The Infertility Stuff, Part 2

The fantastic Creighton Model practitioner fit us into her schedule for a special introductory session, since we couldn't make it to her next few scheduled group introductory sessions. We had to chart a complete cycle before we could start the next step of hormone testing. (Usually, it's two cycles, but since we had been charting using the Sympto-Thermal Method, the doctor figured we'd be quick to catch on.)

As a sidenote, we both love the Creighton Model. It's so systematic--in comparison to the Sympto-Thermal Method, we found the instructions for observations to be so clear and specific! (Of course, CCLI has been updating their Sympto-Thermal materials, too, and I'm really interested to see the changes.) It was tough for me to give up taking my temperature (in terms of trusting the method, not having to get up every morning to take my temperature--our schedules aren't that regular, and having to wake up at the same time every day was a pain), but once I saw how well it worked, I was sold.

So, we got going on the Creighton Model, and then my doctor started in on the NaPro Technology protocols. (Ha! "Protocols" just reminded me of 24. No sattelite coverage needed.) The first step involved having blood drawn every other day for about three weeks, then freezing the samples and shipping them to the Pope Paul VI Institute for hormone testing. It was so nice to have someone taking the whole thing seriously! And I love the NaPro Technology approach. NaPro Technology is an approach (created by the same doctor who created the Creighton Model) to reproductive health that takes a disease-based approach to infertility.

Well, of course, I thought, when I first heard of NaPro Technology (in an article in the National Catholic Register). What other approach would you take? People are designed to be fertile. If they're not, then there must be something wrong. Wouldn't the first step be to find out what the problem is?

We knew that my local doctor would be able to learn a lot from the series of hormone tests, but if medical treatment of any problems revealed through the hormone testing didn't do the trick, the next step would be to have surgery--through the Pope Paul VI Institute. Though that sounded great (hmm . . . a surgeon whose whole career has been devoted to this area of work, who has written a textbook about his methods, who created an approach to treating infertility that has far higher success rates than other approaches. . . um, OK, sign me up!), the distance and the worries about insurance coverage made us think that we should find out what our local options were.

So, we decided to check out the reproductive endocrinology department of our HMO. And then we found out what a different approach to infertility might look like . . .

The Infertility Stuff

OK, I decided I would start posting about the whole big infertility thing. So, to start at the beginning . . . Mr. X and I are Catholic, and as part of our marriage preparation we went to Natural Family Planning classes. It all made sense to us, and so we learned the Sympto-Thermal Method while we were engaged. I noticed right away that my charts didn't look so hot. I had a short luteal phase, among other things. So, we read Marilyn Shannon's book Fertility, Cycles, and Nutrition, and I started taking lots of vitamin supplements. And I mentioned my concerns to my HMO doctor, who I really liked. She asked me if I wanted to get pregnant right away . . . well, no, not right away . . . So, she said not to worry about it. Not the most promising response.

The vitamin supplements seemed to help a bunch, especially with PMS symptoms. So, I figured that there would be no issue once we started using NFP to get pregnant. After all, no one in my family seemed to have had problems having children. But the months started going by, and nothing happened. Once it had been about nine months, I decided to change doctors. A while earlier, I had found a highly-recommended doctor who was seriously Catholic (as in no birth control prescriptions). We had been looking for a pro-life doctor, for a couple of reasons. First of all, we thought it would be good to support a doctor who took a stand, and secondly, it sounded like a good idea to have a doctor who would share our views and not pressure us to have an abortion if anything was "wrong" with our future baby. So, I went to this doctor to review my charts. I was kind of startled when he said that we seemed to be "experiencing infertility." Fortunately, by that point, I had learned that "infertility" didn't mean "sterility," but it still wasn't a term I envisioned applying to me. He was great, though. He really listened to everything I said, treated me as if I actually knew something about my own body, and really took his time with me. He recommended that we switch from the Sympto-Thermal Model to the Creighton Model. So, I started calling the nearest Creighton Practitioner to get us signed up to learn it . . .

Where's the choir?

I showed up at church this morning (5 minutes late for choir!) and didn't hear any music. So, I ran down to the music room where we practice. Dark and empty. I ran back up to the church with the sinking feeling that it would be just me and the pianist today! Oops! And I didn't know one of the hymns on the schedule! I knew I'd be the cantor, but I figured we'd go over that hymn with the choir, and I wouldn't be singing alone on that anyway . . . It went fine, except for one little mistake I made in the psalm. Probably no one but the pianist would have noticed if I didn't try to change the last word (from "bless" to "day"--ended up "I will bleh--ay"--nice!). The inevitable mistake or two do tend to keep me humble, anyway. And trying to sing expressively actually makes me feel . . . I don't know, more emotional, more prayerful. Which is good! When I first started cantoring, I was so concerned about doing everything right that I didn't really experience the mass in a very reverent way.

So, this has been a riveting blog so far! Which is OK, since I'm sure no one's reading it. :) I've been sort of pacing myself, so I don't end up with nothing to say by the end of the month. But I think I should try to start getting into the "deeper" stuff tomorrow. So, for tomorrow, I'm going to start thinking about what I want to say about everyone's favorite topic . . . infertility! Yay!

Today and Tomorrow

The auditions actually went pretty well! They didn't ask for the hated song, thank God! And I made it to the semi-finals, though not the finals. That was OK, though. There were some fantastic singers in the semi-final, and the ones I thought would win made it to the final. I'm getting more serious about my singing after about 10 years of no voice lessons (all that stuff about school and starting a career sort of got in the way of the singing!), so it's good just to make it as far as I did. When you're just "picking up" classical singing after a 10-year break (preceded by one year of classical lessons), and one of your competitors is singing the big Queen of the Night aria (aria starts at 2:09 in the link) from The Magic Flute, it's OK not to make it to the finals.

So, tomorrow I'm driving my husband (who would like to be called Mr. X) to the airport well before the crack of dawn, and then I will come back for a couple hours' nap before cantoring at church. So, it will be an early night tonight.

Auditions

So, I have an audition this afternoon (classical voice stuff). And I hate one of my three songs. And I'm getting over a cold . . . This will be interesting! I'll only have to sing two songs, so I'm hoping they don't pick the hated one. So, this is a short post because I need to get dressed up and leave in plenty of time so I can find the place!

Happy All Saints Day!

All Saints Day has always been one of my favorite feast days. When I was in elementary school, the fourth-graders dressed up as saints for mass and processed in to "When the Saints Come Marching In." It was a very cool thing, and we looked forward to being fourth graders to be able to dress up. Most of us picked a saint related to our name in some way. Of course, fights broke out over some of the more "popular" saints (and the more popular names of the day) . . . and I think that's why NO ONE was allowed to be the Blessed Mother. Too many Marys in class for the teacher to pick one . . .

I used to love reading this book called 60 Saints for Girls from the school library (I checked out 60 Saints for Boys, too, but in elementary school that wasn't nearly as interesting to me). I remember, though, having an argument in second grade when we had to do reports on our patron saints, and the teacher was trying to help Jennifer come up with a saint for her name. I was so excited to tell them that my beloved 60 Saints for Girls included a Saint Jennifer! But no one believed me, and Jennifer said "I think I'd know if there was a Saint Jennifer." Anyone ever heard of a Saint Jennifer? I couldn't find the book again, and it may have just been the author's translation of another name, but I still wonder!

NaBloPoMo

I signed up for NaBloPoMo in hopes that I will finally start posting on my blog! Every day for a month . . . hmm . . .