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.

From the girl who was afraid of needles

Guess what I did today?  Okay, you'll never guess.  I had my first acupuncture appointment.

A while ago I read about people trying acupuncture on the IF blogs.  It's always been in the back of my mind since then as something to consider.  I was in no rush though because it involves needles and even though I'm much better than I used to be, I still don't like them.  For years, if I wasn't lying down or reclining enough so I was essentially lying down during a blood draw, there was a good chance I would end up on the floor passed out or very close to it.  Now as long as I don't watch as my blood is taken, I'm fine (excluding one episode last year first thing in the morning on an empty stomach).  Anyway, I knew acupuncture was different and wasn't supposed to hurt, but voluntarily subjecting myself to multiple needle sticks wasn't at the top of my list.  And I've seen pictures where there are a gazillion needles sticking out of nearly every inch of someone's body, which looked a little scary to me.

I've read a little here and there about acupuncture.  I knew it could possibly help decrease inflammation, which my uterus is (or at least was, at the time of surgery in February) filled with.  I knew it could help with fertility in general.  And that was the extent of my knowledge.

So naturally I made an appointment.  :)  I reasoned that if there was any time when we could use all the help we can get to maximize our chances of pregnancy, it would be now, when it appears the infection is gone for the time being.  (No TEBB this cycle!  Antibiotics worked again!)  I do not know how long the antibiotics will continue to work before the bacteria develop resistance, so I thought we could take advantage of this time.  The timing also nicely coincided with a coupon I found for the local acupuncture clinic.  :)  And I found out our insurance partially covers (or appears to cover) acupuncture.  So, why not?

The acupuncturist is also a physician trained in western medicine, so it's kind of like getting the best of both worlds.  He took my medical history first.  He wasn't too happy that I was on Synthroid (T4 thyroid hormone) because it doesn't really fix the problem at the source.  I'm not surprised that he felt that way.  He implied that he wants to find out why I'm hypothyroid because he said I'm not a typical hypothyroid patient (not overweight, etc.).  He wants to see my last thyroid labs, and if they're too old, he wants new ones run.  He was a little hard to follow sometimes, but I didn't ask many questions.  I just mostly listened and answered his questions.

He tested the strength of a bunch of different muscles (arms, legs, neck, etc.), and I could tell some of them were weak because I couldn't resist the pressure he put on them with his hand.  Every time there was weakness, he said something to his assistant girl who was taking notes.  He pressed on different spots on my abdomen to see if it was painful (nothing was).  He also looked inside my mouth, but I don't know what he was looking for.  He told his assistant to write something down, but I didn't ask what it meant.  I was happy to just curiously observe everything.

After all that testing, he started with the needles.  The first one went in my left forearm.  It stung like a bee sting while it was in and that spot ached for an hour or so afterward.  The pain was really mild though.  The second one went somewhere to the right of my belly button.  I couldn't feel that one at all.  I don't know if there was a third needle because he wasn't announcing them as he did them, and I was lying flat on my back so I couldn't see anything.  He was asking me questions or talking about something else or moving my arms and legs around while he was poking me.  The needles stayed in for a little while--maybe a few minutes--but I wasn't watching the clock.  He later retested the strength in the muscles that were weak, and the one muscle that I thought was weakest was surprisingly much stronger and able to resist him pushing against it.  I was impressed.  I have no idea what happened, but the needles did something good.  :)  Obviously, for both hypothyroid and IF, there aren't instant happy results, so we'll see if the needles do more good things down the road.

The other sign that the needles already had some kind of effect was a sensation I had in my entire chest and abdomen.  It felt like the whole area was...more active.  It was subtle, but definitely different from anything I've felt before.  I would describe it as warmer or maybe tingly (but not as tingly as when your hand falls asleep and you're regaining sensation).  It was like blood flow suddenly increased everywhere in that region.  Dr. Acupuncture said the needles were helping to "wake things up."  That is certainly what it felt like.

I asked him if he times the treatment to certain parts of the menstrual cycle, and he said he does and asked where I was in my cycle.  I told him I was about a week before ovulation.  He said he wants me to come in again either tomorrow or Thursday, so maybe something he does will help improve ovulation.  Again, I'll take all the help I can get, especially because I didn't take Clomid this cycle.  I was taking it to boost ovulation a bit; I don't have any known ovulation problems (aside from low post-peak hormone levels).  I forgot to call in the refill until AF arrived, and even though there were refills left on the prescription and normally I would have had the Clomid in hand by CD3, the pharmacy needed an authorization from my insurance company that I could continue to take Clomid, which takes a while.  I didn't know about that extra step.  So no Clomid this cycle.  I don't mind it at all actually.  We'll see how my body does on its own plus acupuncture.

Before I went to the appointment, I did a quick search online for what Catholic teaching might say about acupuncture.  What I found on a Catholic apologetics website that I trust is what I expected to find--that acupuncture as a medical treatment is fine (i.e., not immoral) as long as the patient doesn't participate in any non-Christian spirituality.  There was no spirituality aspect to my appointment today at all.  It went just like a normal doctor appointment, except after the physical exam, there were a few needles sticking out of me.  That's how I had assumed it would go.  If there had been anything questionable on the spirituality side, I would not go back.  My next appointment is Thursday.  :)

I know this might all be a long shot, but all the more fitting to start this treatment on the feast day of St. Jude, patron of all things long shot.  :)

St. Jude, pray for us!