Oh How I Wanted to Love You, Chinese Herbs

I've been seeing this new acupuncturist that specializes in fertility, and like the acupuncturist before him, he prescribed me chinese herbs.  This time, however, he seemed to have a specific blend of herbs in mind for me and his office filled my "prescription" cocktail especially for me.  I've been avoiding making the herbs for over a week and last night finally bit the bullet.
Man, those herbs are GROSS.  First of all, they take over an hour to prepare.  You are not supposed to use a metallic pot to cook them, so I used a glass double boiler with no lid.  You have to boil the herbs for 30 minutes, then strain the resulting tea into a glass container, then repeat the process.  This creates 2 days worth of tea, of which you are supposed to drink 1 cup 3 times per day.  I had some trouble straining the tea into my glass container so I ended up losing a bunch of the liquid.  Ultimately I decided that it's OK, though, because there is no way in hell I can drink the stuff.  I tried, I really did.  You know when you walk into a low rent chinese restaurant and the place smells, well, stinky? That's what my house smelled like last night, and it's what the tea tasted like.  I just couldn't do it.

I have been able to inflict all sorts of things on myself - the hormone injections, the hundreds of doctors and acupuncture appointments all before my workday begins, the swallowing of those giant prenatal vitamins, just to name a few of the unpleasantries.  But drinking those chinese herbs - no can do.  I guess my body and mind just draw the line somewhere, and this is where. 

I really wanted to be one of those people who can turn to alternative therapies and find solace and maybe redemption.  I wanted to love acupuncture, meditation and holistic herbal therapies.  But, I am too firm a believer in science and truly believe that one cannot reverse time.  My eggs are 41 years old and no amount of meditation, needles or disgusting chinese herbs are going to make them younger.  The acupuncture is unpleasant but I can deal with it.  Meditation certainly can't hurt (though I don't really have the patience for it). Chinese herbs, though - well, I can say that I tried.