What a week! I'm so glad for the weekend and some much-needed rest. Other than the medical interventions I've had this week, I've also made some advances through CAM (i.e., complementary and alternative medicine):
1. I bought a zafu and a guided meditation MP3.
You may remember how much I debated about buying one last June when I went to the ACBS pre-conference meditation retreat in Reno. It turned out to be such a hard-core experience that it scared me away from meditating until very recently. But now I've been trying to get back on the proverbial horse (or zafu, as the case may be). I had been trying to meditate by sitting on the couch and doing self-guided work from my Making Babies book; while I liked the meditations they offered, the one thing I learned at that retreat is that I much prefer guided (over self-guided) meditation, at least while I'm a beginner. Also, my back kept getting sore from trying to sit upright on our comfy couch. So I finally bit the bullet and ordered a real zafu and a guided meditation MP3. If anyone wants to exchange other guided meditations, let me know! So far I really like this one.
2. I've been focusing on my diet.
I certainly haven't made all the changes on my action plan, but I'm commending myself for: limiting caffeine, minimizing alcohol, reducing red meat, drinking red raspberry leaf tea, attempting to reduce refined sugars, increasing organic/local foods, eating more soups and grains, and getting more regular exercise (see also #3 below). What I haven't really been able to do is limit wheat and dairy. Seriously, those are my 2 absolute favorite food groups! I can't live without cheese! A life without cheese is just not a life - I did grow up in Wisconsin, after all. (Besides, the Nurse's Health Study suggests that full-fat dairy can help fertility.) So that's okay. I'm still giving myself credit for the changes I have made and continue to work on.
3. I revamped some of our kitchen and bathroom products.
I've been concerned about xenoestrogens (parabens, BPA, dioxin, phthalates, sodium lauryl sulfate, etc.) in soaps and other products. I've done a ton of research on GoodGuide.com, and determined that:
-my 365 Whole Foods shampoo and condition are pretty decent, so I'm sticking with them for now
-my Cetaphil face wash and lotion are pretty good, but I'm looking into even more natural alternatives (I just ordered some samples from Bryn Mawr, a local soap company)
-my amazing, yummy-smelling Bath and Body Works bathroom hand soap is pretty much from the bottom of the barrel (sadly, at least from a xenoestrogen perspective), so I've now replaced it with all-natural bar soap (scented only with pure essential oils) from Whole Foods (but may switch to the more cost-effective Bryn Mawr soap, if it's any good). However, I should note that Mike thinks it's gross to have bar soap for guests, so we do have the xenoestrogen-heavy B&BW liquid soap in our bathroom - just consider yourself forewarned! :)
-pretty much any brand of tampons from Target are BAD BAD BAD, so I'm planning a trip to the Wedge to look for the Seventh Generation non-bleached variety
-similarly, I replaced all our plastic tupperwares with glass Pyrex food storage containers
Next I'm planning to look into: laundry detergent, deodorant, dish soap, body lotion, and eye makeup remover
4. I'm getting regular exercise
I still may not be achieving my goal of running 3-4x/week, but I'm definitely making progress of being active most days of the week. I've gone on lots of walks (I walked to work today!), gone on 2 bike rides with Mike, and been doing some yoga - in addition to free staff yoga on Mondays (have I told you yet how much I love my work?!?), I also just bought a fertility yoga DVD. It got great reviews on Amazon, and it was created by Chinese medicine doctors who specialize in reproductive health, so it should be very similar to yoga described in the Making Babies book (which was based on a complement of Eastern and Western medicine). I have a long run scheduled for tomorrow, so hopefully I can try the new yoga DVD on Sunday.
5. I'm following up with medical providers
As I've blogged about before, I've had a ton of bloodwork and also an HSG done and all of those results seem to be good so far. I had been looking forward to following up with my doctor next week, but I just got a call this morning that her scheduled changed and she has to cover the hospital that day. Grrrr. So now it's rescheduled for mid-May. I'm trying to be understanding - and really, what's another month at this point in the process?! I'm also thinking of trying Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), including chinese herbs, acupressure, and acupuncture. I need to wait until after we get and pay all my clinic and hospital bills from the last couple months (since TCM isn't covered by insurance), so maybe this is something I can do this summer.
Hey, I've kind of done a lot in the last 3 months! It's nice to look back and be able to see all these (hopefully positive) changes. Even though we're still not expecting, as least I'm much happier and at least marginally healthier!
So on that note, I leave you with this link to a "pain scale" blog post on Hyperbole and a Half. It's pretty hilarious, and I'm totally going to use her version at the hospital from now on! :)
http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/02/boyfriend-doesnt-have-ebola-probably.html
(And, just because I'm happy it's Friday, here's a bonus blog post from her: The Alot. Both the Pain Scale and The Alot make me cry tears of laughter)
Happy Friday!
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