August 2007: accupuncture and nasty arse herb teas

So August 2007 was my first meeting with Linda, our acupuncturist.  I was encouraged by her absolute faith that we could fix my FSH problem.  She didn't seem at all phased by that nasty number, 21.  No problem.  Also reassuring was the wall filled with baby photos and notes/cards thanking Linda for all her help producing such wonderful wee ones.  Maybe there is something to this acupuncture thing? 

After our initital discussion, Linda told me I should be coming to her weekly, 2x if possible.  Also, I needed to stop ALL caffeine (somehow green tea was still ok) and alcohol and dairy, especially milk.  I was to eat lots of leafy green veggies, and sunflower seeds.  And drink her herb tea, twice daily, 5 days a week.  ($60/week).  And, I was to drink wheatgrass juice daily.  Ok, where on earth do you get wheatgrass juice?  It's not at Safeway!  I looked!  Eventually found a farm that you can order it frozen in cubes and they deliver to your door - phew!

So, I boiled the tea daily that made our house smell like a wet forest, and choked it down.  I stopped ALL booze, coffee and drank my wheatgrass juice.  For a year.  I did fall off the wagon 2x. Once, at Christmas when we showed up for dinner at my BIL/SILs house after she insisted on making it (I had wanted to host) and we arrived to find lasange and fish (hello, where is the turkey??)  and oh, they'd already eaten, so it was just DH and I at the table.  That deserved wine.  The other time was when we were in Quebec City for our anniversary in April 09. We cracked a bottle of champagne and I had a cider at lunch. 

I found acupuncture relaxing and my FSH did go down, to 5 and 6 on various blood draws.  Was this 100% due to accupuncture?  I don't know - my RE in September 07 put me on DHEA which is a steroid that will also impact FSH levels.  So, difficult to isolate what drove the reduction.  Bottom line, I stopped going to acupuncture in September 2008 when we moved to a different province, without a baby.