My new found love - ACUPUNCTURE

Have you ever tried acupuncture? If you are reading this and you are experiencing problems getting pregnant - all I can say is you should try acupuncture. For me, I hoped it would help balance out my hormones and whatever else that seemed to be failing in my body.

I went to the website and filled out the health form and went for my first appointment. I had no idea what to expect. Nicole had told me that she was really nice so that's always a plus! So Sarah comes out to the waiting room to get me and I'm pleasantly surprised....she is very young and sweet and instantly made me feel at ease. We discussed my issues and what I was trying to accomplish. She asked me if I would mind charting my temperature since it helps her to see what is going on. Fine by me, I'm usto that. So she asked me to get comfortable on the table so I did.

She carefully puts the needles into the points she knows will help. I can say that it hurt the first time because I was tense not knowing what to expect. But all my appointments now are much easier. Yes, it pinches sometimes but not as bad as some things I have experienced and it only pinches for like a second. So she gets all the needles in and asks if I would like the heat lamp, a face mask or music? All of the above! She puts some nice soothing Enya on and says she'll check back with me. About 15 minutes later she quietly enters and asks if I'm doing okay and I reply yes and she says "OK good" and quietly shuts the door. I actually can say that first appointment, I fell asleep. It was so relaxing and I felt that I was doing something good for my body instead of pumping it with drugs.

Come to find out my mom tells me that our old neighbors daughter was having difficulty getting pregnant and didn't want to do any drugs so she tried acupuncture and was pregnant in 3 months and then tried it again for her second and was pregnant right away.
I also met a wife of someone who works for my husband who was having difficulty and she was a little older and decided to get acupuncture...she was pregnant in 3 months as well. I thought, well if it works for all these people than maybe there is a real chance it could work for me.

After my first month with Sarah she notices something is not really changing on my BBT (Basil Body temperature) chart and asks if I would be opposed to taking herbs? I said absolutely now if you think it will help. So now I have these herbs...I have no idea what to do with them, I thought they would be in the form of a pill....Apparently you add them to 2 - twice a day. She tells me some people just use a little hot water and shoot it down - so I tried that and almost throw up they taste so gross! So I tell her...and she says I can add a tea bag and some honey but not to add milk or sugar and not to add the herbs when the water is boiling because it will hurt the herbs. So I do all of that and I can actually deal. I mean its not fun by any means to have to remember to take herbs every morning and every night but if it means I can avoid that Laprascopy then I'm all for it!!!!!!!!!!

For the first cycle on herbs I actually ovulated on a normal day 14. I have not ovulated on day 14 in years....I was always ovulating so early - like on day 8...Now I'm thinking that must not have been good, maybe my eggs were not getting as mature as they should...I mean I'm thinking all sorts of things but I am soooo excited that I finally had a normal cycle - things really were getting better!

I have been going to Sarah now since June I think and I cant tell you how great I feel. I was a major IB Profrin popper....I had a headache everyday...now, no headaches really in months. I'm sleeping through the night with no tossing and turning and my periods are great. Sarah told me in the beginning that your period should not come with any cramps and no brown blood really. She said your period should just show up, be red and then fade away to nothing after about 4 days. She said when you get cramps its because there are clots that are restricting the blood from moving freely. My periods are soo much better now. Last month I didn't have one symptom and my temps were great.

I was so excited to be doing so much better from this practice that I knew nothing about. I wanted to change that and try and understand what it was that acupuncture was doing. I went to Amazon and ordered all sorts of books on acupuncture & Infertility. I learned so much! I wish I had started acupuncture a long time ago - maybe things would be different? But I guess I really cant think that way. I just have to be happy that I found something that seems to be working for me.

Last month - September to be exact I started thinking....I can see that things are changing based on my temp chart but how do I know if this is working for me internally? How do I justify spending $118. a week on something that I have no proof is working? So I decided to call Dr.Hughes to see if we could do some blood work to check my hormone levels. I was excited and nervous...what if this new found love I have is not working? What do I do then? And why would it not be working but working for other people? Anyway - on to get blood work done to find out for sure.

It was really nice to see Dr.Hughes.....as I mentioned before hes so nice and so accommodating. So he took my blood then did an internal. He said everything looked great and all on my own I have a large follicle on my right side ( I'm beginning to find my left side is very lazy) and my uterine lining is about 18. Sarah said that's excellent so I was very happy! Dr.Hughes said that I should come in again in another week to check my estrogen levels etc. Ok - works for me, this is the true tell tale test. My results of the blood work for that week are good...I cant remember what the numbers were - they are not as important as the others one the following week!

I head back the following week at 6AM - oh yeah - fun! Who the hell is up at that hour anyway - its not right! We take my blood and then we chat....he still wants me to have the Laproscopy and I tell him I just cant...I'm not ready. I am way to freaked about going under...Freaks me out! But I ask him if maybe we can do the dye test. I think that I can now handle that one. I know its supposed to hurt but....I think we need to see if my tubes are blocked. He agrees and we schedule it. He tells me to call to get my blood work results at 3pm. I tell him to let the women know when I call that I want the numbers because her telling me things look good does nothing for me...I didnt know what the heck that means and frankly neither does she probably.

Ok so here's the deal...He tells me that when I started coming to him back in Dec of 2006 my estrogen was like no existent. They like to see it anywhere from 200-400....mine was 86 and never changed....ok now I see why I cant get pregnant! There was another number but I cant remember right now what it was....it was good though. So I call at three and she says Doctor Hughes said things are so much better. She says my estrogen - all on my own with acupuncture & herbs mind you is....313!!!! YEAH!!!! I'm so ecstatic! Its working that acupuncture! There is some truth to it all!!! I was so relieved...I can now continue with it...

Next time I see Sarah I tell her the great news and she is soo excited and she sees that my temps are better too. She says that she knows it's all frustrating and that she knows the unfortunate thing with acupuncture is it doesn't happen over night...its a process and that it really takes the body 3-6 months to get usto it.... I can deal with that. So I decided that this is what I will do until the first of the year. I want to give the acupuncture the appropriate amount of time for it to work. I want to hopefully get pregnant this way than with the drugs.

If you live in the area of Nashua, NH you should check Nashua Acupuncture and Sarah out. Their website is www.nashuaacupuncture.com