How to 'UN'clog milk duct or milk bleb

I have been having lots of issues lately with clogged milk duct upon pumping. I have had days to where I had to leave work early because of the pain from the clog.  Break time at work is just not long enough for me to empty all the milk, so I stop in the middle of it. Because more milk is produced that what's been pumped out, it causes back ups and blockage at times. There are days when I am spending hours trying to unclog the duct. It stirs me away from spending time with babies. It really depresses me when it's happening. I always have long list of things to do especially on my days off but many times it goes undone. This really makes me think I want to stop pumping, thinking all these time I spend on pumping will be available to me to do something else and that how I won't have stress and pain caused by this. But at the same time I feel that I am cutting off my babies because of my inconvenience.
For the time being, I am still pumping. I have started weaning slowly, taking couple of month or a bit more.

Anyways, I have found the helpful way to unclog the milk duct.

If I have CLOGGED MILK DUCT,,,

credit: homeremediesweb

* Hot compress, Hot shower, is always helpful but not so promising to unclog.
* Massage circular motion toward nipple is the good way, but I have to do is AGGRESSIVELY.  I massage so hard that the skin gets red.

But, the best way is,

* In a large bowl, put hot water (not so burning).  Dip your entire breast (which has the clogged duct ) in and squeeze the clogged milk duct toward the nipple with fingers.  You are basically helping the flow of the clogged milk coming out. When I use glass bowl, I can see milk flowing out really well.  The other day, I heard "snap" when I unclogged the duct.

Now, If I have MILK BLEB,,

credit: Kellymom

Milk Bleb is a Milk pimple in the nipple. It's visible. It's like a cap causing the blockage for the milk to come out. When I pump, I can feel that milk in a certain duct trying to come out but it's not coming out because of this milk bleb. When you have this, massaging does not help at all. To uncap this milk bleb, I find the safest way is to use espom salt.

* 2 teaspoon of epsom salt to 1 cup hot water ( not burning). Dip the affected nipple before pumping or nursing. It will soften the skin including the bleb. You have to do this at least 3-4 times a day. Eventually the backed up milk will burst open the bleb and unclog the duct. You need patience on this one.

I have used sterile needle to "pop" it. but too risky. We don't want infection.

Im not sure how many times I have to deal with these problems, but I will survive!

US Citizen!

As of September 2012, I am officially a US Citizen!

"oh~ say can you see~~~~"

Clogged milk duct scare/ Citizenship

Twin's update is coming soon.

On this post, I wanted to share just couple of things that happened last week with you. Two topics are so unrelated but I wanted to write it down ;-)

* Clogged milk duct scare
As many of you know, I pump my breast milk. 7 times in 24 hours period. I do about 3 times at night. Night session is about 20-25min. And I've been doing this since the girls birth. This one time last week, one or two milk duct got clogged and I couldn't get the milk to come out. It took me 1 1/2 hour to finally get it through. When pumping time comes, my breast is engorged,, hard and big. After pumping, it gets soft and lighter. I noticed the hard lump on my right breast and hurt when I touched. I immediately realized that was milk that got stuck. I massaged it, tried to pump it, took shower and massage in a hot shower and pump again. I was really frustrated because #1, I was losing my precious sleeping time and #2, i was scared of mastitis (breast infection). Thank god I was ok after so long of trying that night. Hope it does not happen again!

*Citizenship Application

I have applied to become US citizen back in March this year. The process was to take about 8 months at Phoenix Processing Center. I took fingerprints and photo in June. There, I was given a booklet to study for a test. 100 questions on US history and political structure. My only study time was when I was pumping my breast milk. That was the only time just sit and do nothing besides collecting milk. I just had an interview with an immigration officer last week. Speaking test was taken care of by interviewing me, and reading and writing test. I did not know that we need to have basic English skills in order to become citizen here. I was given 6 questions out of 100 that I studied. Well, I did so good and I passed! 
Oath ceremony to be sworn in is 9/14! 

My first camping experience at Infenion Nascar Raceway June 24-27

As many of you know, my husband is a Nascar fan. Not die-hard to where he collects every little gadgets of his favorite driver, but he loves going to different cities to watch the race at the track. I love the traveling aspect of it. We've already been to many races but this time we were INVITED by his step brother Tommy to the Nascar at Infenion Raceway to CAMP on the racetrack, do BBQ and have fun! Thank you Tommy! 

The Infenion Raceway is located in Napa/Sonoma valley area by the coast, 45 minutes from San Francisco CA. It took us about 10 hours driving from las vegas. On the way there, we stopped by Bakersfield to see my husband's 2 daughters and their kids, his grandsons! It's only 4 hours driving away but he hardly gets to see them, so every time we are in the area we try to arrange some fun time. We met up for breakfast. The time was just too short, well it is always like that when we are having good time isn't it.  I must admit that his 2 daughters are someone I can admire. They are very happy girls, happy moms and very mature. I always think I am a lot more childish even though I am older. There must be a lot I can learn from these girls! I wish we live closer. I really think so.

his grandson, Noah! First time meeting since he was born

Nice to meet you, buddy!

Danny, Paige, Danny III, Hannah, Noah, and my husband. HI CHEESE !

We can be goofy too!

 2 proud daughters!

Tough boys.

 We are back on the road, driving through boring scenery. Well, I can't even call that 'scenary', more like..' air space' or 'field'. After 5 more hours of that, we arrived the Infenion Raceway in Sonoma county. Tommy (our step brother) and the rest of the party all had been there since the night before, setting up the camping space for our big party of 11!  Did I tell you I've never camped before in my life. N-E-V-E-R!!  So this was quite experience for me. Here is our camp site!

This is our room! Imported from Australia, very unique style and drew lots of campers attention!

waiting for breakfast ... chilly morning of SF

Rick and Sean

Tommy on the right, the big boss/Tommy!

 We had a big space for us. Big enough for 2 toy haulers, 2 tent trailers, 1 camping tent, 1 airstream and 3 cars!! We spent 2 nights there. Being lasvegan, I never realized that the temperature can drop to 40Fs- 50Fs in the morning and at night in June. It does not happen in Vegas. My husband and I wore jackets while everyone else had T-shirts enjoying the cool temperature. !!???  

During the daytime, we were at the racetrack enjoying the race.

This racetrack goes around the hilltop.

This is not Nascar car, just some display he wanted to take picture in with.

Sponsored by Lowe's #48, Jimmy Johnson pits

The race events are for two days. Two different series. The main race was on Sun, our driver Jimmy Johnson didn't do that well. He finished 7th, which was OK for us.

After the dinner on Sunday night, Tommy took us to his two houses in the area. These houses are so beautiful that no vocabularies of mine can explain. They are both multi million dollar houses!! 

 One of his house is in the middle of San Fransisco, really close to Japan town, so we called up one of my husband's sister to meet us at a Japanese restaurant! Tommy and her are very good friends, so we all 4 had GREAT time!! Oh and they told us that in SF, hilly place like this, you have to park with your tires in the certain angle so if rolls down, it would just hit the concrete curve. I looked at other cars and their tires are all in a same angle! Amazing!

So hilly! I don't think I can drive my manual car in SF!

I need to reserve at least 3 days to visit SF. If this Infenion Race can be our yearly event, we can be back in this town!

Camping was more exciting event than I had ever imagined in my life. I think I am very spoiled because of the fact that my first camping had all the set-ups, lots of food, real BBQ, comfy bed and nice shower. Don't people should really start from tent-camping? I totally bypassed it. Lucky me! Thank you Tommy!! Much appreciated !!

Recent days,, update on IVF and my mom & hub's Lost in Translation

I haven't had time for anything these days including twitter and blogging.  I went camping at Infenion Raceway, Sonoma California last week and it was a blast. It was really the FIRST TIME camping in my life and I am surprised that I did good! I realized it's ok to use bathroom on the wheel! I have to blog about it soon.

Anyways, my mother who lives in Japan is now here for 3 months visiting! This is her 3rd time staying for that long. She is retired and lives alone so it is nice to have her here. The only sad part is that she is stuck at home all day everyday while I am at work, since she doesn't drive. I feel bad about it. She doesn't speak English and my husband doesn't speak Japanese. But somehow they seem to communicate just fine, or at least that's what they think. Listening to them, it is totally "lost in translation"!  When I hear them talking, it's funny because they are not communicating but they think they are having catch ball of conversation just fine. It's hard to explain. The other day, my husband told her to "stir" the pot on the stove so it doesn't burn, my mom says OK! But she just stands and watches it. My hub asks me "why is she just standing there, I told her to stir". I ask mom "what did he tell you?" She said "Oh, he told me not to touch it" LOL! hello~!? He didn't say that! Well basically they are a bit off whenever they talk. So I am in the middle, back and forth between them, explaining she said this, he said that,,,translating ALL THE TIME!!,,TV, jokes, conversation, EVERYTHING. Whew! Lots of work :)
My mother and I can be both hard-headed at times, so I am hoping not to have too much argument with my mother (you know how it is..!), and rather enjoy the time together! I am the only child so now I can see mom as if she is my big sister and enjoy each other's company I hope! She will be with me during this first IVF journey this summer!

As far as IVF goes, I spoke with nurse the other day. She briefly went over what is IVF and general idea of what my August IVF will look like. For now I am on BCP. She will order medications and have them ship directly to the office so when I pick it up, she can show me and explain everything about meds. I will know then WHAT meds I will be taking and HOW MUCH DOSAGE I will need. Good news is that RE put me on really low dosage of meds so it will help me $$$ wise. This meds instruction/consultation is at the end of July. I will start in the first week of Aug and monitoring starts on 8/22, and maybe egg transfer will happen around 9/2?
It sounds like my July will still be pretty peaceful. 

OH OH OH! Attention to all IF girls!!!!: We had a SA on my hub the other day. The count was 45mil, motility 3%. In 2008, it was 7mil, 53%. The nurse said it was a compromised result and we still need IVF. The thought of IUI went through my mind for a sec. I am still on the "GO" for IVF though. I thought it was interesting change in SA. 

Vacation Getaways at SouthPoint Casiono, Las Vegas!

We haven't formally celebrated our anniversary and my husband's birthday that were in the same week last month. We had an offer for one free night at South Point Casino, so we took advantage of it for our vacation getaways.

South Point Casino

Hello~

Vacation! But We live in Las Vegas. Our house is 30 minutes away. It is an advantage to live in a vacation destination. We can become tourists in a city we are very familiar with. We know our way around, good restaurants, good attraction to visit etc..  Convenient, I should say! Anyways, Tuesday morning, we dropped our 3 dogs off at pet boarding at our vet. Drove straight to the hotel and enjoyed some sun in the afternoon! We were so white, so we NEEDED some basic coating on our skin. Needed to evenly baked so we can start our summer! As usual, I stick to the water and my hubby stick to the alcohol. This time he was his own bartender, mixing Captain Morgan and Coke. 

view from my table

As you get older, time goes fast. Have you noticed? Soon, time to get up and back to the room to take shower. We had a dinner reservation at Mon Ami Gabi, famous classic French Bistro in Las Vegas. To my surprise, the menu is not so over-priced. For a place which is always packed and sits at prime location on the strip, this is a MUST-place to go. 

We ordered 

* Onion Soup Au Gratin

* Baked Cheese

* Steak Bearnaise

* Poisson Du Jour-- Sea Bass & Israeli Couscous

Sea Bass

Our dessert were Tropical Smoothies! Such a yummy thing. I like it over Jamba Juice. The smoothie satisfies my quench. I just love it. We fiddle fart around some more before going back to the hotel, but man, I was so miserably full! Normally I want to minimize my sleep while on vacation or days off, but I think the belly-full of food and sunbathing really made us pass out, for 10 hours. The second day, more relaxing at the poolside. We were blessed with great weather for both days! We both used the sun block lotion but he forgot to put inside his belly button. So guess what!? It got burned inside and looks funky. Once the redness from sunburn goes away, it will turn dark. So I told him his belly will look dark inside as if it's dirty.. hahahaha

Overall, great little getaway! Had so much fun :)

 

Our 7th Wedding Anniversary-- May 25, 2011

Dear my husband,

Hey! We made it another anniversary! Happy 7th Anniversary to both of us. Last 7 years flew by so quick that I still feel like I am a newly wed to you :)  We have accomplished so many things together. Lots of obstacles, ups and downs.. we had them, and worked on them to overcome as a team. Thank you so much for letting me have such a wonderful marriage with you. There are really no words to show my appreciation. I have never been with someone as long as I have been with you, you know, I always tell you that you are my record breaker! I am still really attracted to you. I am thankful that we have almost same work schedule (for now), so we can have dinner together and chitchat about our days. We go to gym together after work to keep up with our health. I don't drink alcohol so you don't drink as much any more, and have water with me, instead. We do things together. You introduce me to new things in life. My words can't describe how thankful and happy I am to have a husband like you! Someday we will have a bundle of joy together. But you know what?, even if things don't turn out to be the way we planned, our life goes on. Even if I become homeless, as long as I am with you, I can survive! I miss you everyday! Wherever you are is the place for me to come home. You are my hero and my life! Love you~!

Hyperparathyroidism and my concern with IVF

I have a health condition called HYPERPARATHYROIDISM. Only handful of my IRL friends know about it. I know most of you have never heard of such a condition. Calcium glands in my body is overacting and causing it to pump in too much calcium in my blood. Symptoms and complications of hyperparathyroidism includes osteoporosis, chronic fatigue and kidney stones. Hyperparathyroidism is really RARE, happens to 1% of total population, versus 10% for people with THYROID problem. You think lots of calcium is good right? Not for people with parathyroid disease.  Everyone have 4 parathyroid glands in your neck. Each acts like individual thermostats. So when calcium level gets low in your body, the gland detects it and pump more into the body. When the body has enough level of calcium, then it turns off.  For those with Hyperparathyroidism, most of them (over 85%) only have 1 bad gland that turn into tumor. BUT! I had 2 tumors, which is only 10% of all patients. After all, that make me 1/10 of 1% of total population!!
Anyways, I notice the problem 5 years ago, had the 2 tumor removed 1.5 years ago. Post-op blood test showed that I still have high calcium and that wasn't good news. My local Endocrinologist tells me that I need another surgery, but my surgeon in FL worries that it might create HYPO parathyroidism ( will be on meds for the rest of my life) and that will be more dangerous to me and will make my life miserable one. The surgeon said as long as I feel great everyday and have lots of energy, he wouldn't make me go through another unnecessary surgery.  He is a world leading parathyroid surgeon/researcher and I weigh more on his opinion than my local doctor. After my years of researching,  I think I have better knowledge of this parathyroid problem than many endocrinologists. Once time my local doctor was going to prescribe me calcium pills for "testing purpose" when I already have high level, which would have put me in a serious health condition! People can be hospitalized for that.

In Every May, I go to regular blood work as my annual check up. But I am hesitant to do that this month. I assume that calcium level is still slightly high but it might have gone down since last check up in Oct 2010. I really don't want to see the result in the report. I worry because people with hyperparathyroid have high rate of miscarriage rate. And their vitamin D is always LOW (and I am no different). Vit D is important when you are pregnant for baby's development. I can't necessarily take Vit D supplement just because I have Vit D deficiency. Vit D helps absorb calcium into your body, so taking the supplement will increase my calcium level even more to dangerous level.

I know that as we get older, we can't expect to be 100% healthy. All we can do is try to do GOOD to our body. There is no medicine to my hyperparathyroid. Unlike many of people who suffer from this, my symptoms are minimum, almost nothing. I am thankful for that. But as much as I want to get pregnant, and If I do, I will be a "high risk" because of this. I'm just living with it. There are things in life that I have absolutely no control of.  Hyperparathyroidism and Infertility.

Just an weekend recap

Every Tuesdays and Wednesdays are my days off. Luckily they are the same as my husband's. We both work in the morning, meet at the gym after work and be home by 6p. Anyways, 2 days off is just too short. I used to have 4-10hr shift with 3 days off. Anyways, we always do things together and try to be productive on our days together. This week, aside from doing regular errands, we went hiking! As many of you know, I hike A LOT! But this week we went out with other hiking lovers in town. Have you ever heard of Meetup? You get together with people who share the same interest/hobby. Great way to meet new friends and for networking as well. Yeah. We joined the group. Oh I was so excited! I had a blast! 

Top of Sloan Radio Tower 

In between doing weekend things, we were lucky to get complimentary tickets to DAVID COPPERFIELD at MGM Grand!  I have been to many different shows in Las Vegas. Concerts, Cirque du Soleil, Talk Show, Magic, Comedy, Topless and many more.  Oh by the way, when we went to JUBILEE at Bally's, the show actually put both me and my husband to sleep! Just that dancing girls with topless and boobs everywhere jumping up and down didn't cut it. It was so boring!  hahaha. Well, anyhow, that was NOT where we went this week. DAVID COPPERFIELD it is!

He has been doing the show at MGM for a while now but never went to see him before. Of all the magic show I've been to, Lance Burton at Monte Carlo was my favorite. But now I changed my mind. DAVID COPPERFIELD blew my mind! He was soooooooooo interesting and great magician!!!! For a magic show, it is so important for the magician to connect with audience, otherwise the magician could be all into himself and his illusional world that we as an audience won't have a clue what the heck is going on on that stage. And he did it. Magic may sound cheesy to you, but he is something else. No wonder he is so famous in the world. 

We also took Rocky to haircut. He is an American Eskimo so his hair gets really thick at full length. He just loves salon! Here is the before and after pictures.

Before

After

No lion cut or anything fancy. Just shaved him off!  OK Rocky, no haircut for another 6 months! You cost too much, babe!

Not smart - by choice, Choosy taste - no choice

I have come to realize that everything I want to do comes with price tag. I personally think this has something to do with me being the only child, who did not need to do much "sharing" with others. Well, I wasn't given anything and everything. Just that I got the things I wanted. And THAT seems to be my fate now.

When I think back, I have always gotten my way, somehow, someway, with or without obstacles. Once I lay my eyes on certain thing, I will get it sooner or later no matter what it takes. For example, college. I could have settled to go nearby college where I live, but I had to choose the one that was a few hours bullet-train away. And it got worse. As an international student in the USA, the tuition is like 5 times more than what local students pay. So I did that too. When I had an apartment in Boston, I couldn't settle with just so-so room. I had to rent one in a really nice area. And by no means, I'm not rich. It's just that was what I wanted to do. I didn't have to move across the state every time I changed school, but I did it, because I wanted to experience and challenge different thing.
Choosy taste is not only about schooling and living different places. It happens in my daily life. I can't use certain chapstick, the kind they sell in grocery stores or pharmacy. It gives me blister on my lips so I have to use organic one. I would rather buy $300 wallet and use next 5 years, instead of $50 one that looks so cheap and won't last a year. I need a cell phone with all kinds of gadgets even if the monthly bill goes up, I just have to cut other expenses, like groceries, to budget the household. I used to be a competitive swimmer. So I have to buy 'speedo' brand, not any other, when it comes to
"that" kind of swimming. Cars. I wish I was not so picky. Many people can think that cars are just to move you from one point to the other. Cheap cars, Expensive cars, they all do one thing. It's a means of transportation. However, even financially tight, I need certain luxury on them. So I had to purchase the car that comes with hefty monthly payments of $500, oh because I liked the body style, sunroof, stupid things. (i paid it off after years!). The other day, we had an estimate for dental cleaning on my dog. It ended up 3 times more because his teeth was worse than expected! Ugh!  And NOW, I want to have a baby! With my luck, there is no way that will happen naturally. If his FSH was not so high, he could have taken meds and the problems would be corrected, therefore we only need less expensive procedure.  Well it is not so easy fix for us. I should have known, I have to pay for it, as always. Not a small amount, but thousands of dollars.
I always wonder if my life will ever get easier, and that why everything has to be so hard for me. For something, I am not using my brain and I know it. I do have a hard time sacrificing. But some IMPORTANT matters, I have no control and I wish I had. Yap! it's just my random blah blah talk! Thanks for listening.

About me

Hi Everyone!

Asakusa-a historial district in Japan

 My name is Asano and I am writing the first blog ever in my life. I wanted to start this mainly because I will go through once in a life time experience of IVF in July 2011 and thought it might be a good chance to start blogging about it and my life in general! 

Just a fast forward version of who is Asano..

At Nascar racetrack

Tubing at LakeMead in Las Vegas

Hiking in RedRock

I was born & raised in Saitama prefecture, 30 minutes outskirts of Tokyo, Japan. My first BF I met in Japan was a boy from USA, didn't speak much Japanese, so I carried an English dictionary all the time to help us communicate. I studied hard in English class at school, learned lots of  vocabulary from Madonna & Aerosmith CDs, joined Home-Stay Program in California, and so on. My dream was always to live and be independent in abroad. I was a senior in high school when I , for the first time in life, left Japan for a trip to Hawaii and saw different life. I did not want to go to college in Japan knowing that it was waste of time and money. However, majority of people in Japan go to some sort of college or university. It's a culture thing. Anyways, I got in a University, quit after 2 years and decided to move to the USA. 

In 1998, I was 18 and the only child. I am more than thankful and grateful to my parents by letting me pursue some crazy idea of moving abroad by myself. I went to Boston Mass, to complete English school which prepared me to move on to college.

Tragedy happened right before moving to West Palm Beach, FL to start Junior college for 2 years.  I was at the airport in Japan about to take off and my name was announced. It was a news that my father passed away. I was given a choice by mom whether to cancel flight and come back or to move on. I did not turn back. I chose to go on with my life only because I knew that's also what he wanted for me. I did not attend his funeral, so that I can remember him as smiling dad, not lifeless. I have loved my father dearly and to this day it was the hardest decision I had ever made in my life. It was the longest 14hr flight ever. 

  In my two years in FL, I did and learned many things. 1, Don't mix alcohol otherwise I will get sick. 2, I might as well don't have any because it seems that I have no tolerance on alcohol at all. 3, Car sales person had to teach me how to drive a manual car, so that I could buy one from him and that's his commission! 4, Learned to love someone (not my husband yet). 5, Worked legally for the first time (with visa) and it was a resort hotel front desk. I was awarded as an employee of the month! 
And most of all, I found clearer direction to where my life was heading. And I liked it.

Summer hiking!

In 2001, I moved to Las Vegas NV to complete junior and senior year in University. I have been here ever since. I met my husband and got married in 2005. I took him to Japan in 2006. It was the first time for him to get a passport and traveled across the sea. Asia being the first abroad to travel must have been a complete culture shock to him. We stayed for two weeks and came back with some added pounds to our body : )  

We bought a house in 2006 when housing was the peak time. Unfortunately, my house now is only worth 1/3 of what we purchased for and been struggling with it for a while.

 

Rocky

Thankfully, we both have a job at least. He is a chef
 and I work for a government. We have 3 dog, Jack Russell, American Eskimo, and mini-poodle.

Luke

Cowboy

My hobby?  I must say I love love hiking. This is something both me and my husband discovered together.  Also I love reading (although I read really slow), traveling, going to movies, swimming, playing piano, and also exercising. I ride quad motorcycle occasionally with him. I listen all kinds of music from different parts of the world. I particularly like La Oleja de Van Gogh from Spain and Ishtar Alabina from middle east, also Cranberries, Ace of Base, Eagles, Alejandra Guzman, Mana,, just so many.. I enjoy music itself and not always lyrics since most of them are in foreign language and I don't understand anyways. But that was how I learned!

As far as IF goes,, we have been TTC over 3 years now. 2 years ago we were diagnosed as MF. He had reversal a few years ago on his well-over-10yr-old V. Dr. suspects that old V could be the major reason of IF. We have been trying to save money since then, but IVF is just so expensive and non-guaranteed that we had even thought of adoption at one time. But today, we are ready for starting IVF journey in coming July.

For better or worse, this is the time of my life!