Wow, I’m not sure where to begin, I think the title alone says a lot. I just wish I had learned about Spence a lot sooner. I first learnt of Spence from a flyer in the waiting room of the IVF office in the fall of 2008. At the time I was only days away from retrieval. This was technically our 2nd attempt at IVF but the first one was 10 years prior, it took us that long to muster up the courage and strength (emotionally) to give IVF another try. In the meantime we had tried numerous alternative therapies with no success, and also taken time off to enjoy life too.
After reading the flyer and how acupuncture could increase the chances of success with IVF dramatically, I convinced my husband that we should give it a try, even this late into the cycle. So we did, I think I was only able to get in 2 treatments prior to retrieval and then the double treatment on the day of. Lo and behold it worked, we were pregnant! Prior to this, as I mentioned earlier, we had tried one IVF cycle, but even before that we had tried numerous Ovulation Induction cycles, all to no avail. So you can imagine the surprise and excitement the news of this pregnancy brought. Unfortunately it was short lived, it turned out to be an ectopic pregnancy in the tube, which ruptured, and I ended up undergoing emergency surgery and losing my tube.
My mental and emotional savior during that time was what I had read and learnt in the book The Power of Now (I would highly recommend it to everybody going through this very challenging journey). I was able to remember (as I was being wheeled into the OR) the power of surrendering to the moment and accepting what is. As soon as I totally accepted what was in that moment, I felt immensely lighter. There were no more feelings of why me, why us, what did we do wrong, what are we being punished for… I accepted it for what it was and moved on with the healing process.
We decided we weren’t going to give up hope yet, we would try just one more IVF cycle. I managed to convince my husband that we still incorporate acupuncture into our treatment as I was absolutely convinced it had helped with our last cycle and would do so again, or at the very least it would cause no harm. I started seeing Spence in January 2008 on a regular basis, adjusted my diet a little (I never was able to totally give up my sweet tooth!), and went back to doing my hot yoga classes 3-4 times a week. In August we started our fresh IVF cycle (prior to that we had 2 FET cycles, one of them resulted in a ‘clinical’ pregnancy, the other no pregnancy). This time I produced even more eggs than ever before (I won’t say how many, the number might scare you!) but even better than that, the quality of the eggs was excellent, the best I’ve ever had with all the previous treatments! And our results just kept getting better, 70% of the eggs fertilized and all of them continued to blastocyst stage (Day 5)! We had never had such excellent results before, the only thing I can attribute these results to is the acupuncture as that is the only thing that was different in this cycle. I had used the exact same drugs throughout the treatment that I had used before, had only made minor adjustments in my diet, had stopped my yoga due to its intensity, and at 39 I wasn’t any younger than the last time we tried, so I know without a doubt the acupuncture treatments at Yinstill made all the difference.
We are now in our 21st week of pregnancy with twins! I couldn’t have asked for better results, and without acupuncture I don’t think I would’ve got these results. When spending thousands of $’s on fertility treatments a little more with the addition of acupuncture is soooo worth it. It’s an investment with great returns and rewards, not the least of which is your health, in every way, emotional, physical and mental! I just wish I had learnt of Spence sooner, it’s the only alternative therapy practice I am aware of that can really help as they totally understand, and are trained in, all aspects of reproduction and conventional fertility treatments, enabling them to safely incorporate their own treatments into any other fertility treatment one may be undergoing. I have been treated by every member of the staff and have nothing but good things to say about them. Yinstill is the only place I know of where every member of staff really does care about the outcome of your treatment. I would recommend them to anybody who will listen.
In closing I would like to say to all of you reading this, looking for hope and successful stories, I know what you’re going through, just don’t give up hope, it’s all we really have. I truly believe something good comes out of everything, absolutely everything that happens in our lives (even the not so pleasant stuff), and if being a parent is the best and right thing for you, it’ll happen. Don’t worry about the when, the universe times everything perfectly, it’ll happen at the perfect time!
(for my husband and I it has been 20 years in the making!)
UPDATE: This is just a quick update to my original submission back in January (titled 20 Year Journey Almost Completed), for anyone who may have read that submission and wondered what the outcome was. I am happy to report my twins (a girl and a boy) arrived in April, a little early (delivered at 33 weeks) but still very healthy, strong and beautiful (weighing 4lbs 1oz and 3lbs 9ozs). They are now 4 months old and doing well. They didn’t need any ventilation assistance and were off of their IV’s before a week was up!! I credit this great outcome to the assistance of acupuncture again. Thank you guys, may all your dreams and wishes come true the way you’re helping make other’s dreams come true. 🙂
Wishing you all a successful journey.
SB
