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Monday, July 6, 2015

Health Update #3

Last week I shared a little bit about how I have been doing emotionally.  This week I'd like to share how I have been doing physically.  

PCOS - This is basically no longer an issue for me.  The clean eating that I've been doing and possibly my use of essential oils and herbs have helped my hormones to balance.  I don't currently present any symptoms of PCOS anymore! :)

MTHFR - The supplements I was taking to help my body methylate and detox properly also worked and I have been able to slowly wean off of those supplements as my body learns to methylate better on its own.  

My one concern in this area is that my folate levels might have dropped again.  The Methotrexate that I had to take for my ectopic is a folate inhibitor and I was not allowed to eat anything with folate in it while on the medicine so that it wouldn't interfere with the treatment.  

I have been eating greens every day since I got the all clear and am taking a prenatal with folate in it as well, so hopefully this does not become an issue.  I've been told that I should wait for three months before trying to get pregnant again though to be sure that I have sufficient folate to make a healthy baby.  For us, this means no trying until September.  :/  That seems really far away to me right now.

Acupuncture - This is still a regular part of my fertility support although lately it has mostly been emotional support for me.  My body feels healthy and strong for the most part and my acupuncturist agrees with me.  

The area where I am weak right now is my emotions.  Rada has played a huge role in helping me through my grief for both of my miscarriages and I owe a huge debt of gratitude to her for that.  

Testing -  We have also added a new "character" to our fertility story.  After having an ectopic pregnancy we decided that it was time to get some testing done and really dig deep into our reproductive health.  I want to make sure that we do everything we can to prevent another pregnancy loss.  We have begun to see a doctor at Shady Grove Fertility Center and had our first appointment this past week.  

We have several tests scheduled for the next month that will hopefully show us if there are any other reasons why pregnancy has been such a struggle for us.

Please pray for us that these test would come back favorably.  The main test that is causing me anxiety is called an HSG test.  They will put dye in my uterus and tubes so that they can see if there are any blockages that could cause infertility or another ectopic.  I am worried that there is scar tissue from a surgery I had in 2011 that has damaged my tubes.  It would explain why I had an ectopic pregnancy, but it would also mean that my odds of needing IVF to get pregnant are increased.  

I really don't want to do IVF.

I want to get pregnant naturally.  In my home.  With my husband.  And not in a sterile doctors office with nurses and doctors and needles and syringes and $5000 of fertility medicine and synthetic hormones.... 

If it comes to that, it comes to that.  And I will probably process that here on the blog too.  But today, I'm just saying that I really, really don't want to have to process that.  I don't want that to have to be an option.  

So I'm NOT looking forward to these tests because I am nervous about finding out more bad news and I AM looking forward to them because it means we will have a better understanding of what our options are and be that much closer to our Someday Baby.  

Oh, the conflicting emotions.  

Thank you all for reading and virtually sharing this crazy roller coaster ride with me.  I appreciate all your thoughts and prayers and words of encouragement.  I hope none of you ever have to ride this ride yourselves, but if you do, know that I will be there for you cheering you on and supporting you every second.



PS.  This is random, but I'm planning on changing my blog design soon!  Just wanted to give you all a head's up so you don't think you're lost next time you visit this space. ;)


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