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Sunday 26 June 2011

I'm back

It's been a while. I haven't stayed away on purpose, it's just been so crazy in my life that the blog hasn't really come to my mind. I still check on other blogs, but the thought of sitting down and writing something is the last thing I want to do most nights.

Where did the month of June go?? My last post was June 3!

Well, quick update... I can definitely say that this month was yet again a bust in the baby department :( I'm not overly surprised. I'm amazingly calm about that fact. The only day that I got remotely upset about it all was Father's Day. I was feelings so guilty and sad for my husband - feeling horrible that I was the cause of him not being a father for yet another year. We packed up and went to his brother's house (I don't much like his brother btw) to have a family BBQ with my in-laws. Perhaps it was a good thing. My husband's brother and his wife don't have any kids either, so it's not like I was inundated with baby or kiddie stuff. It was simply to celebrate my father-in-law (who is a great guy btw - I really do like my parents-in-law... thankfully!)

That day made me wonder if my in-laws will ever be grandparents - I know they really want to be, but it looks like we may be their only option. DH's brother is 37 and his wife 40, and they aren't even talking about having kids openly. The only time that it is ever brought up, he cringes and says "we'll see". It's not going to happen - I would almost be money on it. And then there is us. *sigh*

So, my month was spent trying to get everything finished for the end of the school year. I had a two day camping trip with 10 grade 7 students. All I can say is this people... don't have decuplets! lol. I love kids, I really do... but two full days, in the wilderness, with 10 kids who aren't mine, and are all teens! yikes. I deserve a medal or something. Actually they were pretty awesome. One little princess spent her entire trip complaining, but several others told her to shut it, which was amusing. I got home completely exhausted. I took the next day off, only to have my administrator call me at home five times to get information from me. It's kind of nice to know that I'm needed I guess.

The rest of the month was a push to get done all the course work and try like hell to not lose it - the kids are getting rather like animals - they are more than ready for summer, and it shows in behaviour and commitment.

I just finished calculating my final grades for report cards and all that is left is to put the grades into the system and put in my comments. I'm thinking that since I did such a great job of comments in the first two terms, a simple "have a great summer" would probably suffice this time :)

I am switching my teaching assignment for next year, and my physical classroom - I get the nicest room in the school - large windows, lots of space, excellent location. And, I'm going from teaching Math to English - much closer to my area of expertise. I'm very excited. AFter a shit year last year, this year has been amazing - my final review came in yesterday and it was glowing - no problems at all. I love this school!

On a bittersweet note, Thursday is graduation. 10 kids graduating from our school. Quite honestly, two of my favourite students in the school are among them. I know, I know, you aren't supposed to have favourites, but these two have huge personalities and seem to know when a person needs cheering up. According to the parent (they are twins), the one boy didn't show any interest in school until I started to teach him, so the parent has actually asked me to sit down with the boy and try to talk to him about his future, because he won't talk to anyone else, but can't say enough good stuff about me. Huge compliment! I'm going to miss these kids... all of them! It's exciting to see them growing up and moving on, but sad to see them leave.

back to report cards!

Friday 3 June 2011

Needles needles needles

I saw the acupuncturist yesterday.

I had acupuncture a few years ago when I was struggling with pain for a herniated disc. Nothing I did, and nothing I took seemed to fix the pain, so I thought "why not". Top it off that my health plan covered it, so I gave it a shot and holy moly, the pain went right away... and stayed away for about 3 weeks! amazing!

Soooo, I figured, why not. My friend over at Sprout suggested that perhaps acupuncture to spur on ovulation might be in order. I figured, why not. So I went in yesterday.

My appointment started with a full history - REALLY full history, more than any medical doctor has ever taken. Given that I was there for fertility issues, the fact that she was asking me about ear infections, etc was really weird. Then when we were finished she told me that it turns out that the ears are connected to the same system that the reproductive system is ... the kidney meridian. That doesn't mean there is anything wrong with my kidneys, just that that system is weakened. She said that all things point to my body, and particularly the kidney meridian, being weakened from the extensive medical issues that I've had in the past couple of years and has been exacerbated by the stress.

She wants to treat me to improve the energy of this zone and improve it. She said that she thinks from what I've told her that I am ovulating and quite possibly getting pregnant, but my body is unable to support a pregnancy. Given that my luteal phase is typically REALLY short she may be right. She actually said that she thinks that it might be better to wait a month or two before getting pregnant in order to strengthen my system so that it is ready for pregnancy. I'm tossing the idea around. Not the idea of not trying, just the idea of not using drugs and just letting it happen if it happens over the summer. I don't have an appointment with the obgyn until August 24, so maybe if I just wait until then to go on the drugs... I don't know... it's an idea I"m throwing around.

Anyway, she recommended a book to me. She said to get it and do the checklists in it and it will help us to figure out exactly what hormones are out of whack. She said that I didn't have to follow the diet plan exactly but that there was a lot of really good information in it. She wants me to focus more on the getting healthy and less on the fertility for a little bit of time (so yes, I ended up having chips for supper tonight). The book is called The Supercharged Hormone Diet by Dr. Natasha Turner. So far it's kind of interesting. I started looking at a couple of the tests and it is looking like I'm very high on cortisol which could account for a lot. That is one hormone that has never been tested in me, so who knows... maybe we're onto something.

She doesn't want me to go on any herbs until we have a better handle on it - she said that my system is too weak for herbs right now, so after it is stronger, then she'll recommend some.

I am booked in to get a treatment once a week for the next month. It means weekly trips to the city, but if it makes a difference, it will be worth it.

One of the things that the book recommends is to detox for a week then slowly reintroduce foods to determine if there are any intolerances that are causing trouble. I might try a detox, but I already told my husband that he needs to leave the town for that week because if I give up carbs, meat, sugar, and caffeine all in one week... well, I won't be held responsible for my behaviour.

So, anyway, the treatment went pretty well and I'm trying to be positive about all of it. It's a different approach, so why not give it a shot!

Thursday 2 June 2011

Bring on the needles

I'm off to the acupuncturist this afternoon. I've decided that if I have to wait months to see my obgyn (keep reading for more info on that insanity), I would try some natural healing options to try to help with TTC.

Right now, I'm pretty sure that I'm not ovulating. My BBTs are all over the place, and I'm just frustrated because I'm pretty sure that a round of Clomid (or something like it) would solve all the problems. Everything else seems normal. I get other symptoms that I'm going to ovulate - but my BBTs show that I'm not. On top of it, it seems like I might have a shortened luteal phase, but that really doesn't matter if I'm not ovulating!

So I have an appointment to see if acupuncture and herbs can help with that little problem.

I heard from a friend who uses the same obgyn that she called for an appointment and was offered days in June or July. When I called a month ago, I was told August 24th was the first option. That just pisses me off. I feel like I"m racing against time, because the hyperplasia could return, and if I end up having a return of that before I get pregnant all because I had to wait, I'm going to be pissed! So I tried to call yesterday to find out why I wasn't offered an earlier option. I got a message saying that they were closed from April 22 to May 2. Um, last I checked it's June. But the only other option was to indicate it was an emergency and go to an answering service (which I wasn't going to do). So, today, after my acupuncture, I am going to drive to the office and find out in person what is going on!

On the positive front however... yesterday, my hubby was offered full time employment for next year, still at the same school as this year. So that's awesome! One stressor down. The admin even came into my classroom to tell me that he had offered him the position. I thanked him and said "oh, good, that's a stress off". He said "Yeah, that's why I told you - you look pretty stressed out right now". Nice eh? I keep telling the students that I'm a woman on the edge. *sigh*

I'm told that school is finished in a month... I really need a break!