I’ve been getting a lot of questions about what is going on with me personally these days so I thought I would jump on here and give an update. I’ve told a few people, but for those who want to know, here it is.
Disclaimer: I really hope that the guys who click in and read this stuff have dropped off by now, like, seriously, scroll on past dudes. I’m going to take a deep dive into women’s health issues in this post, and probably more and more so in future post because, duh, I am “The Fertility Advocate” and I talk about this stuff all day every day in my work. So if this stuff isn’t your jam, all good! Just consider yourself warned!
Okay, now for an update.
I went to see a Naturpath a bit ago and it was quite an eye opening experience.
I feel like I eat “better” than the average American but she took a million test and found I was actually deficient in SO many things. I was deficient in protein, vitamin K, vitamin D, vitamin C, iron, zinc, selenium, magnesium, chromium and all the B vitamins. She also found I have a leaky gut, which means that (probably from this last year of multiple rounds of antibiotics due to my two surgeries and IVFs), my gut lining has tiny holes in it that allow food to seep through into other areas of my body where they should not be. So my body’s immune system is always over-activated trying to sweep up the mess.
I have a lot of work to do to get my body balanced and back to health, but I believe my Naturpath when she says that some women’s bodies just won’t reproduce unless they feel they have all the nutrients and resources needed to grow a healthy baby. I’m choosing to believe my body was just being “smart”, it makes me feel better than labeling myself as “infertile.” 😉
Brent and I have dedicated 2019 to be the year that we get our bodies as healthy as they can be. Yes, it’s expensive and a lot of work, BUT, we really feel that spending the time, money and energy now to overhaul our lifestyle and get healthy will pay dividends in the future. Brent has actually been sick on an off for months this year, he caught a bug in the winter that due to his asthma and allergies developed into pneumonia. This was the second winter in a row he had pneumonia and this second time it was way worse, it was like his body just couldn’t shake it and get well. It really freaked me out and gave me the push I needed to make some hard changes.
Number one was finding a new home for our cat. (I know, it’s really sad, I’m still sensitive about it). The doctor has been telling us for years that cat should go, it was taxing on Brent’s immune system to always be fighting the allergens, but you know, it’s your family pet, so you avoid it. But it really came down to the cat or my husband’s health, and of course, the cat had to go. I interviewed families in our neighborhood and actually feel really good about her new home, no dogs or kids to pull her tail, I think she will be in heaven once she adjusts.
Brent and I are actually now both going to the same Naturpath and Acupuncturist. Which we feel really good about.
Because some of you asked to know the nitty-gritty details, I will include my three-pronged plan back to wellness:
· Heal my gut
· Restore my deficiencies
· Reduce toxins going forward
Heal my gut– Leaky guts often corresponds with auto-immune conditions, so she wasn’t surprised to find I also had this. Some of the best ways to heal your gut lining is drinking bone broth, eating fermented foods and take a good probiotic.
Restore my deficiencies– To get my body back to optimum levels I take about fifty thousand supplement pills a day, drink a liver cleanse smoothie with green powder and flax seeds once a day, and take a once-a-week B vitamin shot. She sent me home with 10 shots that I keep in the refrigerator. I remember the nurse was surprised when she went to “train” me on how to inject myself. I was highly skilled from my IVF years of practice. 😉
She also instructed that I not work-out too hard, that I walk in sunshine for 20 minutes, or do gentle yoga. Being on steroids repeatedly for IVF really taxed my adrenal glands and I have adrenal fatigue so the number one thing she wants me doing to heal is to get deep, restful sleep so my body can rejuvenate. She said every hour of sleep I get before midnight counts for 2 hours of sleep because your body does the most repair work between 10pm and 3am.
Cal sleeping in the bed with us has REALLY upset my ability to sleep super heavy and deep, so another big change is we bought a new bed to install in Cal’s room that is low to the ground with a trundle and a pretend “camping tent” over it. The plan was for Dad and Cal will go “camping” in the other room so mom can start getting some healing sleep! Eventually the plan is to get Cal “camping” alone in his own room, but baby steps for now.
Reduce toxins going forward– I’ll tell you how to tell how healthy you are, cut out ALL sugar and caffeine and tell me how you feel. Most of us feel pretty poopie, which shows that we are using sugar and caffeine as a crutch to get us through the day. Optimum health means we should actually sleep deeply each night, feel energized upon waking in the morning (without caffeine or sugar) and have no mood or energy crashes throughout the day because we are fueling our body with all healthy fats, proteins, vegetables we need to function at optimum levels. So that was NOT me at all. I had been gluten and dairy free for over a year, but, the supermarkets are pretty full of “gluten-free” cookies, pancake mix, noodles, breads that are basically just bad for you, and I was eating them thinking I deserve it because it was at least gluten and dairy free. NOT.
Now she has me eating SUPER clean. No sugar, no dairy, no gluten, no soy, no corn, no alcohol, no caffeine. Are you wondering what is left to eat? Ha! I was too, but, actually, quite a lot is left. All varieties of vegetables, fruits, nuts and grass-fed organic meats. So basically clean and paleo. Which I will tell you, once you get there, it feels AMAZING. I think my body is literally smiling at me. When I get good sleep and eat this way it’s actually hard to stay in a bad mood and be depressed about infertility. So that’s a good thing. 😉 Many of you know I hate cooking, so I will admit what has saved me is that I subscribe to Methodology, which delivers organic, pre-made paleo meals to my door. It’s amazing!
The Naturpath also challenged me to reduce toxins in other areas of my life as well, first up, beauty products. I resisted this one for the longest time. I mean, I really LIKED my products and kept convincing myself there cannot be enough toxins in there to make a difference. BUT, apparently, the skin absorbs things, duh, so a medicine cream the doctor prescribes for your skin absorbs just as well as your daily moisturizer. And sadly, my daily moisturizer that I started using ever since Brent and I traveled to Sweden and spent a luxurious day getting facials at a Swedish spa was full of parabens. So I was dosing myself with parabens morning and night every day for about 9 years. 🙁 It does matter, folks. I used an app called Think Dirty and looked up ALL my beauty products, make-up, shampoo, dry shampoo, everything. Remember how I said this endeavor was expensive? Yep, buying a bunch of new beauty products was super expensive, but worth it for peace of mind!
We also installed a reverse-osmosis remineralizing water filter because only RO filters remove fluoride from water, and fluoride reduces the thyroid’s ability to function. So many things to learn! I feel like I have been on a crash course these last months.
Finally, and this one might be strangest of all, my Naturpath told me to get a few Mayan massages for my abdominal region. She reasoned that I probably have a lot of scar tissue around my reproductive organs due to the surgeries I had. The Mayan culture believes that the uterus is the center of a woman’s energy, and if it’s off balance in any way, the whole body is off balance. I found a Mayan masseuse and she said she wasn’t surprised I have never been pregnant naturally because my uterus is severely retroverted which makes it extremely difficult for sperm to swim upstream, and also makes it difficult for your body to expel everything from a period. Sorry, TMI, but I was fascinated. So she literally re-positioned my uterus. You would have laughed if you saw me, I was doing headstands and she was banging my back with her hand. But I felt the difference; my uterus is back in place probably for the first time in my life. (I guess lots of horse-back riding and ballet, gymnastics can make a uterus tip backwards). I have to keep up on my uterus exercises and also do castor oil heat backs, but I think my pelvic energy is coming back my friends, haha!
Thank you for reading this whole thing. Take what you will from it. Just sharing my journey. Lots of love to all!
On the journey with you,
Megan
All photography in this post by the super talented Cassie Johnson Photography
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