What I have done...

Ok, I'm sure lots of you are wondering what I did to get pregnant.....well, I should say, what I did medically :)  ha ha!  I have made myself a guinea pig of sorts and I am so excited and thrilled to have another little miracle coming to our family!  I will give a brief nutshell history of everything so far for those of you trying to catch up or just refresh on my story.  If you have questions on the oils I use and why I use them see THIS post.

Diagnosed with 7mm tumor March of 2008.  Went on Bromo and clomid was pregnant within one month.  I miscarried after 9 weeks had a D&C in June and started all over.  Bromo made me miserable.  Major sinus problems, vertigo, severe nausea, bloating and dizziness.

In December 2008 we were pregnant again with our little man!  Had an uneventful pregnancy and gave birth to a beautiful perfect bouncing baby boy on August 6, 2009.   After nursing for 3 months and many many severe headaches I went to the doc to see what was up.  MRI in November showed a 12mm tumor pressing against my optic chiasm.  I was recommended to an endo and neurosurgeon.  At this time I had no inclination towards "alternative" or "natural" remedies.  Endo wanted me to quit nursing and go on meds.  The Neurosurgeon wanted me to quit nursing and have surgery.  I didn't feel good about either and started writing this blog and went on my quest for natural alternatives to what was recommended.  I just knew that God had put some sort of natural remedy on this earth to help me!  Started vitex.  After several months there was no change.

January of 2010 I went off vitex and started Frankincense February of 2010.  Headaches were gone within days and after a few weeks my prolactin levels dropped from around 250 to around 200.  A few weeks later they were at 150 and over the course of a few months they were down to around 100 while nursing!  They plateaued at 100.  I stopped nursing and got another MRI at the end of June.  My tumor had shrunk from 12mm to 10 mm while nursing and on frankincense.  I started other oils to push me past my plateau.  My levels went down a bit, but not as much (or as fast) as I wanted....I am so dang impatient!  Wanting desperately for my period to start again for pregnancy and anti-osteoperosis reasons I started on caber in August.  Within 3 weeks my prolactin was at 7.  The lab lady made me come in and retest as she had never seen prolactin go down so fast.  I attribute it to the synergistic combination of cabergoline and frankincense.  I took cabergoline very minimally and had zero side effects except for the two week period in which I ran out of frankincense.  In those two weeks I suffered severe depression and headaches.  Once I started ovulating in Oct. I never took it past ovulation day...so about half of the time.  My prolactin levels stayed between 6 and 17.  Once I realized my periods were lopsided (follicular phase was at 24-25 days and LP was at 7-8 days) I started using oregano and thyme on my adrenal and uterine reflex points on my feet an ankles to increase my progesterone and clary sage to help with cycle regularity and fertility.  I also used Whisper blend to help with hormone balancing and Balance blend to reduce stress and help balance hormones.  Every month my LP would lengthen by about 1 day.  Cycle 5 my Ovulation day came before day 20!  That is the magic number apparently.  If your egg is released after that day it is past it's prime and may not fertilize or even if it does it will probably not implant.

Anyway, I am still continuing with the frankincense at this point as well as cycling lavender, grapefruit, wild orange, and patchouli.  I have cut the doses in half, but I want to keep this thing under control so I don't have to bring my levels down from 250 again or my tumor from 12mm!  Also, I have been using peppermint to keep my nausea at bay and wild orange to quench the heartburn and acid reflux!  I have been so much less sick with this one and I attribute it solely to the oils, grapefruit and ginger ale :)  Thank you all for your great support, well wishes and prayers!

This may be Too Much Info(TMI)...so if you are afraid of the word PERIOD (not . ) you ought to skip this one

Wow, that was a long title, but I though the guys out there should be warned (and maybe some of the girls too).  I figure that most of you know quite a bit about me, so why not just spill some more....so here we go.  So, as you all know, I have been anxiously awaiting "Aunt Flo" or as my mom calls it "George".  Anyway, she came!  So, her goes my timeline and my anxieties and my thoughts....feedback is encouraged!

I went off cabergoline almost a month ago and was sorta bummed that my period hadn't shown up.  So, i had heard from one of my friends that my body probably needed a good cleanse followed my a good probiotic.  So, I went ahead and started a cleanse called GX assist that I got from doTERRA.  It's basically a natural antibiotic made from essential oils that gave my innards a good scrub.  Two days later I STARTED OVULATING!!!  It was amazing!!!( After the GX assist I did use PB assist which ith is a probiotic that replenishes the good stuff.) Needless to say, I was tickled.  Then less then a week later came Aunt Flo.  (This was about a week ago).  Isn't it supposed to take longer????  It's been years since I cycled, but I thought it should take about 2 weeks...right?  Anyway, I got super anxious and worried that maybe something else is wrong with me....maybe a progesterone deficiency???  So, once I was done feeling happy/worried/anxious/thinking worst case scenarios I thought back on the timeline and decided that if the cleanse is what jump started me then I am probably just fine.  I really think that my cycle started due to the cleanse and NOT due to a build up in estrogen.  Therefore, I would not have as much progesterone in my system and my period would start much sooner than normal.  Does this make sense to anyone but me or am I just making stuff up to make myself feel better???   Any thoughts???

So, I don't want anyone to think I am complaining because I am not....I am SUPER EXCITED to be "fertile" again and I hope that baby # 2 is in the near future.....wish me luck :)

So far behind!!!!

Oh, where to start!!!  Oh wait, I'm STILL trying to keep stress levels down, so I won't stress about it, I will just type :)  I've learned so much in the last month and I can't wait to share it ALL, but alas, baby steps.  So, update on stress.  I've let go my main stress and am happy to report that I can breathe and i don't feel the huge knot in my gut!  Don't get me wrong...I still have plenty to do, but now I can do it instead of having my life completely sucked into one never ending project!  I have been getting lots more sleep as well, and I have learned that sleep majorly reduces stress!  So get some sleep!  In fact, as soon as you are done reading this, take a nap :)  You most likely deserve it.

My levels are back down to 103 as of a month ago.  I really want to break that 100 mark!  I went to see the endo and we had a nice chat.  He spent 45 minutes with me answering questions and having me explain what I have been doing.  He said that he can't argue with the fact that the Frankincense has been lowering my levels and shrinking my tumor.  He says to keep taking the frankincense.  After all, it is what the wisemen gave to Baby Jesus, so it must be good stuff!  (He actually said that).  He wanted me to go on Cabergoline and just try it out as he is worried that I haven't had more than 5 periods in about that many years!  I learned that us prolactinoma people are at high risk for osteoporosis since our estrogen/progesterone cycles are few and far between!  I haven't started cycling again since I stopped nursing so I was stressing about it too!  I really hated bromo and couldn't stand to be on it so I really didn't want to take Cabergoline either...  I have heard horror stories about it and so I drug my feet and thunk and prayed about it.  I finally decided to go on it for a month and try it out along with my essential oils and see how it went.  So far, massive headaches (my hubby thinks I'm having my first migraines ever) that last for days, dizziness, near blackouts, sinus crap.....yeah, it sucks.  I'm using the oils to try to counteract the side effects and they dull them, but the medicine induced headaches suck.  I have another appt. in a couple weeks.

Ignorance is bliss???? I strongly disagree!!!

Ok, It's been over a week since I posted anything and part of that may be because I am on cloud 9 and I have caught myself daydreaming about more babies and happy thoughts like that a lot lately!   Does anyone else put off dreams and goals when you don't know what the future will bring???  I hate not having hope!  It seems like there is no fence sitting on this w/ me!  I either have hope and I am happy and excited about the future or I am sad/frustrated/grumpy that things are not going the way I had envisioned them! I am very passionate and I am a control freak!  Not  over other people, but over me, my thoughts and feelings and my life!  I HATE not having control over my future, I want it to be what I want it to be.  This is why I hate debt, working for people, time constraints/schedules, rush hour traffic and health problems.  This is why I struggled w/ getting married and why I disliked dating back when I was single.  I hate taking prescriptions or medications of any kinds because "it will make you drowsy", or "do not drive while taking this" or "don't take this while pregnant or breastfeeding", and last but not least "if you take this it may lead to high blood pressure, stuffy nose, liver damage......etc".  I have not idea why I hate parking garages...but there has to be something about them that takes away my free will!!!  ha ha!  I love the great outdoors and sleeping under the stars!  I love going to my hometown where I have no cell service!  I love my husband because he doesn't force me into some mold and expect me to do things his way or the way everyone else does it.  I love exercising because it allows me to push myself to new levels!  I love vaulted ceilings and back porches.  I love looking out at the ocean, rock climbing and hiking.  I love not wearing a watch and having no idea what time it is.  I also love learning because the more I learn, the more I am not constrained by ignorance! 


This being said here are some things I've been learning in the past few weeks (do not continue if you can't stand somewhat boring/nerdy stuff.  It is very informative though!!!):


Most Prescription drugs and over the counter (and under the counter for that matter! )medications contain one, two or even three constituents that help w/ certain things.  For example amoxicillin  contains 3 constituents that help us get over certain bacterial infections.  It is antibacterial.  Essential oils* have dozens of constituent which is why one oil may be good for so many different things!  For example lavender has hundreds of constituents which makes it antinflammatory, antimicrobial, antiseptic, antispasmodic, antitumor, antifungal, antidepressant...etc.  Which in a nutshell means it helps everything from burns to cuts to depression!  How cool is that!


The Frankincense I take* contains 90% Monoterpenes  (including myrcene and limonene) which are antitumor and anticancer constituents (as well as other things). The other 10% contains Sesuiterpenes which help oxygenate the pituitary glands and are anti-inflammatory and antispasmodic.  So instead of taking hormone regulators such as bromocriptine or cabergoline (which I can't take anyway since I want to nurse) I can take frankincense (has the highest amounts of the anti-tumor and oxygenating stuff) sandlewood, clove, lavender or any other other essential oil w/ anti-tumor constituents and it should help (and has helped me!) shrink my tumor therefore lowering my prolactin.  Not only does it do this for me, it also does it w/out the stuffy nose, nausea, higher/lower blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, depression, swelling, weight gain, vomiting, confusion, fainting, strokes, seizures, hallucinations, hives, constipation, headaches, unexplained aggression and/or unexplained desire to gamble and other side effects that you can get from Bromocriptine or Cabergoline .


*You have to be very careful where you get essential oils from. Lots of them (even those claiming to be 100% pure or therapeutic grade) are either synthetic or contain fillers, pesticides, weeds of other things that should not be in there.  These things also make them a lot less potent and may cause allergic reactions!  I did A LOT of research on this and that is why I go through doTERRA.