Shock Therapy

I spoke with a nurse tonight and they do want me starting Es.trace tonight in addition to trying to get in for 1 or 2 electro-acupuncture appointments before Saturday (to be continued until and through transfer). I'll then go back in early Saturday morning for another doppler (hope the forecast on Saturday looks better than it did today). If the lining looks better on Saturday, we will stay with our original schedule. If not, they may want to keep me on the es.trace for another couple of days and push the transfer back. Sounds eerily similar to my last canceled FET where they kept "postponing" me until the bad cells showed up and I was officially cancelled. I really hope that those bad cells were there all along and that is what kept the es.trace from thickening my lining. I do have a proven history of es.trace helping from my prior medicated IUI cycles.

I also asked the nurse about red raspberry leaf tea (thanks Maria!) and she said it can't hurt as long as it doesn't have any additives in it. I'm guessing that it is the actual leaves and, therefore, wouldn't have anything added, but what do I know. So I'll be looking online to see where I can pick up some of this stuff tomorrow. Tomorrow morning I'll try to find an acupuncturist who does electro-acupuncture and try to make two appointments (for Thursday and Friday if I can get in). From what I understand, electro-acupuncture is just like regular acupuncture except they send an electric current pulsing into the needles. Sounds a little scary to me, but I guess I'll find out. Apparently studies have shown that electro-acupuncture can increase blood flow to the uterus.

On the blood flow issue, a friend of mine who just graduated from nursing school (yay, T!) and is studying for her boards did a little research and came up with the following:

"Pulsatility index is a calculation of arterial blood flow to the uterus, from what I gather it is a reflection of arterial blood pressure. (It is also calculated for other arteries like your renal artery in determining the success of a kidney transplant for example) The reason it is important is because it determines vascular resistance or in other words, it determines how well your uterus (or other organ) is being perfussed with blood. The reason it is not a straight up pressure and it is expressed in numbers like 1, 2, and 3 is because it is a calculation using blood pressure, which I can not find at the moment. Below 3 = less resistance = more perfussion, above 3= more resistance (because your artery is constricted caused by whatever causes high blood pressure, like caffeine) = less perfussion = less chance of implantation = infertility. This is what I've gathered through my research and relating it to what I know."

Please note that the above should not be construed as professional medical advice, but it helped me to better understand what the doppler measures.

Here are some interesting studies that my friend also pulled for me. I haven't read them yet, but they all look very interesting:

See first study here.

See second study here.

See third study here.