Me, Naked? MY NAKED, RADICALLY HONEST TRUTH

WELCOME TO MY DEEPEST THOUGHTS & FEELINGS. IF I THINK IT, I WILL WRITE IT HERE. THIS IS NOT ABOUT BEING POLITICALLY CORRECT OR SENSITIVE TO OTHERS. THIS IS MY BLOG, MY PLACE TO WRITE EXACTLY WHAT I THINK & FEEL. PROCEED WITH CAUTION & IF YOU ARE EASILY OFFENDED PLEASE DON'T READ ANY FURTHER.

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Come out come out where ever you are!!!!




Isn't she cute?? Honestly she looks like my oldest daughter. We will see if I am right! Do you see that down-turned mouth? My oldest daughter has that in ALL her baby photos. And the nose... wow... I can't wait to hold her.


38 weeks..... I am ready to burst!!!!! Still healthy, still doing fine... but feeling like a beached whale! Argh!

I won't even go into how my family is doing. There are ups and downs and really, what it all boils down to is, I thank God everyday for everyday!!

But I wanted to post this article here....


PRESS INFORMATION

IAAP - Fertility breakthrough for both partners

In the summer of 2005 Tara Clinkscale, at the age of 39, was just another one of the 7.3 million infertile people in the US who thought she would never have a child. But now, after using a revolutionary new fertility treatment, she is happily pregnant.

Tara’s ob/gyn, Dr Millicent Comrie, Medical Director at the Long Island College Hospital Centre for Women’s Health, Brooklyn and Clinical Assistant Professor at the State University of New York says, ‘Frankly, I am amazed. I have looked after Tara through two failed pregnancies where she had needed ovulation-enhancing drugs in order to conceive. When I saw her after she started her new treatment she looked ten years younger, she had lost twenty-two pounds in just a few months and had conceived without any pharmaceutical assistance. Her progesterone level, which had given such cause for concern in her earlier, failed, pregnancies is perfect and, again, has been achieved without the use of any drugs.’

More than fifteen hundred miles away in Bismarck, North Dakota, Tarra Hartl, 32, is a couple of weeks away from delivering her new baby. ‘I know with five children I do not fit the normal profile of an infertile woman but I suffered from polycystic ovary syndrome and each of my pregnancies had to be induced using ovulation-enhancing drugs. Pregnancy was always a terrifying experience; I suffered terrible miscarriages, uterine hemorrhaging, gestational diabetes, pre-eclampsia and a premature birth. During my last miscarriage it was only the skill of the surgeons that saved my life,’ says Tarra. ‘But this time it has been so different, I ovulated naturally, for the first time in my life, and became pregnant almost immediately. Despite all manner of traumas in my extended family, this pregnancy has been bliss, I was even able to give up my mood stabilizing drug and migraine medication and I have not even had a headache since.’

Tarra’s gynecologist, Dr Bob Bury, Clinical Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of North Dakota, says, ‘I use Tarra as my example that a woman with PCOS can succeed by following the right treatment. By treating the underlying cause, she has achieved pregnancy without ovulatory stimulation. We are pleased to report that her pregnancy is progressing very well, especially given the complications that can arise as the result of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome.’

The latest CDC&P statistics (2002) show that infertility has risen by almost 20 percent in just seven years with nearly half of the affected women suffering from PCOS, making it the biggest single cause of infertility (some estimates suggest that as many as 5 million women suffer from the condition). Resolve, the national non-profit infertility organization, claimed that in a recent survey, half of those affected by infertility indicated that cost was a major deterrent in seeking treatment. Thus a dramatic fertility breakthrough for men and women that costs a tiny fraction of current treatments and is virtually non-invasive, is likely to be welcome news to the one in eight US couples of childbearing age whose lives are currently blighted by infertility.

Tara Clinkscale and Tara Hartl were able to share the same pre-conception program described in a new book entitled A New Dawn. ‘I was given the book to review in my capacity as President of the Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome Association,’ says Tarra Hartl, ‘after many years of suffering PCOS, I was amazed to read that all of the symptoms, including infertility, endometriosis, miscarriage and pre-eclampsia, were the result of chronic immune activation. But what really surprised me was the claim that the immune activation could be caused by food. The treatment described in the book was not a diet as such but an avoidance of foods that could be shown to cause immune activation. Naturally I was intensely skeptical, I was not particularly interested in becoming pregnant but I was desperate to get to grips with the other symptoms of PCOS so I thought I had little to lose by giving it a try. I was amazed that in the very first week I ovulated – I have never ovulated naturally, I was even more surprised and delighted when within three weeks I discovered I was pregnant!’

Tara Clinkscale heard about Tarra’s experience through the PCOSLiving website (www.pcosliving.com) and quickly obtained a copy of A New Dawn. ‘I was able to have a long conversation with the author, Ian Stoakes, and he convinced me to try – at 39, I felt that this was really the last chance for my husband John and I to have a baby to complete our otherwise perfect marriage. We are a very spiritual family and this felt like an answer to our prayers, I spoke to my gynecologist and she agreed that it could not do me any harm. The book said that excess weight was just another symptom of immune activation, so I was encouraged when both John and I started to lose weight – I also stopped having migraine attacks, from 4 to 6 times a month to nothing. At just five foot two inches and 168 pounds, I had quite a lot of weight to lose but I did not expect to lose 22 pounds, particularly as I was not cutting my calorie intake! My husband followed the program, too and he has lost 22 pounds as well and his cholesterol score dropped by 10 percent. Just as predicted, I started to ovulate almost immediately, I was so surprised, but Ian advised us not to try to get pregnant straight away. The book describes the problems of immune activation and particularly its effects on estrogen and progesterone production, I was particularly intrigued by the suggestion that poor dental health can impact on chronic immune activation, too. I immediately got my dentist to retreat two root canals and really began to enjoy my new life of fabulous weight loss, increasing energy and regular periods, then my prayers were answered - I discovered I was pregnant.’

Author of A New Dawn, Ian Stoakes, says, ‘infertility is a problem for many couples and one that can quickly involve them in huge expense, embarrassment and disappointment. The fact that the problem could, in so many cases, be so easily resolved makes this a tragedy.

‘IAAP or immune activation avoidance is allowing a rapidly growing number of women to return to full fertility but this is really no surprise, immune activation involves the generation of a number of pro-inflammatory cytokines, or proteins, that can completely disrupt the production of the hormones that orchestrate fertility. Once inflammation is controlled, ovulation can restart, or in some cases start for the first time, almost immediately. Weight loss of between 10 to 15 percent of original body weight in as little as ten weeks is quite normal, too.’

‘Infertility is normally defined as a failure to conceive after one year of well-timed, unprotected, sex but immune activation and the inflammation it causes, represents a continued threat throughout pregnancy to both mother and baby as it plays a fundamental role in miscarriage, pre-eclampsia and prematurity. Recognizing and of course, removing this cause greatly enhance the chances of a successful pregnancy.’

That role is not restricted to women either as Ian Stoakes says, ‘It is a sad fact that infertility is still perceived as a largely female issue but available statistics show that in more than 50 percent of cases male infertility is either the whole cause or part of the cause. The Resolve survey reveals that finance is a major stumbling block to effective treatment but the fragile male ego is possibly an even more effective deterrent. Fertility and manhood are almost indivisible and fertility investigations can be a pretty emasculating experience. However, this need not be the case as by far the greater majority of male infertility, including varicocele, low sperm count, poor sperm motility and sperm clumping and even erectile dysfunction, which is thought to effect 20 to 30 million US males, involves immune activation and can be resolved quickly and simply. As immune activation is caused by food, there is no need to attend a doctor for treatment, the cause can be dealt with in the privacy of the individual’s own home; certainly this should be investigated before considering more invasive testing and expense.’

‘There is a substantial and rapidly accumulating amount of evidence in the medical literature that identifies inflammation, in particular its ability to generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) as a key factor in many aspects of male infertility, quite possibly including a significant proportion of the 40 percent of men who currently have been diagnosed as suffering from ‘idiopathic infertility’, a medical term that literally means ‘of unknown origin’. However because this particular cause of inflammation has not been widely appreciated, the research has not always been afforded its due importance. However, armed with this new understanding, many infertile men will now be able to address their infertility in private, simply by avoiding the cause.’ Professor Salah Sheweita of the Department of Clinical Chemistry, Tiabah University, Medinah, Saudi Arabia, says, ‘The excessive generation of ROS is one of the few causes of male infertility that has been recognized, while all manner of antioxidants have proven beneficial effects it makes a great deal of sense to address so obvious a cause.’

The author of A New Dawn accepts that the involvement of food is bound to raise some skepticism but Professor Dalgleish, Foundation Chair of Oncology, St George’s Hospital Medical Scbool, London, says, ‘We are well aware that food is our main source of energy and nourishment, but we now need to appreciate that the darker side of food may be more important and far-reaching than we have envisioned to date. An overt sensitivity to gluten results in celiac disease, the symptoms of which may lead to serious health concerns and sometimes an unnecessary search for an underlying cancer when all that is required is gluten exclusion. Similarly the distressing symptoms caused by lactose intolerance can be treated effectively simply by avoiding milk products. But there is now compelling evidence, presented by Ian Stoakes in A New Dawn that several other more common conditions may be activated and driven by continuing exposure to inappropriate dietary contents where the foodstuffs concerned prompt systemic disease by being presented as ‘non self’.

‘The immune system is programmed to detect ‘non-self’ and its response to it can set up chronic inflammation. Where digestion, the mechanism that converts food from ‘non-self’ to ‘self’, fails or gut barrier efficiency is compromised, foods may remain in the form of ‘non-self’ and stimulate the immune response in exactly the same manner as bacteria or viruses often, it would seem, with terrible consequences for fertility but equally, the simple avoidance of the food or foods in question may be an effective ‘treatment’.’

Further details at www.fertilityforall.com including:

· Inflammation and male infertility
· Inflammation and endometriosis
· Problems with IVF
· Client experiences
· The food/inflammation link

http://newsroom.eworldwire.com/view_...e.php?id=13835
__________________

CONTACT:
Kerim Emre
EPC Monaco
Los Angeles, CA
PHONE. 818-451-9424
EMAIL: info@epc-odx.com
http://www.fertilityforall.com

KEYWORDS: fertility, health, alternative, diabetes, PCOS, weight, loss, natural, drug, free

SOURCE: EPC Monaco (USA)

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Counting Down

I had an appt today and all is well! I haven't gained any weight since my last appt. and my BP is perfect (122/78). That is not usual for me at the end of pregnancy so I am really happy! Had an ultrasound and baby is head down and looks SO cute! 35-1/2 weeks.... I can't wait....

I talked to my mom last night and she is losing her hair now. She is going to get a wig on Saturday. I think my sister is going to go with her and perhaps get a wig too. There is a place where my mom lives that has a FREE of charge service provided to cancer patients. They provide wigs, doo-rags, and all kinds of hair/head products all free of charge. My sister never got a wig... I don't know if she didn't want one or if they were too expensive. They are VERY expensive. Anyway the owner of the shop told my mom to bring my sister along. My sister has another round of chemo to do yet so it will be a while before she gets her hair back.

My mom sounded sad that she is losing her hair. She said it is coming out so fast she will be completely bald by the time she gets a wig on Saturday.

All 5 kids just got over the stomach flu. Started on Sunday and by Monday night all 5 of them were up throwing up every 1/2 hour or so. It was a loooooong night and a long day on Tuesday! Everyone is feeling better now except for a few sniffles. Now we have to clean and disinfect the house! The really good news is I didn't get sick!! Knock on wood!