CLUTCHING AT STRAWS

"There are no impossible dreams

just our limited perception of what is possible"

I had a new obsession by May 09 called temping. Why had a I never thought of doing this before?! It's amazing what one will do to achieve a dream and I was no exception. The next thing I know I am taking my temperature every morning and meticulously recording it on a website called Fertility Friend, obsessing over every little pattern that emerged. I was going to acupuncture fortnightly and lying with little needles sticking out all over me and listening to the sounds of nature. I was also taking little chinese pills every morning and night, little tiny foul tasting herbal pills that I took 15 of at a time! I know they tasted foul because I dared my workmate to bite into one and he was stupid enough to do it (I've never lived that down but why would you agree do that?!) Like I said, dumb. Anyway, this went on for months . . . the temping showed very clearly that there was no way I could get pregnant. The way it works is that prior to ovulation your basal body temperature is low and after ovulation it peaks and stays up during the luteal phase before dropping the day your period is expected to arrive or staying high if you're pregnant. Mine was low in the first half, rose up at ovulation and then promptly dropped within a few days. This was not good. If your temp doesn't stay up it shows low progesterone in the second half of your cycle which means it can't support a pregnancy. My acupuncturist said he could fix this but it could take months as my body was totally out of whack. In chinese medicine terms, my qi was unbalanced and not flowing through my body properly. I was willing to try anything and I wanted to give my body the best possible chance of concieving during my IVF cycle so it was the beginning of a year of fortnightly treatment. It did fix the problem and I felt great - I no longer was plagued by daily headaches, I slept better and never got sick. Unfortunately though the first month my temping chart actually showed a good enough pattern to support a pregnancy was the month prior to starting the IVF cycle but it meant we had laid a great foundation for the IVF working and I was so excited to be FINALLY at our IVF start month! Woohoo! Bring on the big guns!

SIDE NOTE: During this time we also found out my uterine polyp had grown back so it was back off to the hospital for another op to remove it for the second time in September 09. Bloody polyps! Unfortunately I am always going to have to keep an eye on this as they can become cancerous so every time I start getting symptoms of these again I need to let them know and then go back on the waiting list to have them removed. My FS seems particularly concerned about this due to my family history of cancer so it seems I could be in for a few hospital visits and ops in my lifetime but better safe than sorry.