Acupunture: Session One and Two

Session One

My first acupuncture appointment was intensive! I talked to the doctor for about 1.5 hours. We went over all my infertility testing from the RE, result by result. He asked a million questions about my lifestyle, work, and diet.

This Dr. Z wrote an article about miscarriage in our Resolve newsletter so that interesting. I had read the article in my RE's waiting room a few months ago but didn't pay attention to the author's name at the time. There's also a German study that has indicated that acupuncture can be beneficial to IVF success.
Here's a newspaper article regarding my acupuncturist and fertility.

http://www.ivfflorida.com/acupuncture.html

I'm going to try a few cycles of weekly acu treatments. I had one today and it was relaxing and energizing at the same time! He wants to work on my diet in up coming appointments. He really wants me to completely cut out caffeine and green tea. I only drink 6-10 ounces of coffee a day to get me started in the morning but I'm going to try to cut back, maybe go with half decaf. Then I'll try to switch to black tea per his suggestion.

He is concerned with the green tea blocking folic acid absorption. I have seen an article regarding that. In the past I just always took my folic acid as far from the green tea as possible.

He also wants me to try some Chinese herbs. My RE's nurse said it was okay but I'm still a little concerned. I'm supposed to have a consult with another doctor and then they'll order the herbs from a Chinese pharmacy in NYC.

For the first acu session lasted about 20 minutes. He put a needle in each foot. Then I had a series of needles up my leg to my knee.




He put a half dozen around my belly button with a heat lamp centered over them.
(You're not getting a picture of my stomach!)

I have an appointment next week for another session!


Session Two (CD 37, 6 DPO)

We talked about my charts this time before the needling started. He asked for copies of them for his review. The new patient paperwork asked about this but he didn't bring it up at the intake appointment. He asked me if I normally have cramping at ovulation and before my period. I do and I've been cramping for the past few days. (No, don't get excited. I doubt if it's implantation. I normally cramp during the 2WW.)

I got more needles this time! Again, I had the needles in my feet and up my lower legs. This time the needles were located lower on my belly/pelvic area. The heat lamp was again placed over my stomach. I also got one needle in each hand. I got one on my forehead and one on the top of my head.




Sorry, I look like so awful and uncomfortable. The acupuncture is actually not painful but it was uncomfortable to snap these pictures on my phone. I hid my phone under the pillow while he was inserting the needles. After he left I squirmed around until I could get the pictures snapped.
The needles in the back of my hand weren't very deep. I ended up dislodging the one in my left hand when I hid away the phone. Oops. He acted like it wasn't a big deal.

This session was a lot longer. Maybe 45 minutes or so.