關於 a few moments later中文 ，我們在網路上蒐集到這些相關的討論、資訊與評價

💚 Veggie World Expo 💚

上週五很榮幸代表我就職的公益營養學組織NutritionFacts.org到上海的國際植物基博覽會分享，和觀眾分享全食物蔬食對健康的益處。

一開始我先邀請在場觀眾進行「check-in」的過程，找一個他們不認識的人，自我介紹，然後分享為何自己關注健康。接著我分享了我個人關注健康的原因：從小到大，家中有太多長輩因為慢性病而過世。從乳癌、淋巴癌、胰臟癌、心臟病、中風到腎臟病......雖然我幫不了他們，但現在我卻可以幫助其他人的家庭不要經受我家人經受的痛苦。接著，我介紹了我們組織，播放了葛雷格醫師的兩個影片，最後再教大家使用「每日12清單」將健康的食物包括到每日的飲食當中。

這次的活動對我來說有幾個亮點：
1) 有五位我的好朋友來支持我，雖然其中三位聽不懂中文，根本不知道我在講什麼。❤️
2) 有些觀眾告訴我，這是他們第一次發現自己的飲食有多麼不健康，接下來也想要做出改變。💪
3) 許多人跟我說他們很喜歡這樣互動性的分享模式，而不是講者在台上單方面講話。事實上，我自己以前是經營個人成長學校、主持工作坊出身的，非常在意互動性這件事情，個人也完全受不了那種ppt充滿文字、台上滔滔不絕、台下是誰在聽都無所謂的活動。所以放心，不管我主持什麼分享會或活動，都會是高互動性的。😉
4) 最後這個反饋實在讓我哭笑不得......有個女生很驚訝也很感動跟我說「哇，你的中文好好呀！」 🤨😓😂

我很感激能有機會做有意義的工作，為自己和他人的福祉做出貢獻。同時，在全球還疫情蔓延、許多人還困在家裡的情況下，能夠有這樣的活動、享受人與人之間面對面的連結，是多麼得來不易的機會。有時候我確實會對人性、對世界失望，但類似這樣的感動瞬間，是提醒我繼續走下去的動力。🌱

*****

Last Friday I had the honor of presenting on behalf of NutritionFacts.org at Veggie World Shanghai, sharing about the health benefits of a whole food plant-based diet. During check-in, participants were invited to find a partner they didn’t already know, introduce themselves, and share why the topic of health is important for them. Then I shared my personal reason for caring about the topic - I’ve lost too many family members to chronic diseases. Breast cancer, pancreatic cancer, lung cancer, lymphoma, stroke, heart disease, kidney disease...you name it. Growing up, I couldn’t really help my grandma, uncles and aunts while they suffered. But now I can help others and their loved ones to not go through what I’ve been through. Later, I introduced our organization, played two of Dr. Greger's videos, and invited everyone to practice using his Daily Dozen checklist to incorporate more healthy foods into their diet.

There were a few highlights for me: 1) Five friends of mine came to support me, even though three of them wouldn’t really understand what I was talking about. ❤️ 2) Some participants told me that it was the first time they realized how unhealthy their diet has been, and they’d like to change that. 💪 3) Many people told me they appreciated the interactive process, that it was more than just a presentation where the audience sits and listens. Well, I’m a host/facilitator who personally can’t stand presentations with busy ppt slides...so whatever I host is always going to be participatory! 😉 4) And here comes the best comment...”Wow, your Chinese is sooo good!” Not sure how to respond to that. Thanks...? 🤨😓😂

I’m very grateful for the opportunity to do meaningful work, contribute to the well-being of others and myself, and enjoy human connection, especially during a global pandemic where so many are still isolated at home. Sometimes I do lose hope in humanity and the state of the world. But it’s moments like this that touch my heart and remind me to keep going. 🌱
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Love you Andrea, Dawn, Lily, Mariana and Narayan ❤️

从老公的角度看试管婴儿疗程

当一对夫妻要做 #IVF试管疗程时，做丈夫的应该用什么态度来面对？常常有网友告诉我说，我的老公精子不好，可是他还是不能戒烟戒酒，好不配合。要知道，不孕症不只是女人的责任，男人也是有责任。这篇文章，是以男人的角度出发，里面分享身为丈夫应该如何帮助太太一起度过疗程，文章是英文内容，是奥莉爸爸写的，奥莉爸不会中文。分享给大家😊

IVF Journey, A Husband’s Perspective

Hi all, before reading further I would like to say this is NOT an instruction or tips for IVF and hopefully readers will understand my poorly written English. This is my journey as a father of the IVF baby girl. Why am I sharing all this? It is because my wife had a Facebook page of her IVF journey at https://facebook.com/ivfjourney2015/ and she told me that majorities (not all but most) feedback indicate husband not supportive enough to commit into a journey of IVF. I’m not a true supportive husband either, least I made up my mind to make it happen.

Let’s start with “Why IVF?”
We went for a fertilization test and results with;
Husband: Teratospermia (Human language, sperm is weak for fertilization process)
Wife: Unexplained infertility (I think this is easy to understand, there is for the confirming reason for this result and we don’t go for further test after it because it will consumes too much time and money)

We married and planned to have children late 2011, both our ages were 37 in 2015 because of late marriage. My wife introduced IVF because she does not want to give up and feels regretful in future and so do I. Maybe because I did too many regretful things in the past, now I do not want this happened to my wife. At least I do it better then ignoring it.

Preparation for IVF
Financially, I know it will involve amount of 20k – 30k “Ringgit Malaysia” in the whole process depending on the situation and this is only one chance for me. I don’t have the money for a second attempt because I need to allocate funds for delivery if success.

Mentally, I do some studies/research on IVF. The whole journey took 50 days and in one of the process my wife needs to do a self-injection daily. I quickly asked my wife “Daily injection?! Do I need to fetch you to clinic daily to do this?” She answered “No, we need to do this ourselves”. A final question from me going to be “How?!” After we sat down and discuss, we comes into conclusion and I will do the injection for her. This was the most painful and nervous moment I ever experience by poking a needle to my wife’s belly EVERYDAY!

Lifestyle, 6 months earlier. My wife told me the NO’s, NO alcohol NO smoking NO midnight wandering NO stress. I said, I will fly up to the skies like butterfly if I able to do all the NO’s. It’s like a mission impossible. How can a man like me not go out to social with friends without alcohol and smoke? The joke was sleeping early! You want me to social with my friends in breakfast or lunch time? At this time, she softly said “I really wants to have a cute baby in future, it looks more like a family. Furthermore, I don’t want to have regretful moments in future”. All these words came out of my love (wife), her words melted in my heart deeply. I told her “Ok, we will go for it BUT you will need to promise me ONE IMPORTANT thing. No matter the process success or not we only have one attempt we need to accept the truth and live happily without regret in future.” she agreed.

Commitment, this is not some empty promise. I made a huge commitment to change my lifestyle into zero alcohol, tobacco and lesser stress. If comparing the pain and suffers my wife will take in this journey e.g., injection, medication effects, hormone changes and all the effects from pregnancies to delivery, mine looks more alike small potatoes (looks much more simple). Trust me guys, don't compare it, if you do and more likely you're going loose badly. For the sake of making a better future, I had fulfilled this commitment.

IVF Journey Phase 1 “Unskilled Husband Injection”
Day 1, doctor consults us for Buserelin injection. I need to inject this medication into my wife's belly each day sharp at 8AM. The nurse had guided me side by side to do the first injection.
Day 2, I started my first injection to my wife's belly without anyone guiding beside. Feels a bit nervous because this time I'm doing it all by myself. I try to hum some music to distract my wife's from looking at the needle while injecting but still she is looking at it.
Day 3 - Day 15, sometime the injection hurting and causes bleeding/bruise to her. I need to find a new spot to inject every time and sees her bruise makes my pain in the heart too. My injection skills improved dramatically. She even told me that she doesn't feel pain like the beginning stages.
Day 16, follow up 2nd checkup. Doctor said, everything goes smoothly and added another medication to inject called Gonal-F to take home and start injecting on day 23. This message never surprises me because I've been told earlier, but just that the price to pay for this medication is quite costly.
Day 17 - Day 22, nothing much on these days and we just stick on the plan as usual.

IVF Journey Phase 2 “Stressful Night”
Day 23, Gonal F injections start today. This needle doesn't look same as those earlier, it comes with medication in it and look like a pen.
Day 24 - Day 26, side effects of the Gonal F medications started. My wife is feeling irritation at the injection site, fullness, bloating and tenderness in the lower abdomen due to the increasing size of the ovaries. Her mood changes dramatically as I can tell, but she endures it and tell me she can handle it.
Day 27, follow up 3rd checkup. Doctor said wife has eggs total of 12 and is ready for Transvaginal oocyte retrieval "Human language, Egg retrieval" at day 31.
Day 28 - Day 29, final injection of Gonal F. At day 29 night, I inject Ovidrel to wife belly to that causes the growth and release of a mature egg (ovulation) for day 31.
Day 30, resting whole day. Finally, we had a day without injection and worrying about holding any needles. Today we wondering about the egg growth, not knowing will the eggs grow more or still the same amount of 12.
Day 31, egg retrieval. 8 egg success retrieves and I give out my sperm for oocytes selection on the same day. Wife given cyclogest for oval protection after the egg retrieval.

IVF Journey Phase 3 “Hopeful Embryo Culture & Embryo Transfer”
Day 32 - Day 35, rest at home. We had pillow talk every night concerning about the growth of an embryo. We also look at sample growth stages of an embryo from the web to see what the current growth stage is.
Day 36, another hopeful and nervous morning. Doctor tells us the result of embryo culture as below;
Total Embryo Retrieve: 8
Embryo Qualified for ICSI: 6
Embryo Success until Cleavage Stage (Day 2 – Day 4): 3
Embryo Success until Blastocyst Stage (Day 5): 2
Embryo Qualified / Recommended for Transfer: 1
Both our eyes looked at each other, knowing only 1 Blastocyst Embryo available to transfer and doctor tell the same after it. I really do not know how to express both our feelings into words here, as we expected to have at least 2 Blastocyst out of 8 embryos and only left 1. We both agreed to proceed this only 1 Blastocyst transfer as this is the only choice we had. It's more likely walking on a 100ft tall string with no supports mission, a single error will fail the mission.
After the transfer process, wife given a room to rest for few hours. A nurse came and give us adjunctive medications, injections and advice while resting at room.

IVF Journey Phase 4 “The Final Moment of IVF”
Day 37 - Day 49, after the transfer. This period is known as 2WW (2 Weeks Wait) with adjunctive medications, injections and be very careful. I just let her sleep/rest more on the bed, I served her every meal in the room. We're also nervous and curious about pregnancy results on day 44, we tested with cheap pregnancy tester and get got a double line on it and we do have a little hope and joy with this result. On day 47, again we test, but this time with expensive pregnancy tester and the results double line again! We're so hopeful and happy at this moment. We really hope this result is true until the next checkup.
Day 50, final checkup. My wife goes for the hCG test by giving a sample of blood, we waited 2 hours for the results. While waiting, nurse guide us to a room to rest. Wife slept and I sat beside concerned on the hCG test results. 2 hours later, the doctor invited us to look for him. Before doctor speaks, while we are sitting down, my wife's eyes were starring in the hCG results number and she spotted the hCG number is 452. She smiles happily while doctor tells her "You are pregnant and congratulations! Come back after 2 weeks to scan for baby heartbeats. And please go out to the counter and ring the bell!”

Just Sharing My Thoughts
By all means, I’m not bragging about my success. I would like to say if anyone is planning on IVF, teamwork is very important and husband play a very important role to increase the success rate. Sometimes, I do feel like a spectator than a participant myself because I never experience any of the medical exams but this is not true. Every injection I put on her belly, I feel the pain in my heart as bad as she has on the belly. Ok, nothing much to share in this IVF journey and next time I might be sharing another journey as a Father! Here is my little baby girl Facebook page奥莉 Olivia Baby - 梁童心心 https://fb.me/oliviababylove if you wish to see her growth updates.

End.

#ivf #ivfmalaysia #ivfjourney #baby #alphafertility