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[atomic sagebrush]

I woke up with chest pains this morning, and I've read on this site that other women who experienced chest pain were low on potassium. I haven't been trying to limit my potassium at all, but in retrospect I may have inadvertently not been getting enough with my diet, especially considering all the exercise I've been up to. It's possible that I had too much water yesterday too. So for safety's sake I ate a full breakfast including a banana, an orange, and other foods I've read are high in potassium like yogurt and milk. Throughout the day I also ate many garbanzo beans and dried apricots because these are apparently both packed with potassium too. (I picked up water with electrolytes in it, just in case that has anything to do with the pains.)

I quickly gave up on my workout because I'm feeling extra tired. I'm not sure if I should be worried or how exactly to proceed. I think I'm feeling better, but still having some mild chest pain now and then.

I'm sorry if I'm being overly dramatic... In the past I've had a tendency to worry too much about health symptoms. Plus I've been under a lot of stress, so this could totally be psychosomatic. I'm not planning to see a doctor unless I get worse because in my experience doctors jump into freak out mode and push you into ordering unnecessary, expensive tests. I think I'll just try couch potato and focusing on eating extra potassium for now.

Any thoughts?

ON LE Diet it is ABSOLUTELY hard to get enough potassium without making an effort and having a lot of water can exacerbate that. Normally I'd tell you to go to a doctor but I agree either you get the doctor who treats you like a lunatic hypochondriac or the one that starts checking you for everything under the sun including ebola and Zika virus.

Yes please take a few days off and eat more potassium. Do NOT postpone your attempt unless you're feeling really ill (and in that case of course get medical help.) Remember, if diet for one day did anything, we'd only do diet for one day.

[atomic sagebrush]

Thank you for the check-in Faithinpink, I'm feeling better but not fully 100% yet. I plan to mostly just couch potato at home with my son and eat lots of garbanzos, veggies, and dried apricots today. I'll also be sure of getting 100% or more potassium through diet from today on, and I'll incorporate your food recommendations too.

I'm still considering making our attempt tonight, but a little nervous since I've loosened up the sway starting yesterday due to the chest pain. If Atomic sees this today, I'd specifically like to know if you think we should proceed even with me needing to loosen up on the sway right before the attempt. For example, I've been eating a couple of snacks to get all the potassium I needed since I didn't feel well enough to eat big meals. Also, I'm not working out today or yesterday, but I do need to still take some light walks with my son.

How is it today?????

[Sweetplum]

Hi Atomic, thank you for getting back to me. This week reminded me that health is so much more important than gender! There's nothing like a heart scare to show you just how precious life is, and how delicate bodies are. I've been enjoying my time with my husband and son in a new light.

I do still have some chest pain once in a while, but I think it's less than before. I'm planning to book a physical and I'll ask the doctor to check my potassium levels. I'm not feeling up to the aerobics I'd been doing almost daily, but I understand that the 60+ min could also be long walks, so that's what I'm switching to for the time being.

I've done some research and it looks like I can continue the sway safely with plenty of potassium if I eat three servings of garbanzo beans daily along with a couple of servings of low fat dairy, boiled brussels sprouts, and or lima beans. Please let me know if this brings up any swaying red flags.

We decided to move forward with our first attempt, but because I was so anxious we used extra sway techniques to lower the odds (attempted three day cut-off, j+d, hot shower, etc...) and see how it all felt. Afterwards I was more excited than nervous. I've found myself hoping it worked. If we didn't get pregnant this month (likely), than I think we'll be ready to try more seriously soon. Who knows... we may try again this month at positive OPK if our attempt turns out to be more than a four or five day cut-off, or maybe we'll get in on the March/April/May bump!

I've read you suggest that the sway process may itself sway blue, so now that I've got my rhythm down, I'm considering moving all this to the back of my mind and leaving the site for a while. I hope to come back with good news, one way or another.

Thank you again for sharing your research and your insights with all of us. I have to tell you, you're fascinating!

So exciting. Keep us posted!

[atomic sagebrush]

Good luck and please keep us updated Complex (when you are ready to do so)

[Faithinpink]

Complex take it easy and Good Luck xx
FX for your girl

[Sweetplum]

Hello - I wasn't planning to come back on here so soon like this, but I started feeling tremendous guilt about the possibility that I haven't been getting all the nutrients needed for a healthy baby, especially now that there's an (albeit tiny considering the three day cut-off and other sway techniques) chance I could be pregnant. The whole potassium chest pain scare earlier this month put me on edge, and then yesterday I saw some articles that discussed how vitamin B12 is essential for preventing neural tube defects and spina bifida in addition to folic acid. That's something I didn't realize before and its got me deeply worried about what else I may not know. I also found out that my staple dairy drink that I thought had B12 in it doesn't so I don't think I've gotten much of any B12 for a while, and I'm not sure if I have as much B12 stored in my liver as most people do because I've always tended to eat less meat than most people do.

I booked a preconception health consultation to discuss my blood levels with my doctor, but she can't see me for a week. As I understand it by the day you get pregnant you're technically already two-weeks along, and I know the really important spinal chord and brain development would be in high gear from now up through weeks four - six. At least I've been taking in a good amount of folic acid (THANK YOU ATOMIC!!!!!), but I'm still really worried and having an unbearable time emotionally right now.

Due to these feelings, I took a prenatal today. I also drank three full cups of milk and had an egg to get the extra B12. For the moment, my gender desire seems gone and I only care about having a healthy baby. I'm really tempted to drop the sway entirely, but I also know I'm feeling so emotional that it's hard to think clearly. Obviously nothing matters more than the health of the potential baby, but what I can't wrap my mind around is if I really should be worried or not. Maybe I'm perfectly healthy and overall ready to be pregnant, and if I change course now I'm just ruining what would have otherwise been a successful sway. Still, for today at least, I can't emotionally afford not follow these guilt feelings. I think I need to at least take a prenatal this week until I can see my doctor.

Please don't stress yourself out too much. Much of what you seem to be concerned about is in the past and so you cannot control it, but you can learn from how you are feeling right now for if you do decide to continue TTC (if you are not pregnant now) and adjust your plan so that you can avoid this in the future.

I think your worry is so common at the stage you are in and it just means you care so much about your possible unborn baby, but stress isn't good for either of you! Especially worry about things that have already passed. Many many mothers for thousands of years have conceived healthy babies on all sorts of diets, good and bad. And many mothers who do every single thing right with diet and lifestyle have health issues with them or their babies...but you know what - they get through those just fine (I can attest to the latter!)

You are doing a great job for yourself AND baby.

[atomic sagebrush]

Complex, I just want you to take a deep breath and a step back here because this is what happens with my anxious pink swayers all the time and then end up completely undermining their sways.

B12 is in ALL meat, dairy, and eggs, and many fortified foods. Your body is pretty good at storing the stuff as well, if you have a relatively normal diet there are years of B12 stored in your liver and even stranger, bacteria in your intestines MAKE it for you. ANYONE who does LE Diet as written and having some milk or eggs fairly regularly is getting more than enough B12. It's been shown that virtually all Americans get enough without taking supplements or even eating healthfully.

There are a very few people who do have B12 deficiency and they are the EXTREME minority. People who had gastric bypass, who are chronic alcoholics, who are elderly, and a HANDFUL of people with rare genetic disorders can get low B12. People who are strict vegans for many years without taking supplements can also develop it. But these people are NOT YOU. They all have significant, life altering symptoms. Reading a scary article online and then jumping to the HUGE conclusion that you will therefore have an unhealthy baby without taking supplements and drinking 3 cups of milk a day, it just isn't true. IF you're worried about it, sure, get tested. You may be one of those very rare individuals who has a deficiency (somehow without having the neurological symptoms). I doubt that you are, but if it gives you peace of mind, please have the test done. I will warn you, the consultant will scare you silly telling you things that are simply not the case so be prepared. NO ONE on earth before 40 years ago ever took a prenatal vitamin before conception. We did not evolve taking prenatal vitamins and it is just silly to think that you cannot have a healthy baby without one. If that was the case we would have died out a million years ago. Some even speculate we may even be causing harm by taking megadoses of nutrients.

Additionally, before you get a BFP your baby is floating around free in your body. Thus my recommendation is as stands, which is to start a prenatal at BFP. The only nutrient ever shown to improve outcomes of pregnancy when taken before conception is folic acid and thus that is why I recommend everyone take that. You know why I know this is because I HAVE a baby with a neural tube defect, which I conceived while taking prenatals daily and eating tons of dairy and eggs and meat and 800 mcg folic acid.

I am not in this to harm babies. I have spent thousands of hours researching, reading, I have a personal library of dozens of nutrition books all of which I have read from cover to cover repeatedly. I believe with every fiber of my being that it is perfectly fine to skip a prenatal vitamin for a few months as long as you eat decently and take folic acid. The people who write these terrifying articles are manipulating data to scare people into buying whatever it is they're selling and it simply isn't based in reality.

[maidentomother]

I am not a dietician but nutrition has always been a big interest of mine (and a big one in my mother's profession, in which I was quite involved for decades). I'm particularly interested in CRON (caloric restriction for optimal nutrition) and I have done it myself for years. I'm talking about averaging 1000 cals a day or less. I did this long term, without taking sny supplements, and regular blood tests confirmed I never developed any deficiencies. And I've had deficiencies when eating over 2000 cals daily!

It really gets me when people worry about the LE being unhealthy bc you can actually eat much, MUCH less and still be healthy. The LE is not even close to a nutrient-deprivation diet. It's just reduced relative to how many boy moms eat. If you follow the guidelines and not your own interpretation of what to do, you cannot go wrong.

[atomic sagebrush]

millions of people are dying every day from being OVERnourished. The LE Diet is based on the World Health Organization's recommendations for a healthy prepregnancy diet for all women of childbearing age (around the world including poverty stricken countries where many women do not have access to the type of vitamins and food choices that we do). It's normal range. It is not below normal, it's not starvation, it's normal range for health prepregnancy diet for women of childbearing age.

[Faithinpink]

Good luck complex , I have been thinking about you and how ur feeling ��and glad you touched base.
Keep us posted... AND RELAX xx