A little of this, a little of that

[judecorp]

Netflix delivered the first disc of the last season of Queer as Folk today, and we have already devoured it. Three solid hours of television. I think my brain is mush, but I just want to see what happens next! (No spoilers, please.) We should get another disc on Thursday or Friday, whoopee!

We decided to do a trial period of acupuncture - 4 sessions, more than we can afford, but then we can see how we like it and whether we think it's helpful. And also see what they recommend, because if they recommend way more than we could manage we'll have to say no. There have been studies, though, which say that acupuncture can increase effectiveness of infertility treatments by almost half! We'll see what happens.

I also think we decided (though I could be wrong, I always think we've decided and then find out we're still deciding) not to continue looking at apartments. We do want to stick around here long enough to give the TTC thing a good try, but we also want to get on with our lives and head to Western Mass. So we have our doctor appointment on the 26th and will see what he recommends. Then we will try that for a little while and hope for success. Then we can talk about when to house hunt, whether we're successful or we've decided to move on to adoption. It's just so frustrating to look at cheaper apartments and find that they aren't anywhere near as good as what we have... and we really want a house. I grew up in an apartment and don't want to die in an apartment, KWIM?

Another hot one today. Love it.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

What does KWIM stand for?

[carina-s.livejournal.com]

What does KWIM stand for?

That was me.

[ladyoracle.livejournal.com]

i don't get it, either

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

It's "Know What I Mean"

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Know What I Mean

[sudrin.livejournal.com]

Well, I'll be curious if acupuncture works. In the past people have told me I should see an acupuncturist about my ears. I was unsure about the whole thing so I never did anything.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

I'm sure I'll be posting as it goes along. I'll let you know what happens. :)

[jadefu.livejournal.com]

I've kept my mouth shut about the whole pregnancy thing because its a sensitive issue for me, but I think I have to speak up.

After only a few cycles, to be honest, it seems a little early to give up, don't you think? Did the doctor misrepresent success rates here? On all the pcos online and offline groups I've been a part of, I've heard MANY women talk about how it often took YEARS to become pregnant. Even my Endo told me this. It's the major reason J & I aren't even considering until I'm ready, because I'm assuming it will take a few years. A couple cycles? That's a drop in the bucket.

It just seems like you're in such a rush for a baby, and its adding to your stress.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

We're in a rush, sure, but not moreso than anyone else who has decided they are ready to add to their family and want to get it going. But we're not interested in giving up, and maybe what I'm writing is kind of vague, I don't know.

We're not interested in giving up our dream of becoming parents, but we do a lot of talking about how far we are willing to go and what options we are willing to pursue to add to our family by one means (my being pregnant). We're also working with a pretty aggressive doctor who probably plows through options fairly quickly. What I'm not ruling out is that for whatever reason (mainly to improve his success rate), I will be fast-tracked to IVF... and IVF is something we decided not to pursue long before we got started.

When you have a ready supply of sperm around, you can kind of try for years. We don't really have that sort of option and we are at the whim of our doctor's office. He's okaying our inseminations and he's the one who decides how long we can try each protocol. Usually people have already been trying for a year or more before they get to where we are. You try for a year, you try some drugs, then you start getting into more invasive stuff - IUIs and IVFs and all of that. We sort of sped ahead to the IUIs and to do those, they require drugs (at my office). And most of those drugs are only supposed to be tried for a couple of months.

It's not something we're taking lightly. Fertility drugs are not natural and don't do great things for your body, and we don't want to take them for an extended period of time. We're not so hung up on having a biological child that we will do /anything/, risk /anything/, etc. We want to be parents. We would love to do the pregnancy thing but it is not required. It's just what we're trying right now, because it seems like the right time.

It might seem like we're rushing but you have to remember that I didn't get pregnant in my last marriage, either. *shrug*

I don't know if I've answered your questions or addressed your concerns. I'd love to talk to you about this personally if you have more that you'd like to say, ask, or know. But our process is quite a bit different than yours, even though we're both PCOS gals who may end up knocked up some day... simply because we're two girls who needed to enlist the help of technology from the get-go.

And for the record, TTC isn't adding to our stress level any more than most people... it's the /other/ stuff that has been happening by the crapload that has really made the stress level out of hand.

[jadefu.livejournal.com]

I actually have my own additional issues that make it not so easy for us either: my shrink saying I have to go off EVERY bipolar med I'm on because they're not safe, and having to do it gradually. That's actually the part I'm most scared about. But anyway.

I was just worried the docs weren't up front about how long some things can take. If you knew up front and were just planning to try a couple rounds then move on to try alternatives, then that sounds just fine to me. Just had me worried that you were giving up and getting all upset about it.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

I can't say that I have had /any/ conversations with the doctor about how long things take - and by that I mean there are no promises or timelines given, no guarantees. No one ever said, "This will take three years," and no one ever said, "This will take a couple of months." What they DO say is that they like to do things in threes, because in ideal circumstances, the average IUI will be successful in 1/3 to 1/4 of tries. We have now done three cycles of Clomid 100mg - one worked well, one worked less than well, and one didn't work at all. When we go in on the 26th, he /could/ opt to try an increased dosage of Clomid but I'm inclined to think that is not the case, based on conversations I've had with the NP. (Things like, "Clomid is not a very strong drug and it might be smart to move to something more aggressive." Her words, not mine.) I'm not sure if you're concerned that maybe I'm seeing some RE who has promised the moon on a silver platter or something, but I can assure you that this is not the case. Sure, he says things like, "I think we can make this work," but it doesn't go further than that.

I won't tell you it's not upsetting. For me, it has been WAY more upsetting to have a cycle get cancelled than it has been to have a cycle turn out negative... because at least with the latter you get a /chance/, and we didn't get a chance this month even though I took the icky pills with the icky side effects. And we /are/ nervous, because injectible drugs with IUI are our last step (because after that, all that's left is IVF) and if that doesn't work in the number of times our doctor or we are willing to try, it's over, at least for now. And that is certainly something I think about.

We never planned to try to knock me up for years. It was something we wanted to try while I had good health insurance, something we thought we would check out since I had previously been told it would never be possible. It's something we want to try but not something we are willing to beat to death. Does that make sense? I have always had my peace with adoption and have known that it was how I was going to add to my family. This is just sort of an added bonus.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Also, I wasn't trying to imply that it would be easy for you or that our way is in any way more difficult or whatever... I was really just trying to say that our situations are very different just because of who our partners are and how much they can, erm, contribute. (This is, of course, assuming that you don't have male factor issues.) So we're more dependent on the go-ahead of others, which gives us a little less control than we'd like sometimes.

Belated thought

[aliandra.livejournal.com]

Sorry this is so late....My house is torn down, and I'm cheating, and enjoying my friday, and being here.....

*coughs*

SO. Catching up. Trying.


As far as acupuncture, my chiropractor offers that, and I tried it recently with my PCOS. I am an odd duck, and I bleed and bleed and bleed....I'm edging up on 5 months now.

I only had the money to do it for three or four sessions. Stupid money. But during that time, even though I didn't stop altogether, I **COULD** tell a difference, and I felt MUCH better. So, for what it's worth....

He also would tell me, while flipping the needles into my flesh, that he'd had three patients that came in for fertility, and all three of them had become pregnant within a year.

Could be a factor to help with the process, if not the ultimate answer!


As for the experience, I shook like a leaf the first time....and enjoyed it the others. It kinda feels vaguely like an ant bite, then fades away. Once all the pins were placed, I would calm down, and really relaxed.

Here's hoping that you purchase, and your experience, is as good as mine turned out to be!!!

Re: Belated thought

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Don't worry about replying late or whatever. I totally appreciate your feedback! That's awesome that you felt like just a couple of sessions of acupuncture were helpful. I say that because I know that the most we could possibly afford is one session a week (and even THAT is stretching it, ugh) so it's nice to know that there could be benefits even if we can't do more. I know there's no way we could continue to do two a week, although we're trying two a week for the next two weeks to see how/if I respond and to see if we like it. My first one is today! I'm not nervous but I'm not really sure what to expect, either. Maybe I will bring my camera (but I doubt they will let me take pictures ha!).

The research shows that people who are doing infertility treatments AND acupuncture have like 50% more success. So I totally want to get some of that!! :)