Acupuncture #1 complete.

Ahhhhhh.

That's what I have to say about it. Ahhhhhhh. It was ~so~ great.

The forms I had to fill out were immense. I couldn't believe how much "fertility" history I had to provide. They wanted charts. They wanted ovulation dates. They wanted LP ranges. They wanted a detailed history of all treatment cycles, even getting down to the details of what each of my follicles measured. They wanted symptoms of how I felt on bfn cycles, basically my pms signs. It was seriously like 6 pages of detailed questions - and that was just my fertility background! The medical questionnaire was another 4 pages (yes, less than the fertility stuff!)

There are 2 docs. One who's background is in western medicine who went over the hows/whys of what acupuncture does. Then the other is the eastern medicine one who went over the things she needs me and my husband to do during the IVF cycle - things like the ph diet, supplements to take, etc. Also the whole gamut of the dos/donts of health during IVF. It went from the science behind blood flow to the power of positive visualization. And honestly, it was great. Because I am a very scientific person, it was awesome to have someone there who talked the science to counter the eastern medicine part which I don't know much about.

I won't lie and I'll tell you I don't really "get" this who visualization thing. I mean, I understand thinking positive is going to create more positive things for a person than a negative thinker, but it's because a negative thinker doesn't go that extra step sometimes because of the "what's the point?" attitude. There is a science behind it. Visualization, however, doesn't have the science. And while I don't understand it, I'm definitely not shoving it aside. I'll try it and see how it goes, but I'm glad this practice isn't 100% bells and wind chimes. I get to latch onto the science part of it and allow the other part to come in small doses. I couldn't ask for more.

The treatment itself was fucking awesome. This session involved back of the calves and lower back needle placement, along with the electro stimulation. We talked in length about my lower back pain and he is including that in his treatment, so maybe I'll even get some relief on that end. It felt ~soooo~ good. The electro shocks running through everything was good, but my lower back was in heaven. With each pulse, I felt relief. Wow.

I brought my ipod because I'm not a very good relaxer during treatments like this. Even with massage, I have to talk. So left in a room by myself for 30 minutes to let the needles to their work, I knew I needed distraction. My ipod played some mazzy star, bob marley and even a bit of the cure's disintegration album. I have a lot of music I don't listen to much anymore, but it's all stuff I listened to at one time. The cure was total from my high school days, but it fit well into today's session.

One session down, 10 to go. Now to go read over all of the literature they gave me about improving my IVF outcome by changing my lifestyle in different ways. I'm up for the challenge.