"O" Woes

I've been sitting around drumming my fingers, waiting for ovulation to happen, but it hasn't happened yet. I should have O'd a day or two ago, but my ovaries are probably either daydreaming or have decided to follow another planetary time zone! So POAS madness has kicked in. I am now waiting for the next pee-on-a-stick session that requires a 4-hour minimum wait. Hmm... Another hour to go... Fingers drumming...drumming...drumming...

It's just so weird that I don't know what my own body is up to! Hello me? What's going on dear me? What am I up to in there? My body must be one of the greatest mysteries in this milky way!

So this is how the ovulation drama is unfolding: On Thursday/Thanksgiving, my OPK was half positive. That meant that my LH was on it's way up. Well, damn I thought-you're actually on time! I was impressed! Friday came around and my BBT had plunged from 97.8˚F to 97.3˚F. A dip in temperature normally indicates ovulation. Hot dang! Ovulation! Woohoo! But my OPK was NEGATIVE! No sign of any luteinizing hormone anywhere. Zip! Nil! ZERO! WTF??? So no "O"!

I went to see my TCM doc later in the day and told him that I should be ovulating soon so I might not need moxa, because he did tell me that I cannot have moxa when I am ovulating or have ovulated because the egg does not like it when it's too hot. So he proceeded to read my pulse and tells me,

"You're not hot enough!"

To ovulate I presume. Goddamn! How does he know these things? I certainly never told him about my dipping temperatures! I never ever tell him about my obsessive POAS and temping anymore because when I used to do it, he told me to throw them all away because I was stressing out unnecessarily! Err... Of course I was a bad patient and kept going at it. So I have to sneak around my doc's back and do it secretly! But it's really good to have this data to cross check with what he reads from my pulse. He hasn't been proven wrong so far! So he asked me to do a little bit more moxa--12 minutes instead of my usual 20!

So Saturday comes around and my BBT plunges even more from 97.3˚F to 97.1˚F! And the OPK is still NEGATIVE! No sign of any luteinizing hormone anywhere! Or ovulation! Again, Zip! Nil! ZERO! WTF???

With the warmer weather and a total of 10 moxa sessions this cycle, I thought my eggs would have thawed out really well by now. But they're stuck frozen somewhere in la-la land...

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- break -

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OK- I just peed on another stick. My egg is still MIA! It's already CD20!  Here eggy-eggy-eggy..... Where the *@#$%! are you???

Cold As A Witch's Tit

My apologies for having been missing from my blog. I just haven't had any inspiration to write. Not even to rant or vent! My cycle has been less than stellar-Infact I would give it a "D+" which is just short of flunking!

My body's as cold as a witch's tit! I kid you not! My body should be warm and lush and fertile if I want to have any chance of conceiving. But nope! I've been going for moxa and acupuncture, plus drinking my herbs everyday, yet my body's struggling to stay warm. My uterus, or lower abdomen rather, is cold to the touch. Even my moxa-woman (yes, the kind dear soul who's been administering moxa to me daily and putting up with the stink!) kept asking why my legs were so cold! My TCM doc told me that I've been better and I am nowhere near my peak. Hmphhh! Wonderful! I don't think I'm gonna get my Christmas wish this year...

Well, the weather has something to do with it, apparently. I haven't seen the sun in days, and it has even snowed! Well, it should come as no surprise to you if you think I live in some temperate climate that enjoys four seasons. But I live in the tropics where it's a balmy 30˚C/86˚F year round! I have banana trees growing in my garden!!! Last weekend, the weatherman reported that there would be hail. Well, it snowed! These weather people are always wrong, wrong, wrong! My TCM doc told me he saw snowflakes floating gently from the sky and then hit his window and eventually melted into drops of water. If that's not snow, I don't know what it is! So my TCM doc has excused my body for "misbehaving" due to the colder than usual conditions we are experiencing! Err...Did somebody say we're having global warming? I wouldn't have known!

So I guess that is why my endo rescheduled Ass-throb day for  Days 13 & 14 of my cycle on the really cold, wet days. I really thought I had dodged fate when it didn't appear on CD 10 or 11. I was not happy.... My lower back hurt and my butt throbbed. I swear-I think my butt should work for the weather department! It has an uncanny talent for predicting rainy weather! Thankfully the moxa and acupuncture gave me relief for a few hours. So something about TCM actually works, though I don't know how exactly. I only wished I could be hooked up to the electro acupuncture machine and have moxa-woman burning me up all day throughout the pain--even though all the patients at the clinic hate me by now! "What is that SMELL?!!!" can be heard ringing through the clinic when I'm there! It's CD15, so they will have to put up with this for just a few more days until I ovulate.

Tomorrow I will have Moxa No.7 which will hopefully put me on defrost mode. I am really keeping my fingers crossed that my eggs will miraculously thaw out this cycle in time to meet one of my husband's super hunky soldiers!

A Pretty Good Day

I made it! I got my moxa fix today! My TCM doc said that my liver isn't that good today, but it's better!

Well, as long as I qualify for moxa, I am happy!

So today is Moxa No.1 (on CD9), for a brand new cycle.

It feels like deja-vu. So here I go, all over again! We'll be moxabusting (that's my new word) my cold, arctic body all the way to ovulation day to make sure my eggs all thaw by then!

And if I ovulate around CD19, as I usually do, there will be plenty of action on Thanksgiving! Great food and sex--hmmm, not a bad way to celebrate the day!

And I have another piece of good news... The sun hasn't come up yet, and I am already sleepy! 


Yay! (It doesn't take a lot to make me happy!)

My Liver's Having A Bad Day!

Well, well, I never thought I'd see this day, but AF has finally packed her bags and left, along with all that miserable pain!

So I went in for my doctor's appointment at the TCM clinic today hoping to get some burning luurve for my body-- err..., I mean, moxa. But my doc says,

"Why is your liver so stressed?"

Uhmmm.... ???

Apparently it wasn't food related.

So I fessed up--I think I did not have enough sleep. (Gulp!)

But, but, it wasn't my fault! It was Aunt Flo's fault. And Aunt Endo's. They were having a party last week and didn't let me sleep. As a result, they've turned my whole sleeping cycle upside, down, not that it was ever right side up in the first place. I live a largely nocturnal life, which is queer by most people's standards. But now, I live in Mar's time zone. Or somewhere unearthly!

Last night I went to bed at 5 a.m.

I woke up at 7 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep.

I tried torturing myself to sleep, reading one photography book, one cancer book, one recipe book, numerous rounds of Sudoku.

And drove my cat crazy (who was really trying very hard to sleep at the foot of my bed) with cuddles, and stroking and petting, and jibberish crazy cat-woman talk.

After a light lunch, I finally went to sleep at 1.30 p.m. (These are the perks of working at home at your own hours!) Slept for 3 hours and woke up at 4.30 p.m. to rush to the clinic! So...

"No moxa today!"

But why?

Reason: My liver's already stressed so we don't want to heat it up even more.

"If you want to do moxa tomorrow, make sure you sleep tonight!" he says.

It's now 5.33 a.m. Aaaaarrrgghhhhhhhhh!!!!

First Year TCM Anniversary

Today is the 1st year anniversary of our first visit to our TCM clinic. I can't believe how quickly a year has flown by, and I can't believe I am still going there! Both my husband and I have been diligently going for our treatments every week, except during our one and a half month vacation hiatus. Chugfuls of black, muddy, herbal medicine; thousands of pin-pricks and some USD7,000 later, we still have no baby.

This prompted me to reflect on the past year's progress and assess what the hell we're doing with our time and money. Is it worth it? Should we have put the money towards something like IVF instead?

For those of you who are new here, my husband is being treated for low sperm morphology, and I for endometriosis, hormonal imbalance and a cold condition. Our TCM doc believes that once these problems are resolved, we should be able to conceive naturally. So my husband and I have electroacupuncture twice a week, and we drink a tailor-made herbal concoction everyday. I have upped my treatments with daily moxibustion and electroacupuncture everyday between the end of my period and ovulation during my last 2 cycles.

But has all this been worth it?

I wasn't sure but DH put my mind at ease for these reasons:

IVF does not guarantee us a baby nor try to resolve any of our underlying health/fertility problems. But with TCM,

- my endo is being treated and my symptoms are diminishing, hence my quality of life has improved

- my periods are being normalized and are more manageable now

- my husband's energy levels have increased significantly

- we managed to conceive once, which proved to us that we can conceive naturally and my husband's sperm is working!

- we do not have any bad side-effects from the treatment

Weighing the two, TCM has definitely been more beneficial to us. And so, TCM it is for us. So bring on the putrid potions and gnarly needles Year 2! We're ready for ya!

A Day In The Life of Zengirl

My heart sank when I went to the hospital today to have my wound checked - the flap of skin on my wrist had turned gray. And the doctor said it didn't look good. It means that the skin had not been getting much blood supply and it's dying. He did say that it was still early and that he would leave it there till my next check-up in 2 day's time. Oh, my dear little skin-please live!

But on the TCM front, I seem to be doing quite well - despite the fact that I had gone out to party last night and stayed out till 5 in the morning! We had a triple date with some friends who had flown in from Sydney. The two couples who have 5 kids between them got somebody to baby sit all their kids, and it was going to be an all-adults wild night out, which was so rare! Woohoo! My part-Mummy, part-Frankenstein arm was not going to stop me!

We went for a lovely dinner at a Balineses restaurant. I gave in to the temptation of an icy cold non-alcoholic Lemongrass Mojito (YUM!) and I thought I'd counteract that with lamb, which apparently is warming. Maybe it worked. Our Sydney friends wanted to go dancing after, and sadly, we had no idea where to take them. We (the other 2 couples) have not gone clubbing like for at least a decade! How sad is that? They asked me when was the last time we went dancing---"Ummm....On my wedding day 10 years ago???" Tragic! Well, we did find our way to a strip where all the "happening" clubs were and after sussing them all out, we found one with music that we liked. Dancing. Pool. More cold drinks (eeek!). Chit-chatting (or more like shouting across the deafening music. Ringing ears after. We stayed till they closed (is that cool?) and adjourned for supper at a 24-hour place and ate and talked some more till the crack of dawn! It was so much fun! It was an incredible and one rare night for us late thirty/early forty somethings!

And SO! What was my TCM doc gonna say about last night? Surprisingly, my heat levels have gone back up and are staying there despite the cold drinks and the trauma my hand's gone through. He wasn't too happy about the cold drinks though...

So I had Moxa No.6 today. He's giving me a break tomorrow though. Yay! I've been spending so much time at his clinic-I'm there everyday. It's kinda interesting hanging out there though, seeing all sorts of patients come through. Today they got a call informing them that a famous celebrity was coming in . So all of us at the clinic were gossiping and guessing who it could be. Within minutes, a pretty young woman walked in with her father. Apparently it's a famous actress and VJ. I don't know who she was, so it was kinda anti-climatic. Oh well!

Anyway, back to my unglamorous life, I'm doing all I can now to help my wounds heal well. My TCM doc recommended juicing some aloe vera with red apples (with a bit of ginger to counteract its cooling properties), and having that once a day. And also making a soup from a special type of fish called the snakehead or Channa Striatus, which supposedly has anti microbial, anti inflammatory and wound healing properties. I had no idea where to get any of these ingredients except the apples, so it was speed-dial Mom 911 time! Amazingly, she managed to get some aloe vera from her neighbor's garden and find the fish too! My mum's so great! She comes through for me every time!

So that's pretty much a day in the life of me. Snore, snore! I wonder who reads this stuff???

TCM Works For Endometriosis!

I nearly forgot that today was Ass-Throb Day!

Today, CD10, is the day that my endo habitually and passionately tortures my butt by making it throb like hell - more specifically, my whole rectum tract. But today my ass didn't feel anything like a nuclear reactor waiting to explode. Infact it was rather zen in there! Which made me forget all about Ass-Throb Day!

This could only mean that my endo is losing its clutch on me and that I am truly getting better!

After months and months of acupuncture, herbal medicine and several sessions of moxa, I can finally draw the conclusion that Traditional Chinese Medicine is working for endometriosis. My symptoms of pain have decreased significantly and my periods are getting more normal. All you endo gals out there, pay attention! There is hope in TCM!

My endo has begun to heal without me taking a single dose of Lupron, birth control pill, or going under the knife. The prognosis for TCM as a cure for endo has always fundamentally sounded better to me than Western Medicine. What Western Medicine offered was ridiculous. Having no solution, nor any idea what causes it, it experiments by offering victims drugs to stop your body from functioning normally. They butcher you up, cutting parts of your body away and then cross their fingers, and hope that the endo won't come back, even though they know it likely will. These surgeries expose you to the risk of death, eg: from having a bad reaction to anesthesia, or from overdose due to a miscalculation of dosage, to the possibility of infection. In many cases, the pain continues and repeated surgeries are even normal. And for women desperately trying for a child, all the drugs and multiple surgeries just leave your body even more hostile to pregnancy. And to counter the increased infertility, they put you on more drugs and hormones and force the conception to happen outside the body (IVF), and put it back into your body knowing that your body hasn't been fixed in the first place. Yet women subject themselves to all this craziness and risk because Western Medicine tells them that there is no cure and that there is no other way.

Well, there is it seems! TCM is certainly uncommon in the western world, but it has been used to treat the largest nation in the world for thousands of years. Western Medicine is only now slowly discovering the wonders and knowledge of this ancient form of medicine. But specifically in endometriosis, I have personally seen how effective it is for me. So given time, I believe it really works.

And how does TCM work for endometriosis? I had to ask my TCM doc again today. I know that it reduces the symptoms, but with all their medical terms like yin, yang, wind, heatiness, dampness, deficiency, and stasis, it's really hard for me to understand how it works. I mean, it's hardly scientific! After his explanation, this is my conclusion: Endometriosis is a condition caused by "stagnant" blood or poor circulation in the body. Acupuncture and herbs work by dissolving these stagnant blood and improving its circulation. The adhesions will disappear because the TCM treatment works by regenerating the cells in your body, like in stem cells, repairing dead or damaged cells of the scar tissue (adhesions). At least this is how my medically primitive mind understands it. I don't really care how it works exactly, as long as it works and I am not experiencing any bad side effects from it.

How my body is behaving today is another testament to its healing effects. It's raining and chilly outside but my usually cold body is unaffected. After all, it is Ass-Throb Day! I used to think that my ass is able to predict rain, as it always rains when my ass pulsates with pain. I believed they were related. I have developed a highly sophisticated formula for this event:

Endo + Rain = Ass Pain or

Endo + Ass Pain = Rain

Well, there's no ass pain, so something else is missing from the formula and it's definitely not the rain. By logical deduction, it appears to be the endo. And that's my highly scientific conclusion.

With the results I am getting I will definitely stay on the path of TCM now. My TCM doc is currently prescribing intensive moxa for me. (I just want to clarify to anyone reading this out there that moxa is not a fix-all method for all conditions. It is appropriate for people who are suffering from cold conditions like me) I am very focused on healing my endo right now because I believe that it is affecting my fertility. So once it is resolved, I truly believe I should be able to conceive naturally. This notion is not too far-fetched because I conceived once before with the help of TCM.

I had my 2nd moxibustion session for this cycle today. It went really well, although the guessing-the-right-twin didn't go so well for me! I could've sworn that after having had a long look at the twin who did the moxa for me yesterday, I would've been able to distinguish the two. I thought I had the same girl today, but nope-I was wrong - AGAIN! It was the other twin today! So now I have an interesting guessing game to add to the smokin' fun of moxa now! Wish me luck for tomorrow!

Less Pain, Life Gained

The flood gates opened today, and I am surprisingly well enough to be sitting up writing this. The red tide arrived on the dot as I had expected, and though it brought some pain with it, it is amazingly manageable. I actually managed to leave the house on CD1-something I've never been able to do the last 6 months! I am a functioning human being today, which is cause for celebration! Woohoo! 

I had such a wonderful day today. I went out for dinner with a group of friends and even had them over at my house after dinner. (I entertained on the first day of my period! GASP!) I did have some help though to manage the slight bit of pain. With the history I've had with pain, I am certainly no bubbly sunshine anytime pain comes near me. And so I armed myself with 500mg of naproxen sodium before heading out to dinner. Took an hour to take effect, (I am surprised that it even worked, because sometimes it's as effective as eating candy) and it lasted a good 6 hours. As a trade-off I am now suffering from a bit of gastritis. As soon as my guests left, I crashed on the couch for 2 hours. I only had 1 hour of sleep the entire night last night because of the dull ache - although not that painful on my scale of pain-o-meter, it was like having an annoying toothache the whole night. After the nap, I am now bright awake even though I have not made up for the loss of sleep. The painkiller's worn off now, and the pain came back momentarily. But I can happily say that it's GONE now-entirely on its own! and I actually feel energetic! I really think the worst is over!  

So I've only had 1 day of pain. Why was I spared this time? I haven't done anything different during this last cycle, except for moxa, to warrant this improvement. So I think the moxa must have made a great difference to my body. I saw my TCM doc yesterday and even though I complained to him about the dull ache that had started to creep in, he checked my pulse and said there was no blood stasis. I guess he was right because so far my flow, although a little heavy, has been free of clots! What a big difference compared to the previous cycle! Everything is flowing as it should and I would definitely attribute this to the 12 moxa sessions I had! I am just sooooo happy that I am finally beginning to see some real improvement. 

If the pattern of my periods before I last conceived is anything to go by, that means I should have at least another 2 pain-free, flowing periods before I will be able to conceive. Hopefully that's the kind of logic my body works with. Now it's looking possible that I might conceive before the year end. I don't want to speculate, but I am certainly feeling positive about this now.

Who knows what the future brings. But for now, I've got my wish -

I finally got my life back! Yeehar! 

A Sad Finale

It's CD31 or 13DPO today and I took an early pregnancy test.

It's another Big Fat NEGATIVE!

(Do they have to make that negative line so BIG?)

I should be very, very upset today, but I think I had done all my grieving yesterday. I had been expecting it.

For some strange reason, I am feeling better today, physically. All the strange twinges of pain the past 10 days have gone. I don't feel like there's a rock in my uterus anymore. Even pre-period cramps are not around. Very strange. I feel like they're hiding somewhere waiting to pounce on me any minute! My appetite has returned. No sore breasts. Nothing seems to be going on inside my body now. My body feels completely devoid of... anything. Maybe that's what a big fat "negative" really means.

My spotting has grown heavier. My BBT has been plunging. My body is definitely telling me to stop hoping. Aunt Flo should be here in a day or so, and I am praying it will be a painless visit. At my doc's advice, I will be going in for one last moxa session before the flood gates open. Hopefully, this will decrease the probability or intensity of pain that normally hits me on Days 1-3. I hate being a prisoner of pain. I am looking forward to a dinner appointment on Sunday with some wonderful new friends I made. And I will be devastated if I have to miss that because of pain. Endometriosis has controlled much of my life.

I want my life back!

My Toughest 2 Week Wait Ever!

I am now at the start of the last week of my 2WW and this has to be the toughest wait ever! I came home today after my visit to my TCM doc with good news and bad news. 

The Good News - he suspects that I might be pregnant!  :-O  

The Bad News - my little bean's not looking sticky and it might "drop"  :-(

Talk about an emotional roller coaster!

My TCM doc is not actually sure if I'm pregnant because he could not get a reading from my pulse. He tried and tried many times , but my bean was not talking to him yet. It was still too early to tell. But he suspected it after I went in for my moxa today because my feet went really cold. I called for him immediately and asked why it was happening. He felt my feet and immediately pulled off the electrical wires and acupuncture needles from my legs. It scared me - I never saw him act with such immediacy before! He said that the most probable reason was that I was pregnant. Shock and Elation! What a way to find out! Then he said that if this was happening, it doesn't look good for the blastocyst-it should be loving the heat but it's not. The heat is not reaching it properly. Oh No! 

He ordered me bedrest for the next few days until our next appointment on Thursday, and immediately modified my herbal prescription. Since the moxa was not working, the best thing to do was to warm my kidneys and increase the thickness of my uterine lining with the herbs, so my little bean has a better chance of sticking! 

He tried to keep me positive by showing me the silver lining in the clouds - what this shows is that my body is now ready after months of treatment after the m/c. It just needs a bit more fine-tuning, but I am on my way. It's really consoling to know.

Now I am filled with questions and anxiety and hope. What is going on in that body of mine? Did a conception happen? Is it sticking to my ute? Will I be pregnant? Am I really pregnant? Is this it? Will it survive? Am I gonna lose my little bean? Am I pregnant? Am I pregnant? Am I pregnant? 

This is going to be the toughest 2 Week Wait EVER!

My Furry 4-Legged Pitter Patter

I think all those days lying down with my tummy exposed dangerously close to a fiery moxa stick have actually done me some good! Firstly, my hormones must have kicked into place because - boy - was I horny around the time of my ovulation! My libido has been MIA for a while and it looks like it's finally back in action! My egg-white CM was also spectacular! I also ovulated on my own much earlier this cycle on CD19, compared to CD25 previously! Something definitely did light my fire! Now that my cycle has peaked and all the "necessary" baby dancing is out of the way, there's nothing I can really do, except to wait for the BFN- or hopefully, BFP! I'm keeping my fingers, and all my toes crossed, as always.

Since I've told myself not to obsess about the BFN/BFP, now's a good time to talk about other things in my life, such as our furry baby that has brought so much joy, and amusement to my & DH's lives. Meet Zoey, our fluffy fluff of feline fur! He's been with us for 8 of our 10 childless years of marriage and I've treasured every minute of it. He's an indoor cat, so he spends a lot of time with me, giving much pleasure and madness at the same time! And yes, you read right - it is a HE. We named him Zoltan but it has morphed into Zoey. And it has stuck! So, as first impressions are very important, I've dug up the purrtiest and most innocent photos I have of Zoey. Here's one of him enjoying the outdoors.



And here's one with those beautiful big round eyes of his. So innocent.... Comes in really handy when he does something naughty!!! I fall for it all the time...

My TCM Doc Passed With Flying Colors!

I tested my TCM doctor today. I had peed on an ovulation predictor stick today and saw a second line forming. That means my Luteinizing hormones are surging, slowly but surely. Yay! It's not quite a full positive yet, but I'm getting very close. And TCM doctors are supposed to be able to tell almost everything that's going on inside your body simply by reading your pulse.

Unlike the western way of reading a pulse purely to measure your heart rate, a TCM physician uses three fingers to read 3 points on your wrist. Each point is further divided into 3 levels or depths, which makes it a total of 9 "pulses". The combination of the pulses give a total picture of your body's health. Their fingers are so super-sensitive that they are able to read the differences in each pulse, ranging from "stringy" to "taught". (Heck! I can even barely locate my pulse sometimes!) I've read that they could tell if you're ovulating or pregnant just from reading your pulse.

Well, being a bit of a sceptic still, I couldn't resist checking what I knew against his "readings". So I asked him if I was ovulating. I expected a "yes" or "no" answer. Instead, he said, "Close. Just around the corner". Wow! That answer blew me away! He could even tell that it would happen soon. Some may think that it's a pretty vague answer and that he probably made a guesstimate based on my cycle. But for someone like me who has irregular cycles and temperamental ovaries, it's hard to know even if I would ovulate. And he doesn't chart my cycles-that's my job. I guess he knew what he needed to know from his readings and there was no need for me to update him with numbers and pee sticks. He really knows his stuff! As far as I'm concerned, he passed with flying colors!

Anyway, I had my last moxa for this cycle. He did tell me that it would have to stop when I ovulated. I asked him how we would know when to stop - he said he would know. I guess he does! Well, I am relieved that I'm done with the moxa for now. It is a bit nerve-wracking having a huge burning stick so close to the skin.

So now I am really looking forward to ovulating and making a baby this month! I am delighted that my body is behaving as it should this month! I even feel twangs of pain on my right ovary or thereabouts, which I hadn't in a long time. It must have finally woken up!

Hot Bods & Pimples

I've had 4 moxa (moxibustion) sessions todate and boy! Am I burnin' up! It seems that my body has been responding so well to this heat treatment that pimples have broken out on my face! In fact that was the first thing my TCM doctor so very kindly pointed out to me when he saw me today! How sweet! He attributed that to the moxa because for me, an occasional pimple every now and then is normal-5 overnight is not! And it's not just the pimples - my body felt like an overheated nuclear reactor. I've had to throw off the blanket last night and crank up the a/c because I was so hot. It felt like I could fry an egg on my body! I am not sure how far I've got to take this, but I will just have to put my trust in my doctor, who is monitoring me closely. He says I should push on with the moxa.

So today, I had my 4th moxa. This moxa thing may sound like some hocus-pocus waving of a burning wand over my needle-pricked body, but its effects are surprisngly real. I've had 2 unusual experiences during today's session that convinced me that the moxa has opened up my energy channels - once my doctor had inserted all the acupuncture needles, my bed started to sway. It felt like 2 people were bumping the foot and head of my bed back and forth, back and forth. I thought - "Oh no! Earthquake? The building is swaying!" So I extended both my arms outwards and braced myself against the walls (the private room was quite narrow) to stop the bed from swaying, but the swaying didn't stop. It was then that I realized that the sensation was occurring from inside my body. The needles had triggered the circulation of Qi or energy up and down my body. So the surging of the energy made me sway! It was quite an amazing feeling! No one else said they felt the building swaying, so it must have been all me.

The second unusual experience I had was the burning sensation I had on the back and left side of my waist. I had just completed the 50-minute moxa and acupuncture session, and was walking around when I felt it. Immediately I asked the doctor about it and he explained that the moxa had opened up the channels and hormonal glands in my kidney. Well, it made sense because that burning was where the kidney's located. Apparently, my other kidney is still asleep...

"Fired" Again!

Today, I had my 2nd moxibustion session and WOAH - What a difference it felt from yesterday's. It must have opened up my energy channels because I felt the heat very quickly today. Yesterday, it took a long time before I felt the heat on each needle, but today, it was a matter of seconds before I was yelling, "OK-HOT!" , which was my cue for moving on to the next needle. The lady who was firing me up was laughing because just yesterday, I had told her what a high tolerance I had for pain!

I didn't feel any different after the session yesterday, but I remember feeling terribly hot a couple of hours later, which was rather unusual. I mean, I was sweating and feeling uncomfortably hot for no reason. That feeling didn't last though. However my TCM doctor read my pulse today and said that the moxibustion had made a significant difference. That's the kinda stuff I like to hear! I'm stoked! Hopefully that puts me on the fast track to Preggerland!

Come On Baby, Light My Fire!

After discussing with my TCM doctor today, it was decided that we should treat my condition a bit more aggressively. The progress with my daily herb and twice-weekly acupuncture has been slow, and it was not helping me eliminate the "wind" left over from my miscarriage. Wind! Yes it seems I do have "wind" in my body! I am still trying to wrap my head around this "wind" terminology - Apparently it is not the smelly type that comes out of the butthole, nor is it some kind of breeze blowing through your body, but an "evil" thing that is bad for the body. It is a form of chilled condition, or obstruction of energy in the body, or something like that. Anyway, it is bad for me and I have to get rid of it as it is still causing me circulation problems, resulting in blood stasis/endo and cold uterus. That means painful periods, blood clots, and infertility. For optimum fertility, everything in the body has to be warm and flowing.

So today, I started my first Moxibustion treatment. Moxi-what??? It is just a fancy name for a simple procedure that heats up acupuncture needles. First, the needles are poked in the usual places, and then a cigar-like stick made of herbs called moxa (or mugwort) is burnt and placed near each needle to warm it up. The heat is then transmitted through the needles into the body. This warms up and activates the whole energy channel and organs in the body. There is no pain, but it is wise to let the person know when the needle gets hot beyond your comfort! Then it is moved to the next needle. For me, the session lasted 20 minutes, covering a total of 8 needles in my body.

I will do this Moxibustion everyday in addition to my usual herb/acupuncture treatment until my TCM doc feels that my body is well heated up, and I no longer have the cold conditions or wind. I am really looking forward to seeing some real progress and getting this 38 year-old body all revved up for pregnancy. I hope this month is it for me. I am keeping my fingers crossed!