The Power of Information

Yesterday, I wanted to see what I could find out about the DaVinci surgery. You might know what it is if you watch Grey's Anatomy. In the 2009 season finale, the Chief bought one of these robotic surgery machines and it was a huge deal.

Now, I am not in the habit of researching the latest medical trends, but lately when I have been on hold for my doctor, I kept hearing one of their ads that 2 doctors in her practice now perform the DaVinci surgery. I then found that it can be used to remove big fibroids.

In fact, recovery is 4 weeks for the Da Vinci surgery versus 6 weeks for the open, c-section surgery. I asked my doctor about it. She and the fertility doctor that she has been consulting with are determining if it would work for me. That's why I needed an MRI.

Knowing that it could be an option, I did a search for fibroids and DaVinci surgery. I found a great website with hundreds of testimonials. I found it so incredibly helpful. You can also YouTube a video and watch a surgery being performed. Don't know why you would want to, but if you wanted to, you could.

This really got me thinking about how much my fertility process has been influenced with the Internet.

I started reading online months before TTC what I needed to do. When I started trying, I googled pregnancy symptoms, I joined babycenter.com and learned more than I ever thought existed about pregnancy, until I was fluent in the language (DH, DD, TTC, TWW, BFN, BFP). I learned about the Clearblue Easy Fertility Monitor and read tons of reviews before I bought it. I then learned how to decipher it with a chat group. I charted my fertility with fertilityfriend.com. I researched people who had bleeding during miscarriages, miscarriages, trying to conceive after a miscarriage.

What I learned was many people, including myself, were just looking for hope. Someone who had their symptoms and turned out to be pregnant or someone who lost a baby but went on to have 3 healthy kids. Now I am looking for success stories of people who had their fibroids out after having miscarriages and went on to uneventful pregnancies.

It is funny how we learn to trust strangers in similar circumstances more than we sometimes trust our friends and doctors. I also wonder if I would even know how to get pregnant without the Internet. I have to be honest, I didn't remember much from Human Growth and Development in fifth grade and I think they were trying to teach us how to avoid, rather than achieve pregnancy.

I feel like this information I have garnered on the Internet has given me the power to make better decisions.

Drug Addicts and Newlyweds

There is a secret rage that simmers in almost everyone who is have fertility problems. Some people shoot daggers at the back of the heads of the pregnant friends and co-workers. Others have visions of sticking a voodoo doll with pins each time someone innocently asks when they are going to have kids.

I have previously have been irked by those married 5 minutes and then announce their pregnancies. I have matured since then. I save my fertility angst for drug addicts and people who are clearly horrible parents.

You might be asking yourself what kind of crowd do I hang with. My crowd is comprised of all upstanding citizens. So where do I find these derelicts? TV of course.

My husband is obsessed with the TV show Intervention on A&E. If you haven't seen the show, it is a documentary (new one each week) of a person with an addiction (from eating disorders, heroin, to sniff paint cans). I get infuriated when I see people doing meth and are pregnant or already have kids. This is a common occurance on the show. It makes my blood boil and I just want to have an "it's not fair" tantrum.

Then there is the local news. This past week in Chicago, a story came out about a woman who abandon her baby with the umbilical cord still attached. I understand some people are in bad situations, but it just the cruelest irony that it was horribly easy for the abandoner to get pregnant and they don't even want that gift, and it is horribly difficult for me to have a baby and I want it more than anything.

Feel free to rant with me. What type of pregnant people or parents irk you most?

Gender Bender

I just came across an article on cnn.com about a new product that claims to determine a baby's gender 10 weeks after conception versus the normal 20 weeks at the doctor's office.

According to the makers of "Intelligender" their special chemical elixir turns a different color for a boy or a girl.

I definitely would want to find out the sex of my baby, but I don't know that I would trust this test. The packaging seems pretty hokey too, not very scientific looking.

Check it out for yourself. Would you use it? I don't think I could because I would get so used to the idea of having either a boy or a girl per the test, that the 20 week appointment would make me entirely too edgy.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/06/09/gender.prediction.test/index.html

Putting my Best Foot Forward

I had my weekly Reflexology appointment tonight and I asked my reflexologist why she thought reflexology helped fertility. She attributed it to a couple of reasons.

1) overall stress relief
2) when you stress about something (getting pregnant) your body, unbeknownst to you, stores tension in those areas (you can actually feel this as she works your feet, it feels tender in areas you are holding tension)
3) it brings balance to organs and systems (endocrine system), so reflexology helps balance your hormones.

I have to say it has definitely worked for me. She also has mentioned that reflexology couple with acupuncture can be very effective. I feel like I am not ready for that additional step. It isn't so much the needles of acupuncture, as the time commitment. It is hard to bust out of work at 5 on the dot, commute home and then walk over to the reflexologist every week.

Sometimes when it seems a bit too hokey, I think about that fact that people have been doing these practices for a thousand years and it has sustained itself. Have you had success with getting pregnant by using alternative medicine?