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.

IVF Acupuncture all setup.

(if you haven't guessed my lies and truths in the previous post, don't forget to do so! I'll be giving the answers tomorrow morning.)

Miss Swim got me thinking about acupuncture for my upcoming IVF cycle, so I went ahead and got the ball rolling. (by the way, if you know anything about acupuncture, Swim has some questions - please go and visit her post to see if you can give her a hand with some opinions).

I already knew I would be doing the acupuncture with IVF. I've heard such good things about it and it can't hurt, right?

I called up my RE's office and they gave me the info of who they work with. I then turned around and called the acupuncture office and had a really nice conversation with the girl who answered the phone.

They offer an "IVF" plan which consists of 11 sessions, 9 to be taken in the weeks before IVF, 1 to be taken immediately before ET - the night before or the morning before, and the last to be done promptly following ET - meaning you are to call them at the moment you walk out of the RE's office and get the heck over there.

Everything during the weeks before ER will be so hectic, I'm glad I called now to get this started. They want me to group most of my appointments right before egg retrieval, so I'm getting in 2-3 appointments per week for the weeks I'll be doing stims, but I do get to have 3 weekly appointments before that, starting this saturday! I'm thrilled at the aspect of starting to relax sooner rather than later.

The only appointments that are not scheduled are the ones immediately before and after egg transfer. I bet if I let them in the stirrup room, they'd want to be poking me with little teeny needles while I felt a breeze on my cervix. When I find out when ER is, I'm to call and they'll fit me right in.

All of this is going to cost a little chunk out of my wallet, but I am not complaining at all. No complaining even allowed from someone in my position. If I was someone else looking in at my luck with insurance and saw me complaining about acupuncture, I'd have to punch me in the face. No doubt. It's not really that expensive anyway. $625 for all 11 sessions, which is $57 per session. I will gladly pay $57/day if it helps my future embryos implant themselves into my maternalness.