Monday, March 2, 2009

On "Being Good to Yourself"

One of the pieces of advice I've read many times on IVF blogs, in IVF books, and basically anywhere having to do with IVF, is "be good to yourself" during treatments.

Now, everyone has a different definition of being good to themselves. Sadly, some of the things I really enjoy (see booze post below) and which would normally be a treat will be off-limits. Also, it feels risky in this brave new economy to be spending money on ANYTHING frivolous, but I still think it's going to be important to my mental well-being to indulge from time to time. With that in mind, I'm planning to do at least a little of each of these things over the next few weeks:

--Get massages (they're not just for reproductive organs anymore!)
--Buy a few nice, roomy pieces of clothing to hide my soon-to-be-grapefruit-sized ovaries
--Carve out time for some low-key exercise (lots of walking, I imagine)
--Put together a movie renting and watching strategy for my days post retrieval and transfer
--Snuggle with my kittehs

(I also have in the back of my mind that I'd like to plan a short, relaxing getaway if the results of this whole science experiment are not positive. But I'm trying to keep that thought in the very very back of my mind.)

For anyone out there going through similar stuff, what are you doing to keep yourself as close to your happy place as possible?

2 comments:

Flower said...

I am trying to find a good place that specializes in acupuncture for fertility(small area)..Anywho...I have picked up a couple of mediation cds. One is for fertility that I use anytime in my cycle...(Guided meditations to Help with Fertility) and I bought one for the IVF process (Imagery and Meditations to Support In-Vitro Fertilization). I stress over any and everything and someone told me about these cds....and I really do like them. Also...if you are a member of fertility friends...we started a topic about ivf cheat sheets...(http://www.fertilityfriend.com/Circles/viewtopic.php?t=1769209)

If you are not a member, a girl started this blog (http://conceptionfaq.typepad.com/)

you have read a lot of things on ivf...so you may know all these little perks (wink)

Barefoot said...

Thanks, Flower. It's always good to learn about more fertility resources. I was a member of FF at one point, but dropped off a couple of months ago once we decided to move to IVF.