Cocooning: A Time of Transition

In September I took a big step away from the research. The desire for a baby dwindled to a "contentment with my current state" place. I was okay just being where I was at. The therapeutic adrenal supplements were helping, but I knew it would still be months. As I began to see and feel improvements, so my hope grew.

However, the Monday after thanksgiving my adrenals began crashing again despite being on a consistent (short-term) adrenal support. The heart palpitations, the head aches, the tiredness all came back in one fell swoop. And all because I'd stayed up late for a couple of nights around thanksgiving. 

I reached out to woman who I had recently been connected with (for something entirely different), but I had a feeling she would be helpful. We met. I cried almost instantly, as I knew I would. I'd been holding back tears for years and years and lately I've been so ready for them to come out of me, to stop hiding them. 

She challenged me. She told me (paraphrased), "I was exactly where you are 3 years ago. I self-diagnosed and I tried a little of this and I tried a little of that and I had a great diet. My body crashed. A dr told me that even though I was eating good food, it was as though my body was literally starving. I would like to think that our foods can provide all that we need, but for some of us they can't. I'm gonna boss you for a minute. I want you to stop everything you are doing. I want you to take Juice Plus two times a day, take a magnesium salt bath every night, and get 8 hours of sleep in a totally dark room. Can you do that for three weeks? Would you be willing to believe that doing such simple things - doing less - could help you more?"

I accepted her challenge. Within three days the heart palpitations stopped. A week later the headaches were gone. Slowly energy has returned, but I've had to be careful. Cocooning myself for three weeks was hard, but so good. I've learned some healthy boundaries for myself, I've learned self-care for myself (that is truly, deeply nourishing), and the best part is all the healing that has come out of this. 

I will talk about that more in another post. The point of this post is to high light a transition from what I was doing before, and what I am doing now. It's been two and a half months and I'm still in a cocooning space. I'm actually taking Juice Plus 3x a day, and it's been so helpful. I take a magnesium salt bath probably 3-5 times a week (bulk ordered from Pink Stork Solutions). I'm doing less that is "out there" (wavs wildly at everything) and doing more that is "in here" (points at heart). 

Test Results

This post has been a long time coming. Occasionally I would sit down to write, but then would become quickly overwhelmed and walk away. But I am here now with just a quick update.

The results of my blood tests from early last Fall were as follows:

Ferritin - 39 - they like to see it above 50, it was recommended to me to get it at 70.

The micronutrient intracellular blood test revealed:

Copper - functionally low, though only just below the line. Turns out copper is pretty important. I didn't even realize it was a necessary nutrient. It's important for bone and joint health (and plays a key role in preventing osteoporosis). It helps the body store iron. Symptoms of low copper actually happen to include nausea and vomiting. In my previous post on the topic, the studies cited tended to show a low zinc/high copper relationship to HG, but in my case, I am copper deficient. Of course, who knows if I was copper deficient during my pregnancies, or if I happen to just be low at the time of this test. This I cannot answer. For a while I upped my beef and beet intake and took a low dose copper supplement.

All B vitamins - across the board, borderline. Borderline meaning "okay, but awfully close to 'low'". I was lowest in B6, B12, choline. Interestingly, a deficiency in a number of these cause nausea and vomiting. Additionally, vitamin B 6 is necessary for elastin and collagen growth, which makes me wonder if this is a component in my birth injuries (which could also be chalked up to precipitous births, nuchal arms, and a tight obteratur internus). At any rate, it was a good confirmation and another piece to the puzzle.

Magnesium - great.

I was pleased to see my glutathione was great. Happy mitochondria, in my book. 

Obviously more than these were covered in the test, but these were the ones most pertinent to what has been researched so far. 

I don't know how any of this will impact a future pregnancy, but this is where I was at in September.