Some Advice

Do not, under any circumstances, eat a pop t.art the morning before you go to acupuncture. Not even if you don't have time to make your usual oatmeal because you have to make it to your early RE appointment.

Because your tattle-tale digestive pulse will give you away, that you ate a processed breakfast. And then your acupuncturist will ask you "what have you had to eat today?" and then she will try to keep from passing out when you answer "a pop ta.rt".

HA!!!

She told me (in her sweet organic voice) that a po.p tart is reeeeeally not the best choice of breakfasts, and I am not sure if she believed me that I usually eat oatmeal. But even the oatmeal I usually have (Apples & Cinnamon) is not the best- as I should be eating whole/regular oats, and sprinkling some actual apples and/or cinnamon on there for the sweetness (not to mention, apparently cinnamon is a great herb/spice anyway for warming the body). Okay okay.

Eating organic sounds so idyllic to me. I mean, I don't think we eat like crap- I make a balanced, from-scratch dinner every night- Mr. A doesn't think those frozen skillet meals are any kind of dinner!- and I promise I usually have oatmeal for breakfast. We don't normally keep alot of sweets or fattening snacks (chips, etc.) in the house. But I guess we could always eat better.

Like making old-fashioned oatmeal! Time to break out the small sauce pan instead of using the microwave, I guess!! If feeding my body regular oatmeal rather than processed oatmeal makes it more happy and better for our baby, then you will find me at the stove every morning indefinitely!!!

But all of that aside, I had another great acupuncture session today. Very relaxing, very soothing, and a nice treat to myself. She repeated the same points as last time- focusing on strong kidney and abdomen points, and I again experienced the same warm/"energy" feeling when those needles went in and came out. It is so neat. The one abdomen point on my hand was so powerful that my muscle twitched when she took the needle out!! She also included a couple extra points to try to soothe my face- with all these hormoneys, I definitely do not have the clearest skin....

She also put a seed on my ear (for general calm)! NEATO! And two magnets on the strong kidney points behind my ankles. If I want to, I can massage those points, but just the magnet/seed being there is supposed to keep the good energy flowing. Come on, flow!

And speaking of flow (Aunt, to be exact), my baseline appointment was excellent this morning and we are now just waiting for CD1 to get here!! I start lupron tonight. I better not forget- it has been almost a whole month since I did nightly injections!!

You will be happy to know that even though I was armed with a gabillion questions, my RE patiently and thoroughly answered each of them, and I am now confident in his approach and experience.

Basically, my biggest question was about the lack of estrogen supplementation. He said that in his experience/interpretation of the data available, estrogen supplementation is only beneficial if the lining does not appear to be thickening up to an acceptable point. He said it has not been shown (in his opinion) to increase the response as far as quantity or quality of follicles go. And since my lining has always been great, he does not see the need to add estrogen as a rule. He said that if it looks like my lining is thin when we get to the stim-monitoring stage, he will not hesitate to add estrogen.

AND, Mr. A's detailed/high-stakes SA from Monday came back great! They do not recommend ICSI. I was so thankful- he was nervous with the sickness/meds.

AND, the best part ever.... when we were going over the paperwork last night, we noticed that one page said that the total cost would be $9800, and another page said it would be $7400. That is a big difference! So I asked this morning, and guess what, the cost is only $8100!!!!! Oh my gosh! How awesome is that?! And given that our meds only cost us $200, we are feeling so thankful and blessed regarding the finances of all this, and how God has provided/inspired us to live so that we will be able to pay for it.

You know you're infertile when you are totally stoked about "only" paying $8100 for a 50/50 shot at a baby!!

And now I will round out my great day with some yoga before me and Banana take our walk on this beautiful spring afternoon. Pulled pork sandwiches for dinner, so come on over!!