I started a juice feast this week. Two days ago to be exact. Today is day 3. I want to make sure I document this experience because my goal is to do this for 21 days. I have done 3 day, 10 day and two other 21 day fasts on a Daniel diet not juicing. It’s only day 3 and I keep having this feeling like oh my gosh I don’t know if I will be able to do this. I have to say though that drinking 4 32 ounce juices has helped tremendously to keep me from feeling like I am going to pass out which is what happened on my two 3 day water/almost all water fast. On one of those water fasts I did only chicken broth and the other I did only stomach herbs 3x a day. Both of which I got up on the 3rd day very early in the AM feeling like I was going to pass out. I have had hypoglycemia most of life but since I usually eat pretty regularly and don’t allow my blood sugar to drop I don’t ever notice it really.

I am doing this juice feast for a few reasons. The first is because I have been addressing some very serious health problems for quite a few years and while I feel like and even the labs show that I have come a long way baby I want ALL the symptoms go to away especially the swollen glands in my neck when I eat grains or just too much food. I also was recently diagnosed with gum disease and I wanted complete healing from that which I am already making great progress in because of not eating any refined sugar at all, not that I really ate that much before but I used to take a supplement that while helped me with many things it still had a little evaporated cane juice in it which is sugar. I also very much want to have babies with my new husband of 2 years now, our anniversary is coming up May 5, 2014. I want to let my digestive system rest and I just want to be in tip top shape to have babies. Carrying them is one thing which I know could present its own challenges but taking care of babies will be the greatest challenge. I want twin girls. I know a bit specific and coming from a family of mostly all boys, I feel crazy to say that since I hear girls are so much more difficult to raise.

Today I had headaches a bit because I had a doctors appointment and started drinking later than recommended. I am following as much as I can what I learned from the www.juicefeast.com website. David Rainosheck has a ton of very helpful information on his site and I am going through the 92 day program even though my commitment is only to 21 days, I figure I may want to do this in the future and I want to learn all I can about juicing, nutrition, and health.

My plan is to also document this on video so anyone interested can watch whatever transformation may happen. One other thing I am addressing during this time is forgiveness. It has been coming into my mind, email, and other ways of communication that it is time to forgive at a deeper level. I thought I had already forgiven so many people from my past that had hurt me. I did the best with what I had at that time but it is time to go deeper. I usually really don’t like doing that kind of work unless I am totally focused. I have a lot going right now with working on my website, writing another book, doing IVF treatments, and all the healing tools like fertility massage, castor oil packs, and yoga, its a lot. I am also walking anywhere from 1-3 miles at least every other day, but its been pretty much every day so doing all this forgiveness work is that much more. I felt ready though because before I started it yesterday I could feel the emotion just below the surface and was ready to cry any time I thought about the questions and people who I knew I had to address. I am documenting my journey in a few journals and will share when ready if appropriate for the public.

So for now I am addressing:
1. Juicing for health and wellness
2. Cleansing for fertility
3. Forgiveness
4. Creativity, blogging and writing for health and service
5. Physical strength, yoga, walking, and rebounding

Do you have a healthy story you’d like to share, I’d love to hear it!

Love Joan

It’s a little scary to write these things down for anyone to read since we really don’t know the full outcome of all of the most recent events. I had an egg retrieval yesterday and found out today that 2 eggs got fertilized. They only retrieved 2 of my eggs. I felt it was a miracle because after waiting over a year to start the IVF process the doctor said my FSH was high at 34. My hopes were a bit dashed and I thought after several days that maybe we may not have a baby of our own. I was put on estrace which is estrogen to lower the FSH and tell brain to mature an egg if I had any left. It seemed as though I may be going through premature menopause at 42. It wouldn’t surprise me since I had been having spotting and mini hot flashes which I refused to admit were really hot flashes, I really didn’t connect it in my mind. I could still feel ovulation every month, it had become painful enough throbbing that I would take an aleve for it.

So what beautiful precious news to find out I have two embryos fertilized growing as we speak. Wow. I am in awe of the miracle of life. I know we have two big hurdles to go which is why I felt it scary to write all this. What if things still don’t go the way I want? What if all falls through which are very real possibilities. I do have to say I started praying about that soon after starting the estrace because why spend the money if this really isn’t God’s will. I asked God to show me signs and really show me if this is His will and not just a desire I waited too long to fulfill. I went in on Tuesday April 8th for another blood draw to make sure the Lupron did its job and raised my LH which tells the brain to release the egg and ovulate. It was a great number at 149. I was going to ovulate in a several hours by the next morning. That morning I read the story of Hannah in the Bible. She was barren and desperately wanted a baby. She cried out to God and even looked like she was drunk asking for His favor and the blessing of a baby. Her husband said “Let your desire be fulfilled” it was and she had Samuel. She did go on to have five other children after that. I always forget that part of the story. I felt encouraged that story was for me to hear that day since it was part of my daily reading that I try to do every day. Then I went over to Target to get a prescription filled by faith for the egg retrieval not yet scheduled for the next day. I saw a magazine with Kate Middleton on the front cover pregnant and the title said TWIN GIRLS for Kate. All I could I think of was it was saying to me TWIN GIRLS for Joan. I felt sufficiently encouraged. Then I went back to the office and missed a call from a ministry called Joan Hunter telling me to call them and ask for prayer any time. I was reading a book on healing written by Joan’s parents Charles and Frances Hunter called How to Heal the Sick because I still have some issues I want completely resolved and then next part of the book was about how their ministry has a special faith to pray for barren women and they get pregnant! Wow, I didn’t know that when they called. I then sat next to a woman who was looking at pictures of her extremely young embryo and said this was her first time doing the procedure. She looked excited, in shock, and peaceful all at the same time. Wow, that was a lot of signs that day and I felt that moving forward was the right thing for us to do. We have no guarantees. I just have faith that God’s will be done in our lives. I feel like even if for just a little while my husband and I created life together. We have fertilized eggs!

Please let me know your IVF or fertilization story. I’d love to hear about it especially all the miraculous stuff!