Saturday, March 26, 2011

looking for the answers to life in books

So I am taking this weekend off of work.  My shifts are usually predetermined about 2-6 months in advance, so in a way I was just lucky that the stars converged to not have me working extra on a weekend that I really needed some personal and husband time AND that my husband had off too.

So we spent the morning going to the Gym, out to breakfast and then to the library - because if there is any place a nerd like me feels like everything is right with the world, it is when I have had my coffee and am around a bunch of books.

I don't know if this stems from the fact that as a kid the library was the only place I could hide at lunch from the vicious teasing sessions, or that it was a place where my mom would take us if we were "good" (kind of like going out for ice cream).  Or maybe it stems from the fact that in a library lies all the information, all there waiting to be sucked up off the page by inquiring eyes.   You can learn to write a better resume in one aisle, make wooden furniture in another, read about the history of food or get lost in a sordid love story.

I love books.  Always have . . . always will.  (I wear glasses because I have spent too much time reading in life.  Forced myself to be nearsighted - but according to my opthomologist, this will always preserve my ability to read.)

So I journey over to the section on pregnancy and conception and paroose the books.  This is not an attempt to make myself feel bad as sometimes I do . . . I am feeling well this morning and truthfully looking for information.  I realize I probably know more about the subject than do many of the authors, but I am looking for a title that may give me some new ideas.  So I spent some time looking through them  and found that each book however is flawed in one of the following ways:

1.  They are written by someone who does not know much about science
2.  They speak in a tone that is clearly condescending to the medical establishment.  No I don't think that doctors have the answers to it all, but I do usually want to help my patients and myself achieve fertility goals.
3.  They are aimed at people who have no problem with conception and they site too many success stories after 1 month of using some special method.
5.  Even when they are written by people with actual health degrees they are all about the natural and holistic practices.  (Thank you, I have been trying that already)

So I pose a question to you all  . . . are there ANY good, helpful books out there that infertiles can read that don't make me out to be the bad guy?

Thanks for your help!

4 comments:

  1. Hmmmm...you've got me stumped as most of the books I have are as you describe. But once I knew my diagnosis (pericentric inversion on chromosome 16) I poured my heart and soul into any online medical health journals I could find or had access to. I found this to be a major source of scientific info and self-taught myself what a pericentric inversion is. Still waiting for my geneticist diploma to arrive in the mail?! But my favorite articles were from Oxford Health or ESHRE (European something, something). Likely you would have access to such journals, no?

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  2. Hi-

    Honestly, I couldn't find any. I honestly scan the Green Journal, the Grey Journal, and get updates from Fertility and Sterility contents online and have found this to be the most informative.

    I think there is a definite vacuum/need for something like this, along the lines of informative discussions; the one book that I did find interesting was Making Babies: a three month program for maximum infertility by Sami David, MD and Jill Blakeway. It was a mix of eastern and western medical approaches. I do find that a lot of the non-journal literature relies heavily on the Traditional Chinese Medicine approach.

    I'd like to hear more if you find something along the lines of what you're looking for.

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  3. I've had the hardest time finding books that didn't sound condescending. I, too, find comfort in books but most of the ones I've read even that focus on IF are insulting.

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  4. One book that made a difference in my approach to dealing with infertility was the Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. It has absolutely nothing to do with fertility or science. Simply perspective.

    Best of luck

    D

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