Still here, still IF

That just about sums it up.  Read on if you want the slightly boring medical details.

1.  We're still fighting the TEBB.  I think we're losing.  After the three-week course of antibiotics took it away for one cycle, it came back the following cycle for five days.  Then we started taking the antibiotics every cycle from CD1-CD10.  The first cycle had two days of a tiny bit of TEBB.  The second cycle had three days (again a tiny bit).  The third cycle had one day of TEBB.  I wonder if maybe acupuncture helped?  The fourth cycle had two days.  This cycle (#5) had three days.  Dr. K told me to start turmeric to try to combat it.  I'm feeling maxed out in the pill department, so I was happy to find that liquid turmeric exists (and is possibly better absorbed than pill form according to Dr. Google).

2.  (this is just my personal theory) The TEBB isn't just a marker for the infection in my uterus.  The longer it stays around the more likely my endo will return.  My theory is that the infection played a large role in the regrowth of my endo after surgery #1 in 2011.  It's either that or I have some crazy genetics that make me super-predisposed to grow endo at a fast rate.  (Pain during my period returned less than 16 months after surgery #1...and surgery #2 last year showed endo in all new places--no recurrence from the first surgery.)  So I'm thinking that if we lose the battle with the TEBB, it's just a matter of time before the endo returns.

hanging out with a needle in my foot

3.  I was mistaken in thinking the acupuncturist was a physician; he is actually a chiropractor.  I've never been to a chiropractor before, and I didn't know they use the title "Dr."  I get the impression that he is good at what he does, but normally he relies on instant feedback from his patients because their pain goes away (so he knows he did something right).  The only symptom I walked in the door with was infertility, and there's no quick fix for that.  One day he complained to me that I don't praise him for what he does.  I told him he will get no praise from me unless I get pregnant.  I mean, what he does he expect me to say?  "Wow, the way you stuck that needle in my foot was great!"  Seriously.  (rolling my eyes here)  He did tell me on another occasion, "I WILL get you pregnant."  I don't know if he's confident or crazy or maybe a combination of the two.  Besides the acupuncture he ordered some blood tests (blood count, chem panel, etc.) to see if he could figure out anything else that's wrong.  A bunch of the labs were not in the normal range, but he really couldn't explain to me what they meant, other than I need to eat more protein and my vitamin D is still really low (39--at least it's better than it used to be...).  During each appointment he poked me with 2-3 needles and checked muscle strength in different places.  I ended up going every week or two for two months.  During my last appointment before Christmas, he had a neurologist with him for the day.  The neurologist found some (little?) things that were abnormal, like an intention tremor--my hand shakes a little when I reach for something far from me.  They shooed me out of the room so they could talk about me before I could ask what anything meant.  He promised to call me to tell me what the neurologist found, but he never did.  He closed the office for a couple weeks before Christmas and then I was out of town until after New Year's.  When I got home, I kept putting off making another appointment.  If there was another acupuncturist in town, I would switch in a heartbeat, but there's not.  He just rubs me the wrong way.  I'll probably go back to see if it improves my TEBB, but I don't think I'll last very long.

4.  Dr. K rechecked my thyroid labs.  My free T4 was low, so she increased my Synthroid dose.  I don't really have symptoms of low thyroid, so it's basically just treating my lab numbers.  When I started Synthroid, it was also just for my lab numbers.  Apparently it's common, according to the PPVI nurse I spoke to, that after a patient takes T3 for while, her T4 drops requiring the addition of Synthroid.  I had heard other patients on T3 say that this had happened to them as well.

5.  I learned that a certain well-known NFP-only physician of another method (not Creighton) treats any prolactin level that is above 10 in infertility patients.  My prolactin was 23 when it was last measured in 2010.  I asked Dr. K what she thinks about this and if a slightly elevated prolactin could affect fertility even if I have regular cycles (around 28 days).  Usually elevated prolactin would make cycles longer, but I don't have long cycles.  She's rechecking my prolactin this cycle, so we'll see in a week or so during my cycle review what she says about it.