One of our kitchen counters has been converted to a make-shift pharmacy. One of the little shelves in the fridge is now dedicated to medications that have to be kept cold. I'm currently giving myself two shots in the abdomen every day (to be upped to three on Saturday - woo hoo!)
So as if I wasn't being exposed to enough needles right now, I've also started going to an acupuncturist.
Why, you may ask? Because the hundreds of successful IVF-ers I've been exposed to through books, discussion boards and support groups over the last few weeks swear by it. I've tried (and I use that term loosely) acupuncture one other time in my life. In college I was getting migraines pretty frequently and the doctor I was seeing was a (perhaps self-proclaimed, I'm not really sure) acupuncturist. I let him stick needles in me one time. It was uncomfortable, while not exactly painful and I wasn't a believer so I never let him do it again.
However, I've seen a lot more "proof" in acupuncture in the last few years and I have several people close to me who swear it has helped them with all kinds of different maladies, so I went into these sessions with a bit more of an open mind.
My take so far - I still find it mildly uncomfortable and I certainly don't get that totally relaxed feeling that many talk about, but it's tolerable and I figure it can't really hurt. The thing that has saved it for me this time around is that they have a clock on the wall that you can see from any of the treatment chairs. That way when they tell me that I should lay there and relax (with needles sticking out of me all over the place), I can at least occasionally open my eyes and glance at how much longer I have left. It's ridiculous how uncomfortable I am with acupuncture if I can't know how much longer I will be laying there. I guess this is a big sign that I'm not the poster child for eastern medicine. (But, in my defense, I have no problem laying on a massage table for an hour without seeing a clock....)
I've only been to a few sessions, so I'm hopeful that I will get to that zen state during acupuncture but I'm just not sure I will. Regardless, I do believe that it can help with things like developing your lining and preparing your body for things like the embryo transfer so I'm dedicating to seeing it through. As I told Ryan, if I have to pump myself full of medicines for IVF - I'm going at it with all guns blazing!
So far, so good though. Initial thoughts from the doctor indicate that they don't think I will need too much follicle stimulation so (at least for now) I'm on a lower dose of meds. We'll see if that changes at my next appointment on Monday. Right now the abdomen shots are not too bad at all. I was much more worried about them than I needed to be (which is always the case, right?) Now the only one I'm worried about is the progesterone shots which I hear are horrible, but I have at least another week before I have to start those so I'll just try to put them out of mind for now!
Off to go make more donations to my sharps container!
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