A nerve wracking weekend. I rang for the results of the blood test on Thursday and the receptionist told me that I would have to make an appointment. I asked if that was really necessary? Did I have to come all the way there and pay for an appointment? Could he not give me the results over the phone? She said that was not generally his policy but she would speak to him. She came back on the line and said that I would need to make an appointment. I made an appointment for 9am Monday which was the first I could get in. Did that mean that there was something wrong? What else could go wrong?
I rang back. Saying I was stressed and worried. The receptionist reassured me that the results were not urgent and they had been in since Wednesday and if so the obstetrician would have called me straight away. However that there was something to be discussed. Oh no, another ring of fire to jump through?!
Monday 9am. Apprehensive and with anticipation I was hideously early for my appointment. The obstetrician said that the results had found that I had a possible strep infection in my urine - quite common apparently. Not something to overly worry about but something to get rid of before I am pregnant again.
More concerning the ANA section of the blood test that looks for autoimmune diseases showed a reading at a low level. They tested the DNA for Lupus and other such diseases but these cam back as negative. So a potential autoimmune tendancy? What is that exactley? A healthy immune system recognises and destroys foreign objects like viruses and bacteria. With autoimmune diseases the immune system attacks objects that are not foreign. While there is no known cause as yet it is thought that several triggers such as hormones and stress may cause the autoimmune cells to accumulate.
The obstetrician assured me that my reading was low indicating that I may very well not have a problem with this in later life. He said that there was no definite evidence to say that this reading was causing the miscarriages. However, it has been known to be linking to early miscarriage in autoimmune disease sufferers. He also said that luckily there may be a fairly simple remedy. A 1/2 dose of low level slow release aspirin a day. Low enough a dose not to harm the baby but enough to thin the blood so that the autoimmune cells cannot gather. However he did caution to tell me that this may or may not work; if we did have a successful pregnancy that it may not be down to the aspirin it may have been successful anyway; and that I would probably have to take aspirin in any other pregnancies as a precaution.
So a diagnosis and a potential solution! I was quite happy with that. For a while I didn't think of the longer term implications for me and was just hopefully for the pregnancy. Looking into autoimmune disease on the Internet a little more scared me. It is not a nice disease. And can be particularly painful. There is no cure and no remedy just management. Also I was worried to hear that often autoimmune levels were not constant and that it is prone to flares which can be triggered by pregnancy, stress, environment... the list goes on. However now with a little time under my belt and quite a bit of reading I figure there is little I can do about it other than keep healthy, stress less and roll with the punches. A little like most things in life; you can't foresee them and you are not in control you just have to deal with them as they come.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
East and West
Desperate to try anything I looked to cleanse and balance my system to give my body the best chance I could to try again. Having done all I could to try and identify any reason my body may have for rejecting a baby in having the blood test I sought out more alternative therapies. I began seeing an accupuncturist who specialises particularily in fertility and pregnancy. I also saw a naturapath consulting on diet and well being.
While I understood that western medicine often does not approve of the alternative methods of practice (although my obstietrician was quite positive about giving accupuncture a try saying 'It can't hurt!' ) I somehow expected for alternative therapies to be more accommodating and supportive of each other. Not so it seems! My natuarpath was extremely sceptical of what my accupunctuist might be prescribing me with chinese herbs and my accupuncturist was critical of the dietry advise that naturapath gave. This made it quite difficult to find my way interms of the advice I chose to take. I desperately wanted for someone to just say, ' Here, do this and that will fix it!' not so apparently.
The naturapath prescribed a Fit For Life diet. Fruit only in the morning until 12 oclock but not acidic fruit - apples, pears, bananas, pineapple in small quantities. Then lunch and dinner the key was food combining. Meat, Potatoes, Pasta, Cheese, Eggs and Bread all on their own with either vegetables or salad. No combining of the above. The philosophy behind this is that the stomach after years of abuse! is having trouble processing the multitudes of combinations we present it with and so is not functioning effectively or absorbing the nutrients from the complex food efficiently. No tomoatoes, no bread and no potatoes in an effort to cut out acidic and carbohydrate foods to make to body more alkaline. She also prescribed magnesium, collodial minerals, a probiotic, Himilayan mineral salts mixed with water and a plant based bowel cleaner. I stuck with the lot for a week. Then after speaking to the accupuncturist who advised against the bowel cleanse I stopped that. I kept going diligently with the diet for about another 2 weeks and slowly the food combining dropped off again. I do believe in the philosophy of it. It is just so hard to do consistently without a complete and total change of life.
The accupuncturist was great. I also believe that there is a lot in much of the ideology behind the chi or energy flow in accupuncture. She also prescribed chinese herbs to coinside with my period to help cleanse the uterus and then to help build back the lining strong and healthy for the next attempt. Her reasoning behind her advice against the bowel cleansing was sound and reinforced what I felt my body was saying to me. I would recommend accupuncture for anyone in my situation most definately.
While I understood that western medicine often does not approve of the alternative methods of practice (although my obstietrician was quite positive about giving accupuncture a try saying 'It can't hurt!' ) I somehow expected for alternative therapies to be more accommodating and supportive of each other. Not so it seems! My natuarpath was extremely sceptical of what my accupunctuist might be prescribing me with chinese herbs and my accupuncturist was critical of the dietry advise that naturapath gave. This made it quite difficult to find my way interms of the advice I chose to take. I desperately wanted for someone to just say, ' Here, do this and that will fix it!' not so apparently.
The naturapath prescribed a Fit For Life diet. Fruit only in the morning until 12 oclock but not acidic fruit - apples, pears, bananas, pineapple in small quantities. Then lunch and dinner the key was food combining. Meat, Potatoes, Pasta, Cheese, Eggs and Bread all on their own with either vegetables or salad. No combining of the above. The philosophy behind this is that the stomach after years of abuse! is having trouble processing the multitudes of combinations we present it with and so is not functioning effectively or absorbing the nutrients from the complex food efficiently. No tomoatoes, no bread and no potatoes in an effort to cut out acidic and carbohydrate foods to make to body more alkaline. She also prescribed magnesium, collodial minerals, a probiotic, Himilayan mineral salts mixed with water and a plant based bowel cleaner. I stuck with the lot for a week. Then after speaking to the accupuncturist who advised against the bowel cleanse I stopped that. I kept going diligently with the diet for about another 2 weeks and slowly the food combining dropped off again. I do believe in the philosophy of it. It is just so hard to do consistently without a complete and total change of life.
The accupuncturist was great. I also believe that there is a lot in much of the ideology behind the chi or energy flow in accupuncture. She also prescribed chinese herbs to coinside with my period to help cleanse the uterus and then to help build back the lining strong and healthy for the next attempt. Her reasoning behind her advice against the bowel cleansing was sound and reinforced what I felt my body was saying to me. I would recommend accupuncture for anyone in my situation most definately.
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