I have a normal tongue!!

That's right, the stunning news of the day is that my tongue is normal. At least it was yesterday. For those uniniated in the outer fringes of alternative healthcare for infertiles, its all to do with acupunture. Apparently, though the eyes may be the window to the soul, the tongue is the window to the body. When I first started acupuncture 14 months and 3 acupuncturists ago (yes, I'm an acupuncture whore), my tongue was so pale it was practically white, swollen so that it didn't feel like it really belonged in my mouth, and had teeth marks on the side due to all that swelling. It's been gradually getting better as the months of treatment go by, but yesterday, after only 1 week on my new herbal regimen, the acu was stunned when I stuck my tongue out at her and it was normal. In fact, she did a double take, and went back for a second look, she was so surprised.

Of course, it could all be due to the new herbal regimen the acu has put me on, but let's not pretend that Sarah hasn't been sneakily doing stuff behind her back as well. I started off with a snack mix called "Hermit's Mix" from an internet herb company, dragonherbs.com, containing lycium berries, longan fruit, walnuts and pine nuts. I knew walnuts were supposed to be a good yang tonic, and apparently the berries were pretty good for me too. It was yummy, and I figured that none of the docs could complain at me for eating food. Food isn't real herbs, right? So I wasn't breaking any rules about not taking anyone else's herbs. But the snack mix was $16 a pound and shipping from California takes time. So last week I got the trusty yellow pages out, and found a Chinese supermarket right here in town. Who knew we even had something as big-cityish as a Chinese supermarket? Off I went, and while I couldn't find longan fruit, I found some dried lycii berries, which is another name for lycium. A quick trip to Publix for the walnuts and pine nuts, and voila! Herbal snack mix for lots less cash. It doesn't taste quite as good, and the berries aren't as good quality, but it'll tide me over.

And while I was at Fortune Cookie Oriental Supermarket you know I didn't just buy a single packet of dried berries! Building on the theory that no-one can complain at me eating food, I came away with green tea with ginseng, gingseng candies, and cyrstallized ginger, as well as various Thai hot sauces just because I like them. So now breakfast is a ginseng candy, a crystallized ginger, a half a cup of snack mix, a cup of the acu's herb mix tea, and then a cup of green tea and ginseng when I get to work. Not forgetting the various dietary supplements and one other herb that I take after breakfast. Ah yes, well, you didn't think I would stick to even my own rule, did you? But the other herb is Reishi mushroom, which is good for the immune system, and come on, it's a mushroom. So it's really food, even though it comes in a capsule.

I also tried something new while at the acu's office yesterday, which was a Migun Thermal Massage bed which they have there. It runs heated rollers up and down your spine and legs while you lie there with the needles in. Can't say I found it comfortable all the time, as the rollers go pretty deep, but on the whole it was great. Apparently it opens all the back shu (sp?) points. I have to go and google what back shu points are at some point today, but I hope mine are nicely open.

And to think, this time last week I was this close to ditching the current acu because she wasn't happy about me going forward with the IVF and implied that I was stupid not to give her several months to fix my system beforehand. But the massage bed and the normal tongue have bought her a few more weeks of my trust. We'll see how she does with them!

And I must thank Calliope for the shout-out. Mwha! Big smoochies to you, girl. I would like to say I'm your #1 fan, but I'm sure there are others that are even more stalker-ish than me. So I'll just say that right at this moment I'm sure I'm your #1 most grateful fan.