Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Napro update and some new ideas

Today I have hope again.

 Hope to find answers why we have not conceived again after our miscarriage over a year ago and to have the peace of mind that I have done everything in my power to be a biological mother again.    I really needed this peace.  

After the God.indicence of Sunday where right after asking for a sign to the Virgin of Guadalupe at St. Patricks  I saw an ad about Napro in the middle of Manhattan (I still find it amazing!) today I had  more God.incidences which gave me great peace.

I know we should not always be asking for signs, but maybe due to my hard head God has decided its the best way to signal that all will be OK or the way to go.

So today  maybe the first time in many,  many years today I skipped work, actually a top meeting.

I did not say much to my boss other than I had an important appointment and needed to take it for a couple of hours.  He agreed, still I felt bad about doing it and basically escaped from the meeting.  .

Well the very first sign that all was going to be OK came just as I was leaving the office.

 I was leaving our NYC office which is located in C.h.el.sea Market and had just asked God for all to be Ok with my appointment (my DH actually thought I was crazy for doing it and we had a discussion in the morning)  and then I could not believe my eyes:

 Right in front of me I see a man wearing a large T-shirt with the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  The man wearing it was clearly a Latino and I almost hugged him  on the spot, actually I had tears in my eyes.

How in the world in the middle of  a very crowded Chel.sea Market does Our Lady appear?   As I looked back to confirm that my eyes were not lying to me I saw that also he had Her image on the front.   It clearly was respectful, a sign of devotion  and not just a comical depiction of her.   I could not help but smile for the next 10 minutes.

Then right in front of me a taxi cab stopped and I hopped right into it.   The taxi driver was so very very nice and kept reassuring me I was on time for my appointment.   I was amazed and began to relax. .

I arrived with plenty of time at the Gianna center and had an amazing consult.  The first one, lasting more than 30 minutes in more than 2.5 years.

The doctor later told me she could not believe I had found an appointment from one moment to the other. That that was highly unusual and many times people had to wait weeks.  

The doctor there, a young family doctor which I had long admired from some videos that I had seen  was very nice and she did not think I was crazy at all for wanting to speak to a Napro doctor about my case.    

She did a very in depth interview of my history and actually heard me,  I felt so validated.

I  had been thinking that lately (in my case)  PPIV  has been  very very busy  and hard to get a hold off for me being so far away and that at this time in my life I needed a more individual approach.

A smaller center where I could have more direct contact with the doctor and actually discuss my case often in the coming months as we tweaked a possible treatment.

I will probably go back to PPVI in the future if needed but right now this is what my heart needs for peace.  

Then she saw my charts and said that they looked quite good for  my age and said something that really surprised me:

The acupuncture is clearly working , keep for sure doing it.  Its not part of Napro, but I have seen such amazing  results time and time again.    (my mucus has been in the last 2 cycles amazing and went from so so to one of a 15 year old). Your last 2 cycles have been perfect.

Then she prescribed pycnogenol to me which has shown to stop endo on its tracks.  I have been giving my DH pycnogenol for years and  its one of the things that he was on when we conceived (it helps with sperm morphology), but I had no idea it helped with endo.   Its 60 mgs once a day in case anybody is interested and they sell it at GNC or Whole foods.

The she explained her game plan to me to detect what could be happening after my miscarriage and so many years after my 1st napro consult,  a game plan that I can manage being a mother and with insurance that most probably will not cover most.  

The plan is:

  • Do estradiol blood work  series first part of the cycle  as everything shows my progesterone must be OK.  Then do P7 full blood work. All  of it in Mexico(this was a relief, that I did not have to try to send it to the USA)
  • Do U/S series in Mexico following specific instructions.  Start at Peak minus 4.    She explained that there was a Napro way of doing it, but following the instructions and giving what Napro looked for to the radiologist was going to be OK as no centers existed in Mexico.  I already did it in the past and  have the referral for a top top center specializing in gynecology whose report Dr H liked. 
  • She did not think I needed another lap.  All signals endo is not back and above all Dr. H said it was gone after my lap with him.,  The pycnogenol is in case there are any minimal spots. 
  • She highly recommended a hysteroscopy and a HSG. She thinks that there might be an issue in my uterus or tubes due to all the  problems  I had with the miscarriage and the back to back D&C´s. The chinese doctor diagnosed me with a cold uterus, which in Chinese medicine means that the blood flow to the uterus was limited.   He has said it has been fixed now, but I would maybe do this also. I will need to discuss with my DH if this is something that we can afford and I need to really think over if I can go under anesthesia again.    The HSG I will do for sure. 
  • Do another sperm analysis which we have not done for over 2 years. 
  • Test for vitamin D.   It has not proven 100%  to affect fertility,  but it would be good to have. 
The game plan if all this testing is OK is to give my body 4 more months on its own and if by then I am not pregnant, then start  inyectables. 

I am to do cycle reviews each month and test the  Estradiol and progesterone in P+7 each month.  

I also can do phone/skype consults as needed with her and  she promised to answer my questions in a couple of days at the most. 

She also said that the most important and certainly the first part of my treatment was asking St. Gianna for her intercession.-The doctor promised to pray for me and told me to start a novena to her,  

Gianna who has been an integral part of my life since my marriage on her feast day and then the birth of my son on the very same day she gave birth seems to be guiding the building of my family through adoption and possibly through Napro now..  

I am so so glad to have done it.  An unexpected gift from Our Lady and St. Gianna.   

13 comments:

  1. Sounds terrific!! Congratulations for the achievement! Hahaha Loved the part of the hugging man. See?? God is almost calling you by iPhone and you think the call is not for u! :D. Saint Gianna Beretta Molla, Pray for us!

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    1. Think about this: how many things needed to happen in order to take you TODAY to NYC? God is definetely speaking... So, I am praying for all you need to believe in more miracles to come. Hoping against all hope as Abraham did. Enjoy your presents!!

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  2. What a blessed visit!!!!! How exciting to have a plan!!!!!

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  3. Awesome! You entire story is just amazing. God is good!

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  4. You sound so positive about this and I think that is the best part!

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  5. That is wonderful!! I can't wait to see how this unfolds.

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  6. You always have the neatest godincidences.

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  7. You are not alone in PPVI taking time to get back to you. This month it wasn't so bad, but the last month ... wow. It took a long time.
    I'm so impressed by your doctor and plan. I really hope that the combo of all these things results in a great announcement soon! St. Gianna, pray for E!

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    1. PPVI took a long time to get back to me and were - in general - a pain to deal with. I love the GIanna Center here in NYC.

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  8. I have a question about Vit D - does too much or too little possibly affect fertility?

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