Rambling along

First, I owe the Indian lab testing establishment a bit of an apology, it appears that THEY do follow the TSH mandates; the normal reference range according to a leading testing lab (Metropolis) during the first trimester is 0.5-2.5 microIU/mL.

J (very thankfully) is anti-thyroid peroxidase antibody negative, and her TSH has decreased from 2.77 to 2.3. How I believe this happens: your need for thyroid hormones increases during pregnancy. Soon after you become pregnant, you body increases its production of TSH. This causes your thyroid to make more T4 and consequently, T3, and these in turn, through negative feedback regulation, could suppress your TSH.

This is what happens when your thyroid function is normal. If you do have anti-TPO antibodies, this process could be out of whack, and your TSH could be elevated during pregnancy, as in my experience: I have anti-thyroid antibodies and my TSH levels increased during pregnancy because my body may have not been able to meet my thyroid needs: In my opinion, the prudent thing to do is check TSH twice, once before, and after, you get pregnant. If your TSH is high and you turn out to have anti-TPO antibodies (seen in one of of every ten women), then, you should treat with thyroid hormone.

Unfortunately, J is vitamin D insufficient (20 ng/mL), and this is after I gave Vitamin D pills (2000 IU/day). I believe she took them for a while, because her levels are not terribly low, especially for a newly pregnant Indian woman: Indians on the whole tend to be more deficient, for whatever reason, that white people, while people of African origin appear to be even more deficient than Indians, and I don't know the situation for Asians.

Insulin resistance is rife among Indians today, and one reason for the this increased incidence may be the seemingly endemic-nature of Vitamin D deficiency. Studies now suggest that if you are vitamin D-deficient during pregnancy, even if everything goes well, your child, depending on his or her genetic vulnerabilities, will be at increased risk for wheezing and asthma, schizophrenia, multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes mellitus, and insulin resistance. And maybe even the most scary thing of all, Autism.

The good news is that J is still having nausea. Unfortunately, this makes her unable to gulp down pills. I'll now have to make her have the Vitamin D sachets, which have ridiculously high dosages of 60,000 IU per sachet.

The next ultrasound is in 10 days, according to the handler. That should be just short of 8 weeks.

Thank you Augusta and Sloper (and indirectly, the wonderful Adele), for what you said. I am thankful that there are many people out here who truly get what I am going through. On the other had I'm also sad that they get it, because the only way you can is to have gone through one or multiple losses.

I still have no faith that this will work, I'm just watching and waiting. That faith can only come with time. Like I commented on Jo's blog (who has successfully crossed the 12 week point, YAY!) is that while we can feel optimistic about somebody else's chances, it is hard to summon up a similar optimism about our own situations, especially if you have had "normal" ultrasounds at the 6-week point end in in miscarriages at the 8-week point, thrice. What Augusta said a while ago, that it is human nature to keep expecting history to repeat itself, is something I remind myself of regularly:  I know it does not mean it HAS to, again. It is just hard believing that in my heart.