Magical Chinese Cure All?

I wrote here about the rash that cropped up practically the second I started this cycles birth control regimen. It was itching like crazy and I still have no idea what caused it - hormones? All the medications? Detergent in my sheets? something I touched? A yeast skin rash from the birth control? A combination of the above?

I asked my acupuncturist about it and she said that from a Chinese Medicine stand point, rashes like that are the result of damp heat or "wind" in the skin. She used several points to help clear out heat and dampness in my acupuncture session and gave me this herbal wash that she usually gives to her post postpartum patients to help with healing tears, hemorrhoids, yeast infections and a whole host of other things.

Yin Care

I've been using this stuff for two days and I have to say it's friggin' magical. It's like there's nothing this stuff can't treat.  The ingredient list is full of herbs and extracts, some I recognize and others I'm totally unfamiliar with: 

Extracts & Essential Oils of:

• Di Fu Zi - Kochia
• Yin Chen Hao - Artemisia
• Du Huo - Angelica
• She Chuang Zi - Cnidium
• Shi Chang Pu - Acorus
• Ai Ye - Artemisia
• Bo He - Mentha
• Jin Yin Hua - Lonicera
• Zhi Zi - Gardenia
• Huang Bai - Phellodendron
• Huang Qin - Scutellaria
• Ku Shen - Sophora
• Cang Zhu - Atractylodes
• Tu Jing Pi - Pseudolarix

The list of things this stuff successfully treats is unbelievable. You can use it as a compress, rub, rinse, douche, soak, spray, mix it with a compounding cream and even soak tampons in it. Depending on the ailment you're treating, you dilute it with different amounts of water but you can also use it at full strength.

Topically, Yin care treats:

• Acne, Eczema, Psoriasis, Rashes, Rosacea, Hemorrhoids
• Shingles, Cold Sores, Sty, Athletes Foot, Poison Oak, Poison Ivy 
• Fungal Infections in the nail, toe or skin, Insect Bites and Staph Infections 

 For Gynecological issues, Yin care treats:

• Yeast, Bacterial, Fungal, and Trichomonia Infections 
• Vulvitis, STD
• Cervical Dysplasia, Cervicitis

A herbal solution that treats everything from acne and hemorrhoids to poison ivy and yeast infections? How does this even exist? I can even use it on Milou's flea bite/lick granulomas. This stuff is insane, it's already helping to clear up some acne and a small rash E had.

OMG. Just this very moment I think I figured out what caused the rash on my groin. I'm fairly sure that the day I started birth control I also shaved my bikini line. With E's man scented shave cream. That I am obviously allergic to. Whoops.

I still don't know what caused the one on my stomach but that one is basically gone, so major points to Yin-care.  

Those little dots are the last remnants of the belly rash. Bye bye!

TWW: Light Bulb

I started acupuncture at the same time as my first IUI, including the acupuncture diet. I've posted about it before, it's fairly restrictive, cuts out all white flour and sugars and emphasizes proteins and veggies. My breakfast on this diet was usually soup or eggs, or more specifically, egg whites with some whole eggs mixed in. Eggs were never my favorite food, especially after I burned out on them doing the Atkins diet in 2004, and I never ate just egg whites. Still, I figured it couldn't be too bad and started eating them on mornings where I didn't have soup, 50% whole egg and 50% egg white from a carton.

Scrambled Eggies

Some days, I ended up with a really awful tummy ache, complete with nausea and frequent trips to the bathroom. It would start about an hour after my breakfast and last 3-6 long, uncomfortable hours. I blamed it on the Menopur (it's so many hormones) on the herbs (I took them on an empty stomach) and on the prenatals and vitamins (lots of people get an upset stomach from prenatals). I tried to eat lots of acid absorbing foods like rice cakes and wheat toast just in case it was from not eating a lot of carbs, but nothing helped.  I'd just have to wait it out, feeling wretched and telling myself it was worth it if we got pregnant. I'd spend these days working from home, usually curled in a ball and miserable. Ugh.

This morning, it happened again. I made scrambled eggs and turkey bacon for breakfast at 10:30 and by 11:30 my stomach was starting to hurt. I assumed my curled-ball position and prepared for a miserable time when I realized something didn't add up. I hadn't taken any Menopur, acupuncture herbs or my vitamins today. In fact, the only thing I'd had was the eggs and turkey bacon. And then the light bulb went on. I only get this horrible stomach ache on days when I have eggs for breakfast. The worst stomach aches were from days when I had organic, cage free eggs mixed with egg whites for breakfast, on an empty stomach. It's not the hormones or the vitamins or anything else causing the horrible stomach aches. It's the eggs. An egg intolerance, or more likely and intolerance to egg whites. Ding Ding Ding.

Adding this photo was an entirely necessary edit.

Trying to be healthy and follow the diet, I've been making myself miserable and sick. I've never had a problem with eggs cooked in something, like egg noddles or baked goods, but on their own they now leave me a miserable, stomach clutching mess. Egg intolerance or sensitivity, unlike an egg allergy, is apparently developed later in life. They usually result in a mild IgG reaction, like my stomach ache, nausea and upset stomach. It all makes so much sense and means that I got really lucky and had very few actual symptoms from the Menopur.

No More Eggs for Breakfast

Next time I see my doctor, I'm going to ask for an egg sensitivity test to egg whites and egg yolks. If I'm lucky, maybe this is just a temporary sensitivity that will go away, eggs are such an easy source of protein, it would be a shame to cut them out even if I don't love them. In the meantime, I'm striking plain eggs from the menu. I'm hoping that at 2DPIUI, several little eggs are fertilized and starting cleavage or compaction, unaffected by my miserable stomach. Come on little ones, I promise things aren't always so upset in there!

Embryogenesis, hopefully my little ones are fertilized and dividing as above in day 2!

Ouchie

Today was another tough day physically, I don't know if it's the Menopur or the acupuncture herbs/diet but I've just felt rotten. Stomach ache, nauseous, bloated, tired, sore back, the whole rotten spectrum and the stomach ache/abdominal pain is definitely the worst. I suspect it's probably a combination of both which makes it nearly impossible to get rid of since I can't stop taking the Menopur or the herbs. I've tried eating bread, taking advil, eating more bread, curling up in a ball, drinking tons of water and I finally capped it off with some soup which seemed to help the most. I'll try eating a more normal meal for dinner and see if I can banish whatever this is for good.

I will probably mention it to Nurse C tomorrow morning just in case it might be mild OHSS, but I doubt it very much. OHSS usually comes with loads of eggs, 20 not 5 teensy ones, and I haven't taken the trigger shot this cycle so I don't have any HCG in my system. My ovaries also don't seem to hurt, probably the only part of my stomach that doesn't, and they looked perfectly normal sized at my last appointment. It's probably the shit ton of Menopur I've started injecting over old needle marks -_-

Despite feeling like shit, I'm still really looking forward to my appointment tomorrow. I've got everything crossed that those 5 little follicles are growing into 5 bigger follicles that will become mature eggs. I'm just not sure how much growth I should expect since we suppressed egg development with birth control first. Is this going to be a long and slow cycle? Today is day 6 of stimms, how much longer will I need to go? Once I inject my 4 vials tonight, I will have 22 left, or 2.5ish days. That's enough for tomorrow (Wednesday), Thursday and Friday morning, bringing me to 8 and a half days of injections. I'm ready to buy another 20 if need be, but I hope we won't need much more than that.

Busy Boy

Yesterdays acupuncture appointment went very well, as usual. S complimented me on my "positive spirit" and after about 5-10 minutes relaxation, I dropped off into a deep sleep. This time I slept so hard I didn't wake up until S had opened the door and walked in. It felt like I had only closed my eyes for a second but somehow an hour had passed. I got a new herbal formula to try out as well, it's less bitter than my batch which is a nice change. It almost feels like I'm paying for a weekly nap, but I'm up for anything that helps.

As planed, I dropped E off at the airport early this morning. He got home super late last night, near 1am, and I have no idea how he's going to get through the weekend :(

Let's go E!

He has to land, pick up his rental car, drive to the track meet, work the track meet which should go till 9 or 10pm, check into his hotel, build graphics and prepare for the game on Sunday, sleep at some point, check out of the hotel, drop off the rental car, hop on a plane, get picked up, get his car, and go straight to the next game, arriving about 4 hours after his call time. It's gonna be a busy weekend for him and I'm already looking forward to picking him up tomorrow. 

I have a much simpler weekend planned, with a lot less running around. Milou has her Agility class today, I'll probably work and run some errands, but on the whole will be able to chill out a bit.

Tomorrow I get to pick up E bright and early, and it's also my last day of birth control, yay! I get three days off while the hormones leave my system and then it's on to the big guns. I don't expect two injections a day to be very much fun, but the prospect of recruiting lots of eggs is a really exciting one. The more targets we have, the better chance we have of getting pregnant with a healthy baby.

Sunday is also a big day for my bestie M and her insanely adorable son Dean. Deano, who is quite possibly the cutest baby on two legs, turns 1 today and we'll be celebrating his birthday tomorrow :) Like his big sister, Deano practically radiates sunshine and exudes happiness out of his pores. He's an absolute joy to be around and I can only hope that E and I have kiddos have as awesome.