when I got to a virtual dead-end (ie., surgery) that I started looking elsewhere.

Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine.

A friend referred me to a local fertility acupuncturist whom she had heard great things about. Even though I was doubtful about this "hippie" stuff, I figured it couldn't hurt.

Well...

I am not exaggerating when I say I could tell a noticeable difference after the FIRST VISIT ALONE. All of my endometriosis symptoms had significantly decreased. My upset stomach was gone. I had energy. It was GREAT.

I've been maintaining my acupuncture appointments on a weekly basis. And I also make sure to take any herbal supplements my acupuncturist gives me. Since I'm not really sure which of the two has the magic touch, I gladly do them both.

A few weeks ago, my OBGYN gave me a prescription for Clomid. And naturally, I zoomed home and read every TTC thread on the planet to see what side effects I should expect, what the success rate is, how it will effect my ovulation and hormones, etc. And of course, the internet didn't fail in presenting a myriad of horror stories related to Clomid.

Luckily, it's been a breeze for me (so far).

Within two hours of taking my very first pill, I could feel lightning bolts from my ovaries, going down my legs. However, it sounds a lot worse than it was and I fell asleep shortly after the sensation started. That night and the next night I slept like a log. Seriously. I was comatose.The following days it was like I was in a Nyquil haze.

Those were the only symptoms I had while actively taking the Clomid.

At 4 days after taking my last pill, some new symptoms kicked in. I noticed that I had been light-headed and dizzy and almost felt like I was going cross-eyed. And I had horrible indigestion on-and-off for a couple of days. Upset stomach, heavy pressure on my chest, knot in my throat, and even burps. Weird symptoms considering it's supposed to be working on my baby-maker, not my digestive system. (It sounds bad, but it was definitely manageable.) 

At my acupuncture appointment (day 7 of cycle), my ovaries were very tender when my doctor put the needles in. When I mentioned it, he said it's probably due to the Clomid and "all the action going on in there". That made me feel good, like maybe my ovaries weren't being jerks anymore. He then rigged up some Frankenstein-style machine to my ovary-area needles and ran a VERY light current through them. It was very mild and I could barely even feel it at all. However, once it had been working for a few minutes, I was getting the lightning bolt feeling again. This time, it went from my right ovary down my right leg, and from my left ovary up my torso.

This shooting pain took place every few seconds and the whole thing lasted several minutes. It was much stronger than the time before. I noticed I was tense, and as soon as I made myself relax, the pain lessened significantly. I asked my doctor what the electric stimulation is supposed to do. He responded that it brings a lot of blood to the area, which makes things nice and healthy.

I liked that answer.

On the afternoon of cycle day 12, I thought I noticed CM. -Which was unusual because I pretty much stopped noticing that stuff when I started the pill a million years ago. So I decided to do an OPK just for shits and giggles. Lo and behold - a smiley face. Looks like the CM actually increased for me (contrary to what most women experience, based on the fertility threads I've read). I tested again the following morning. And again, a smiley face. Yay! My insides are working! That second day I felt light stabbing pains near both of my ovaries all day. Mittelshmerz is not something I've experienced before. So, again - Yay!

On cycle day 16 I noticed the only annoying side effect I've experienced so far. Hot flashes. I had actually been looking forward to getting these infamous hot flashes because I'm always cold and I figured it would warm me up. Unfortunately, these hot flashes didn't warm my whole body. Instead, it just felt like I threw my cheeks on the barbecue. I even had a low temp of 99.4, which totally confirmed the burning in my face.

So here I am today. Cycle day 18. And I feel great! I'm still surprised that so far, it seems like Clomid has made my body NORMAL. My guess is that I had some kind of hormone deficiency going on and I needed this extra boost. I really feel super hopeful! And now that I have these tricks up my sleeve, I feel like I'm ready to show infertility who's boss.