1week and counting...

Thats right...only 7 days until we take our first IVF steps (and write one whopper of a check!). Tuesday, I spent an hour on the phone with the online pharmacy that my Dr's office recommends. For anyone needing fertility meds, I HIGHLY recommend them...Freedom Pharmacy. My pharmacist was SO helpful and even let me know that about 5 of my meds would actually be cheaper through our local drugstore. She saved us about $100 on those meds. At the end of the call I waited while she calculated our final total...I was dreading this part. The nurses at REACH had warned us that the meds would probably be between $3,000 and $4,000 per cycle. "Please let it be $3,000, please let it be $3,000" I silently prayed. As I'm whispering my prayer I hear the pharmacist say, "well, that can't be right, let me run those again.". "oh great," the Princess of Darkness said "it's probably even MORE than $4,000...". The pharmacist comes back and said "I didn't think this sounded right, but your total is only $2114". I thought I'd never be so happy to hear that something is ONLY two thousand dollars, but this time I sure was! Then she and I both laughed at how ridiculous that sounds to say ONLY two thousand dollars and she proceeds to tell me that she's had to give people grand totals as high as six and seven thousand dollars...YIKES! Thank you Jesus that our meds are only 2k! So the goodies will be delivered Saturday morning. I have to be at home to receive them since they have to be refrigerated immediately. The Italian has final bloodwork tomorrow, then I have my labs and ultrasound on the 7th and if all looks right, I'll probably start injections that day or the next. From that point, it's only 9 to 12 days until they go in to retrieve the follies. For my prayer warriors out there, prayers for large healthy follicles and plenty of tthem will be greatly appreciated!

Waiting & Weighting....

Waiting, waiting, waiting...ugh I feel like that is all I ever do.  For right now, I'm waiting until October 7th - that's my next lab & ultrasound date.  If all looks as they hope, I'll wait two more days and start my meds, then I'll wait 9-12 days until the precious little follies are ready to be retrieved, then wait 3-5 more days for transfer (fingers crossed as long as all goes well), then wait 2 more weeks to find out if we have sticky embryos, then waiting 8-12 more weeks until you have a much better chance that all is safe.  In the meantime, that leaves me in limbo land waiting to wait and thinking about waiting while I'm waiting. 

In the meantime, I'm also trying to stop weighting, Weighting, WEIGHTING.  The reduction in exercise and trying to figure out what the heck I'm supposed to be eating is doing a number on my figure.  I don't feel like myself as I've had to cut back on exercise SUBSTANTIALLY over the past few months...I haven't run a 9 or 12 mile run in ages.  I'm doing my best to eat healthy although I'll tell you the internet is driving me insane....how am I supposed to know what to eat? 

• "Eat full fat dairy" / "Eat NO dairy"
• "Eat fresh, raw veggies, lots of them" / "No raw veggies or fruits, no raw anything" (apparently cold foods throw off my chi - according to my acupuncturist 
• "Limit refined carbs and sugars" (to control my PCOS - which apparently causes insulin resistance) / "Chow on some full fat ice cream a couple of times a week"
• "Eat lots of protein" / "Limit animal protein"
• "Eat red meat a few times a week" / "Limit animal protein"
• "Drink soy milk" / "Avoid all soy products"
• "Green Tea is good" / "Green Tea is bad" - (green tea is my other go to when I want to unwind and relax...I drink it all day long. 
• "Eat a high fat/high protein diet", "Eat organic everything"....

The one thing that seems to pretty unanimous (unfortunately) is that exercise (even moderate) is NO good for anyone who is in good physical shape and dealing with IF (Infertility for those who failed to read this post).  UGH - for those who know me, they know that I'm pretty compulsive about exercise.  And I'm that way for a number of reasons:
1. My sanity - I use my time running as meditation
2. I don't like being out of shape - call me vain if you want, I just don't feel good when I'm mushy
3. I get sad/depressed when I'm inactive and cannot snap out of it till I get back in the groove
4. Energy - when I don't exercise, I'm tired, lathargic and not nearly as productive as I am when I get my daily run in (I have no time to be tired or lathargic with my job).

So I've spent hours (no probably DAYS) scouring the internet trying to find SOMETHING, ANYTHING that will tell me that exercising just prior to and even during the IVF process is A-OK. 

Negatory...see snippets from various studies and articles below...

Women who exercised four or more hours a week for years were 40% less likely to have a live birth after in vitro fertilization (IVF), according to a study of more than 2,200 patients.

Moreover, exercising four or more hours for one to nine years before attempting in vitro fertilization also doubled the risk of implantation failure, wrote Stephanie N. Morris, M.D., Harvard Medical School, and colleagues, in the October issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

"Interestingly, the most detrimental effect was observed in cardiovascular exercisers, who had a 30% lower chance of successful pregnancy after their first cycle of IVF," compared with women who didn't exercise, the investigators wrote.

By contrast, walking for one to three hours a week did not increase the risk of IVF failure, but women who walked for four or more hours a week "were 50% less likely to have a live birth compared with women who did not regularly exercise."

The authors concluded that while exercise has "many known health benefits, it does not seem to contribute to successful IVF outcomes."


After reading this, I started to feel like I'm doomed.  I've exercised heavily for more than 15 years (an hour to hour and a half almost daily - with 30 minutes to an hour plus of that being cardio (usually) and filling in the gaps with yoga, pilates, weight training, etc.  But even my weight training is usually high intensity to keep the heart rate elevated throughout.  Now to hear that even walking 4 hours a week can contribute to low success rates?????  What in the world????????? 

So from today forward I'm restricting myself to walking and probably super duper light yoga (not my psycho vinyasa classes).  Siyonara runs...yesterday was my last until this process is finished.  We're investing an INSANE amount of money, time and energy so I guess I need to do all that I can to ease the process along.  I can't undo the hours and hours of exercise I've done in the past (which very well may contribute to difficulties throughout this process) but I can make sure that I'm doing (or not) doing what I need to now! 

Pray for my sanity and pray for those around me...I'm very grumpy when I'm feeling frumpy!

Apology +

So my last post was pretty gloomy, sorry about that.  I'm really not usually such a buzzkill.  I went back and forth as to whether or not to post it and finally I was like, ya know what?  Good, bad and ugly, I'm just gonna throw it all out there.  I was in the midst of an icky hour when I wrote but literally just a short time after that I was back to normal.  No worries and no need to call the suicide hotline or anything - the PoD has crept back to her hole (for the moment) so you're all safe from her miserable whining.  I have to admit, I did feel better after just letting it out (that's not something I do often...usually she only shares her dismal personality with me so it all stays bottled up inside - blah!)  

I think the fact that work is so INSANELY BUSY helps a lot.  When I'm there I literally don't have any TIME to even think about IF, IVF or any of the issues that have brought us to where we are.  So for once being too busy with work to have any sort of a personal life is a good thing :)  And hey, in this economy the fact that we are so busy is a blessing so I'll take it over the alternative ANY DAY!!!!

Today however is a RARE Saturday off...slept in a bit (7am - I'm usually up by 4:30/5am) and am now half listening to the Mr. give an in-depth golf instructional as to the mechanics of the perfect golf swing (thrilling) in our family room.  He's getting irritated because I keep looking away and typing while he's showing me his demo...never a dull moment at the Randazzo estate...:) 

Later today I'm going to work on a gift for a gender party for next week.  I'm super excited and can't wait to see if the little bundle will be a boy or a girl!  We had one last weekend too and I made a diaper wreath to take (figure since you don't know the sex before the party the one thing you know that ALL babies will need are DIAPERS, DIAPERS and MORE DIAPERS!!!!).  I should have taken a picture of it.  It didn't turn out perfectly, but it looked pretty darn cute if I do say so myself.  The Italian was pretty proud of it and he made almost everyone at the party look at it.  (I don't like to draw attention to myself so would have been happy if it was just taken up to the nursery right away).   I want to try to think of something a little different to do for this mommy to be (if you have any ideas, please share...I have one idea, but I'm not giving my secrets away yet!).  Anyway, that will be today's project (along with sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, cleaning the kitchen, bathroom, changing bedsheets, dusting, catching up on some work (emails, proposals and some contracts I need to process), grocery shopping, etc., etc., etc.,). 

I love this new Gender Party trend...hoping to have one someday soon myself!  I swear, not if but when this happens I'm going to have parties to celebrate every stinking phase!!!! 

Happy Saturday folks!

Princess of Darkness

So I'm generally a happy person. I wouldn't say perky, but definitely a glass half full kind of gal. Sometimes I think I live in my own fairy tale world where there are no "bad guys", unicorns do exist and every good little girl gets her happy ending. I have a unique ability to live in denial at times, ignoring the fact that there are bad people in the world or that bad things happen to good people. The Italian says that I remind him of Princess Giselle from the movie "Enchanted", not only the red hair (totally awesome at the age of 34 to finally have a red headed heroine to look up to other than Ariel in "The Little Mermaid"), but her incessant, and almost annoying sense of optimism and that deep down all is working out for GOOD. I can see how this gets annoying, and I recognize it WHILE it's happening....for example....the Italian's had a bad day, boss is giving him a hard time (old, old job....he liked his last boss and likes his current boss now too), any way he'll just want to vent and complain and I can't take it. As he's complaining about said boss ( insert friend, family member, whatever), I jump into defending the person that he's complaining about because I refuse to believe that anyone is deliberately trying to be an A-hole....surely he/she has SOMETHING going on in his/her life that is causing him/her to act out, talk down or whatever the problem is. Now this drives him absolutely BONKERS! And I totally get it, he wants someone to have sympathy or empathy and I do, but I don't want to think anything bad about the other person, so I spend more time psychoanalyzing the antagonist than I do actually listening to what he's saying. I find myself doing the same thing with my employees at work...whenever something is bad or going wrong the "Annie" in me comes out and I do everything short of bursting into a stellar rendition of "The Sun'll Come Out Tomorrow" to help justify whatever the situation is. (hey there's another redhead to look up to, but I don't think she counts cause of the 'fro...I could definitely never pull of that look) Lately however my Miss Mary Sunshine personality has been introduced to a creepy alter ego which I'm affectionately calling "THE PRINCESS OF DARKNESS" (PoD). As hard as I try to keep my chin up, not obsess and not overanalyze the what, how, where and why's of this journey, the Princess just keeps sticking her long, pointy nose all up in my business and filling my head with all of these doubts, questions and self defeating talk...now I don't want to brush over this lightly because there is some pretty heavy (and scary) stuff residing in the Princess's warped mind (I'll save that for later), but recently all she wants to talk about is "Why me? I must have down some (or lots of) REALLY bad things for God to punish me this way.". She's even bold enough to say, "You know this IVF stuff isn't going to work...you're going to spend all of this time, energy and money and still walk away with nothing, so you might as well get used to it, don't waste your emotions on getting excited about it because it isn't going to work.". And another beauty, "your husband probably regrets marrying a defect like you.". (he assures me this isn't true, but the PoD sure does have a loud voice) Now the good princess Giselle/Ariel/Annie in my knows that God doesn't "punish" his followers that way....he doesn't even punish non believers that way. There is a master plan out there that he has designed especially for me, but this Princess of Darkness seems to be speaking louder and louder everyday. I hate her and the thing that angers me the most is that she's always been there inside of me ready to poke her ugly little head out when things aren't going my way...and sometimes even when they are. Ugh...PoD go away...you are a PoS! Okay enough of all of that time to throw on my tiara, hop on my unicorn and get back to my real life which is perfect...at least perfect for me because I'm exactly where God wants me to be today.

Teddy Roosevelt...

So my latest obsession has been pinterest....if you have not yet stumbled into this magnificent time warp, BEWARE. You log in and 3 hours (and 800 nutella recipes later) you snap out of it and realize that you have lost hours of your life which will never be reclaimed. Anywho, it is fun and a bit torturous...I have to admit that I have my own bambino folder with pictures of babies, nurseries, etc. It's fun to live in my imaginary Internet world once in a while. Now it's not all psychotic like that, I also have useful boards about crafts, recipes, home projects and m latest obsession....Nutella. I also have an "inspiration" board filled with scriptures, pictures and quotes to flip through if an when I need a pick me up. Tonight I found the PERFECT quote. I posted last week about my ability to compartmentalize my feelings about our struggle with infertility, especially with so many of my friends and loved ones expecting little bundles of their own. I certainly do not want to imply that I'm a saint or that I'm handling this better than anyone else....I had a hard time trying to describe the way my brain has chosen to cope with all of this. Then I found this quote by Theodore Roosevelt... "Comparison is the thief of joy" What wise words! And that is exactly how I have chosen to feel. I'm not going to let my own sadness or self pity allow me to steal the joy that I can feel for my blessed friends! Our journey is our own and I don't want to compare our path to anyone else's. I'll have to remind myself of thus as we take our next steps over the next month. Thanks for the reminder Teddy R! Sometimes inspiration comes when (and from where) you least expect it! Now off to enjoy tonight's episode of "Giuliana & Bill"...another inspiration for me...love watching their story too! Cheers!

Gulp...

Well, Aunt Flo arrived today which meant we had to make some decisions about our next steps. I'm not gonna lie, I was very tempted to put IVF off for a month. Work has been kicking both of our booties and with the Italian still being the new guy at his job it's just scary to think of what could happen if the economy decides to tailspin again. $20k plus the cost of meds (apps $4k per cycle) is NO joke!!!!!! Ultimately, our schedules made the decision for us...so we're set to start the suppression phase tomorrow. That means bcps until October 4th, then back to REACH for labs and ultrasound on the 7th, then starting the stimulation injections on the 9th. That would put us scheduled for retrieval anywhere between October 18 and 22 with the transfer anywhere from 3 to 5 days after the retrieval. Did I mention that we had to figure all of this out within a 2 hr time period (from the time AF arrived until the nurses leave the office for the day...no pressure)? I feel like I should be excited, but right now I'm just nervous. Nervous about money, nervous about giving myself all of those shots, nervous about daily dr.'s visits, nervous about balancing this with work, nervous that we'll go through all of this and it still won't work....I really am normally a very positive gal, but right now I'm just worried...about everything. I don't like this feeling...ugh. And it's all I can think about. If there is one thing infertility has taught me, it's that I am incredibly obsessive compulsive. I'm even annoyed by me. God bless the Italian for putting up with My craziness!

Fetal Explosion

That's right over the past two months we've dealt with hail, flooding, hurricanes earthquakes and more importantly, there has been a fetal explosion!  I have seriously had no less than 10 friends announce their pregnancies with joy!  (not here obviously, you all would know about that for real).  Now you would think that since my lady parts are busted that this would be a source of misery for me, but it really isn't...honestly...I'm not lying.  I don't completely understand how I am able to compartmentalize things so much.  I honestly feel JOY and EXCITEMENT when I hear the news (I'll probably hear 2 or 3 more over the next few days as well).  I really hope that no one feels the need to tiptoe around me or worry about hurting poor Kelly's feelings because the happiness that I feel when a friend announces her pregnancy only reaffirms my belief that good things happen to good people.  I can't wait to go to Gender Reveal Parties, throw Baby Showers and hold those sweet little bundles once they're here.  God is good and I'm ecstatic to hear that any (or many) of my friends are blessed.  Much love to all the mommies to be - I can't wait to celebrate with you all!!!! 

I'm scrappy and we Randazzo's will work this out.  I'm getting impatient about starting our IVF - ready to get this party started...but first we have to await the arrival of my dear Aunt Flow...who really seems reluctant to visit now that I'm off all of the meds (further evidence of my busted plumbing).  I've been taking OPKs for the past 3 weeks and no smiley face.  I think it's cruel the way they put the negative signs on OPKs and HPTs.  Instead of saying "no" or having that sad little empty circle (if it's positive there is a smiley face) they should make it more like a magic 8 ball with compliments along with the negative response:

● You look so pretty, but not in the pregnant glowing way, but still pretty, honest!
● You're free to drink!  Break out the vino!
● You are fabulous (just not pregnant).  Better luck next time.

And you should be able to shake it and each time you'll get a different version of that answer.  At least there would be some entertainment instead of just seeing that stupid empty circle and slamming it in the trash. 

Anyways, hopefully my long lost relative will visit soon so that we can begin our protocol and hopefully have good news to report in the next month or so!  :) 

Cheers y'all!

New Game - WIMBABM

Now, I don't mean to sound preachy or self righteous.  I'm searching for ways to entertain myself and keep things light around here, so that I don't slip into self pity-land.  So I've found a new game to play - It's called WIMBABM "Why I Might Be A Better Mommy (or mommy to be than some others out there)....

I'm certainly not perfect and have my shortcomings and too many imperfections to list, so this little game is all in fun.  And if your family or friends are pictured here, you should not feel comfortable admitting that in public.

Exhibit A -   I would always make sure that our electrical outlets have the appropriate child proof covers on them.

Exhibit B - I would never where white after Labor Day....

Exhibit C - no words - some parents need to know what photos NOT to post on the internet.  www.badparenting.org WILL find them....

And that's pretty much all I have to say about that.  I won't be a perfect mommy by any means, but knowing what NOT to do is sometimes more important than knowing what to do.  

Happy Labor Day y'all!!! xo

The Ice Cream Diet - infertility has it's privileges

For those who have not been following since the beginning of my blog, you missed the instructions from my doc which would be  a dream come true for most women: "drink two milkshakes a week and lay of the exercise".... I thought Dr. Katz had lost his mind.  So of course I delve back into the world wide web for verification.  I stumbled across article after article linking full fat dairy to increased ovulatory function in women.  Wow - I guess Dr. K's medical degree really is legit!  It must drive doctors nuts that we all think we're pseudo experts via our WebMD degrees.    


I've included an excerpt from a much longer article on The Daily Beast below. If you have time to read the whole thing, it really has great information regarding exercise, getting the right type of protein, and maintaining the right body weight. Which brings to mind, if you are going on the Ice Cream Fertility Diet, keep in mind that you only need 1 serving (=1/2 c. of ice cream) twice per week. It's not much - a whole pint should last TWO weeks! 

 
If you are having trouble getting pregnant and ovulatory infertility is suspected, think of ice cream sundaes as "health food". OK, maybe that's stretching it, but read on....

• A fascinating finding from the Nurses' Health Study is that a daily serving or two of whole milk and foods made from whole milk—full-fat yogurt, cottage cheese, and, yes, even ice cream—seem to offer some protection against ovulatory infertility, while skim and low-fat milk do the opposite.
• Removing fat from milk radically changes its balance of sex hormones in a way that could tip the scales against ovulation and conception. Proteins added to make skim and low-fat milk look and taste "creamier" push it even farther away.
• The more low-fat dairy products in a woman's diet, the more likely she was to have had trouble getting pregnant. The more full-fat dairy products in a woman's diet, the less likely she was to have had problems getting pregnant.
• Before you sit down to a nightly carton of Häagen-Dazs, keep in mind that it doesn't take much in the way of full-fat dairy foods to measurably affect fertility. Among the women in the Nurses' Health Study, having just one serving a day of a full-fat dairy food, particularly milk, decreased the chances of having ovulatory infertility. The impact of ice cream was seen at two half-cup servings a week. If you eat ice cream at that rate, a pint should last about two weeks.
• Equally important, you'll need to do some dietary readjusting to keep your calorie count and your waistline from expanding. Whole milk has nearly double the calories of skim milk. If you have been following the U.S. government's poorly-thought-out recommendation and are drinking three glasses of milk a day, trading skim milk for whole means an extra 189 calories a day. That could translate into a weight gain of 15 to 20 pounds over a year if you don't cut back somewhere else. Those extra pounds can edge aside any fertility benefits you might get from dairy foods. 
• Aim for one to two servings of dairy products a day, both of them full fat. This can be as easy as having your breakfast cereal with whole milk and a slice of cheese at lunch or a cup of whole-milk yogurt for lunch and a half-cup of ice cream for dessert. Easy targets for cutting back on calories and saturated fat are red and processed meats, along with foods made with fully or partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.
• If you don't like milk or other dairy products, or they don't agree with your digestive system, don't force yourself to have them. There are many other things you can do to fight ovulatory infertility. This one is like dessert—enjoyable but optional.

On a random note, I find it humorous and insulting that my blogger spell check does not recognize "ovulatory" as a correctly spelled word.  

September is National PCOS Awareness Month

I wonder if I get a prize or something?  If I lived in Houston, I'd participate in the PCOS Awareness 5K on September 25th :)  Sadly, Charlotte has no PCOS Awareness race.  Maybe I'll start one (in all my free time).  

I was first diagnosed with Lean PCOS by Dr. Katz in February.  He told me at that time not to go home and google PCOS because I would read all sorts of things that would freak me out....he was right.  Like a good little patient I went home and immediately grabbed my computer and began reading about how PCOS women are usually obese (okay that hurt my feelngs...I know I'm about 5 lbs or so from my cheerleading weight, but I wouldn't ever consider myself obese), some have mustaches, horrible acne, male pattern baldness....ACK - I thought infertility was bad enough and now I have to worry about all of this craziness!?!?!?!?!  


After a few deep breaths and some common sense talk from The Italian, I started to calm down.  I do not, nor have I ever had a mustache, I've been blessed with pretty decent skin (most of the time) and he assured me that I was far from being obese.  I felt better however that did NOT stop me from continuing my internet research.  It is VERY hard to find information about LEAN PCOS on the internet - most studies and information that you find is related to obese or overweight women diagnosed as PCOS.  Us Lean PCOSer's are the forgotten soulcysters - even though 40% of all women diagnosed as PCOS are lean (ie at or below normal weight/BMI).   


It took several hours of searching, but I did find this post that helped to explain a lot to me.  I've included a few of the excerpts pertaining to Lean PCOS below with my comments in bold... 

• For heavier women, PCOS occurs because of the excess production of male hormone, which results in the abnormal androgen/estrogen ratio. Thin women don’t really have excess androgen production. Instead, they typically have normal androgen levels. However, at one point in time their estrogen levels were low. 
• (Estrogen comes from two places – the ovaries and the fat cell.) 
• In young, thin athletic women with very low percent body fat, estrogen levels are low. 
• The end result of this is that the androgen/estrogen ratio is altered just like that in the heavier women (the androgen level is normal but he estrogen level is low). 
• The absolute levels are lower in the thin women, but the ratio is still altered. 
• Two of the standard questions we ask are 
• “What is the least you have weighed in your adult life?” and 
• “were you an athlete?” 
• We want to know if there was a time of low estrogen production that may have “set up” the pattern of PCOS. There is excellent evidence that once this ratio is altered, it sets up a pattern of functioning in the ovaries that will persist into adulthood, i.e., PCOS.  

This explains A LOT - 

1. I was always a skinny minnie as a child.  I hated how boney my legs were...I could (and did) eat 10-12 Taco Bell crunchy tacos in one sitting and never gained an ounce.  
2. I was in dance classes 4-6 days a week so that would definitely qualify as an athlete (no smart comments - unless you've spent 4-7 hours a day (after school mind you) in a leotard and tights in a dance studio, you are NOT allowed to begin to insinuate that dancers are not athletes - I've got a grand battement that will knock you across the room, so don't mess with me.).  
3. Even going into adulthood, I have experienced times where my weight would drop near 100 lbs without any effort.  (I'm 5'7" so that is not a good or even remotely normal thing).  

So it would make sense that the patterns of me being a skinny, active child and also being far too light for my height at various points in my adulthood could have set up the pattern of PCOS in my body.  Don't know if this makes me feel better or worse that this could have been something that I did to myself.  The research continues....

• PCOS can often occur in women with normal androgen levels and no evidence of hirsutism (excess hair growth).  Praise the Lord - no excess hair growth or mustaches for me!!!! 
• Many thin women with PCOS exhibit only irregular periods or less than optimal ovulation.   True           
• Unfortunately, clomiphene does not work very well in thin women with PCOS. The anti-estrogen effects are profound enough that although egg development and ovulation may occur, pregnancy will not. (This is just an observation, but women that experience side effects from clomiphene such as hot flashes will not conceive on clomiphene.)  Well that would have been handy dandy info to have had back in 2009 when my GYN/OB first started me on Clomid....
• It is pretty clear that if pregnancy does not result within the first four cycles of clomiphene use, it probably is not going to – something else has to be tried.  85% of all clomiphene pregnancies occur within the first three months of treatment with clomiphene. After four months, very few additional pregnancies result.    My GYN/OB kept me on Clomiphene (aka Clomid) for nearly 9 months before I referred myself to REACH!  YIKES!

You can read the entire study here if you'd like.  Since I published my first post, I've had MANY acquaintances, friends and friends of friends who have reached out to share that they also have been diagnosed with Lean PCOS.  Knowledge is power.  If you have Lean PCOS and your doc has you on Clomid, find a new doc!  Dr. Katz put me on Letrozole (you can read more about it in the article) - Letrozoloe has been proven to be much more effective with women with Lean PCOS.  When dealing with infertility every second counts and to waste 9 months on a treatment that was not right for my body and would basically not work is very frustrating.  

So that is the end of today's lesson!  If any of you readers have been diagnosed and have found other info, please feel free to share by leaving a comment!  

By the way, I was checking my blog audience stats and noticed that I've developed a rather large following in Romania....so "mulţumesc" my Romanian friends!  :)