I was going to write a long, whiny post about the absurdity of putting a busy woman on an 800-1000 calorie a day diet. I wake up a little before 7 every day, hit the ground running at 7:25 with a little jog to the bus stop for the fusspot, come home to feed the dumpling breakfast before walking/driving/jogging him to any of his 3 preschool options, try to get in a little work, collect child #2 for nap, drive to pick up child #1 through an hour of traffic, chase them to the playground or assorted activities, cook dinner, bedtime, work some more ...
Let's just put it succinctly: it's miserable to do all of that with absolutely no energy. It is not even that I am hungry because oddly I have not been particularly hungry the past few weeks (although I am sure that will change as my body loses some of its fat stores), but I have been extraordinarily low energy. And really just pissed. To start with the obvious, plenty of women plumper than I not only conceive naturally on their own, but they cheerfully slog through fertility treatments. Or someone sets them up with insulin and they carry on. But since magic struck twice the very exact two months when I had dropped 30 lbs, we decided to try extreme dieting. The diet is simple: calorie restriction. Some basic carb-limitations (no pasta, no bread, no sugar) but nothing too strict. Just don't eat.
And ... in predictably dramatic fashion I started bleeding this morning. 17 days after I re-committed to extreme dieting, a good 10 lbs lighter (from about 157 to 147) and I may be approaching a cycle. I ran home, got some equipment, carried on my day ... and found myself hunched over in the car by mid-afternoon bleeding through 2 plastic changing pads and one Ergo as I desperately texted JD to collect screaming children and rendez-vous in the parking lot. It was gory. So now I am exhausted, terrified of leaving the apartment, and bordering on developing a sudden onset eating disorder. It feels like every snack, every meal I need to ask myself whether I'd rather have a baby than that hard boiled egg (70 calories for a large, 90 for an extra-large ...) or tasteless slice of hard cheese. I am not sure how long I can do this diet without more childcare (let's just not even talk about how I have not exactly made any attempt to wean the dumpling. The diet was supposed to be 1000 calories, some days I up it to 1200 to accommodate him, some days I feel like speed is of the essence and I cut much lower).
But then again, progress. And hopefully this will be a very, very short-lived catastrophe. And of course worth it even if it just cuts down on the amount of medication I need. And of course the weight loss is good for my body, just perhaps not this fast. Also worth noting, libido has been nil since day 2 of the diet. Nil. That should make all of this even more fun.
And now for a technical question for my IF friends. I am slightly less impressed with Shiny New Clinic since they called in meds for me but did not e-mail me a protocol. Since our pharmacy is reliably unreliable, I e-mailed my cycle coordinator to ask what the meds would be: follistim, progesterone, HCG.
???????????????????
Has anyone ever heard of an IUI-style cycle which did not start with clomid or femara? Can this whole thing be done with just follistim? And is baby aspirin entirely out of vogue nowadays? Of course I am rather dubious of the need for progesterone having never used it in the past (baby #1 cycle worked when I was working in Europe and there was no way to get progesterone, baby #2 I hadn't weaned the fusspot so we kept putting it off and checking my levels) but it doesn't seem like a big deal either way. But is this a real protocol? Just injectables started on some entirely random day (protocol was written pre-cycle-breakthrough and apparently bcp for a month is also very much no longer a la mode).
Thoughts?
Let's just put it succinctly: it's miserable to do all of that with absolutely no energy. It is not even that I am hungry because oddly I have not been particularly hungry the past few weeks (although I am sure that will change as my body loses some of its fat stores), but I have been extraordinarily low energy. And really just pissed. To start with the obvious, plenty of women plumper than I not only conceive naturally on their own, but they cheerfully slog through fertility treatments. Or someone sets them up with insulin and they carry on. But since magic struck twice the very exact two months when I had dropped 30 lbs, we decided to try extreme dieting. The diet is simple: calorie restriction. Some basic carb-limitations (no pasta, no bread, no sugar) but nothing too strict. Just don't eat.
And ... in predictably dramatic fashion I started bleeding this morning. 17 days after I re-committed to extreme dieting, a good 10 lbs lighter (from about 157 to 147) and I may be approaching a cycle. I ran home, got some equipment, carried on my day ... and found myself hunched over in the car by mid-afternoon bleeding through 2 plastic changing pads and one Ergo as I desperately texted JD to collect screaming children and rendez-vous in the parking lot. It was gory. So now I am exhausted, terrified of leaving the apartment, and bordering on developing a sudden onset eating disorder. It feels like every snack, every meal I need to ask myself whether I'd rather have a baby than that hard boiled egg (70 calories for a large, 90 for an extra-large ...) or tasteless slice of hard cheese. I am not sure how long I can do this diet without more childcare (let's just not even talk about how I have not exactly made any attempt to wean the dumpling. The diet was supposed to be 1000 calories, some days I up it to 1200 to accommodate him, some days I feel like speed is of the essence and I cut much lower).
But then again, progress. And hopefully this will be a very, very short-lived catastrophe. And of course worth it even if it just cuts down on the amount of medication I need. And of course the weight loss is good for my body, just perhaps not this fast. Also worth noting, libido has been nil since day 2 of the diet. Nil. That should make all of this even more fun.
And now for a technical question for my IF friends. I am slightly less impressed with Shiny New Clinic since they called in meds for me but did not e-mail me a protocol. Since our pharmacy is reliably unreliable, I e-mailed my cycle coordinator to ask what the meds would be: follistim, progesterone, HCG.
???????????????????
Has anyone ever heard of an IUI-style cycle which did not start with clomid or femara? Can this whole thing be done with just follistim? And is baby aspirin entirely out of vogue nowadays? Of course I am rather dubious of the need for progesterone having never used it in the past (baby #1 cycle worked when I was working in Europe and there was no way to get progesterone, baby #2 I hadn't weaned the fusspot so we kept putting it off and checking my levels) but it doesn't seem like a big deal either way. But is this a real protocol? Just injectables started on some entirely random day (protocol was written pre-cycle-breakthrough and apparently bcp for a month is also very much no longer a la mode).
Thoughts?
3 comments:
I have done 3 IUIs and only 1 with clomid.
Additionally, I actually did a transfer without birth control before. Based on my lining and ovaries, they let me start right away.
My guess is once you tell your clinic you got your period they will pick a start off of that-usually they tell you to come in on cycle day 1-3.
That protocol is pretty much what I did -- no bcps, and no clomid. Eventually, they added in luprin.
I'd add the baby aspirin to it just because I think it works.
And I've been on Follistim only too. There was some research that adding Clomid can cause your lining to thin.
I hope this works for you!
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