A Flip Flop Week

I missed my blogging earlier this week. I was too busy flipping and flopping all week. Some days I was real down and some days I was real up. Some days I was really tired (too tired to write) and some days I was really hyper (like yesterday when I went to the gym at 6:00 pm and did my weights, then went to Zumba to dance the night away and Yoga afterwards to calm my mind).

When I was down, I was really down. I think it was my menopausal cycle. Yes, I think I am a full-fledged menopausal woman. Soon it will be a year since my last menstruation.

I’ve been reading Susun S. Weed’s book called “Menopausal Years – The Wise Woman Way.” It is all about alternative approaches for women 30 – 90 (quite a spread).

According to Susun, I can blame my flip flop week on my menopausal changes:

– These changes can cause headaches (I have ’em).

– These changes can cause insomnia (I got it).

– These changes can cause mood swings (Yep, yep, and yep, I had the rage and weep this week. Boy oh boy, did I have the rage and weep. I had a whole lot of rage when I opened up my son’s credit card bill. Ooh, ah, ooh, ah – didn’t like the dollar signs. And I wept because my husband wasn’t here anymore to help me deal with the situation. I decided I was going to take away my son’s credit card. Take…it…away…away…away. Yes, I was going to finally take the credit card away so that I would no longer have to go through my credit card rage again next month or the month after. Of course, I agonized over the timing and the who, what, where, when, why saga of the exact words I was going to say to my son. I spent two more days raging and weeping.)

– These changes can cause digestive distress. Susun says that menopausal constipation and indigestion are generally due to the slowing of the gastrointestinal tract, (that estrogen is a gastrointestinal stimulant) and heavy demands on the liver. (I’ve been eating my share of fiber and this week I even ate a few high fiber bars with flaxseed…but nothing worked.)

-These changes can cause weight gain. (I bought M&Ms this week. Almond M&Ms with raspberry flavoring. I knew I should not have bought M&Ms, but it was during my rage and weep days. On went the few extra pounds – luckily the box wasn’t that big.)

– These changes can cause EMOTIONAL UPROAR. And as I raged and wept some more (one of my cyclamen plants died earlier in the week after I just bought it…so I cried that I had lost my green thumb…not that I really had a great green thumb…but I thought my thumb had potential to be green because of the health of my other plants…so I cried at the potential loss of this potential), suddenly, suddenly the SUN appeared and I got some SLEEP and my menopausal emotions turned blissful.

Yes, there were some blissful moments this week…

– Like when I wore my new fabulous Adrienne Vittadini buttercup jacket over my black pants and black teeshirt. The best part was the 10 year old black and buttercup yellow print scarf that I wrapped around my neck, which matched perfectly with the entire outfit and my highlighted hair. It added so much to my fashionista moment and to my blissfulness. (So glad I saved myself a few months ago when I was thinking about throwing out that old scarf because I didn’t have anything to wear it with and it was so old…some old accessories are meant to hang in the closet for a reason.)

– Then there was the blissful moment today after my son announced that he had lost his wallet and then announced that he had found his wallet. (Yes, first there was rage, no weeping, just rage when he lost his wallet. But, then there was bliss because it provided me with an excellent moment to elaborate on who, what, where, when, why I was taking his credit card away. And you know what? You…know…what? He agreed with me. Yes, he didn’t rage or weep, he agreed with me that it was a good idea. OMG! OMG!)

– Finally, there was my blissful Thursday morning moment today at the dentist’s office after my spring teeth cleaning, when I found out I was going to be able to afford a new smile. It was blissful because, because, because, because…when I asked my dentist about fixing my 50+ year old teeth….he said he could do it. He said he could Zoom my teeth to whiten them (at first I thought he said Zumba them and I wondered would Latin dancing whiten my teeth too?), he could replace the old filling in my front tooth and the silver filling in my posterior tooth with white fillings, and he said he could replace my 30 year old discolored front cap on my front tooth with a new veneer – and he said he could do all the work for 20 percent less than the original total. OMG! OMG! I signed up to start the process later this month. “JUST DO IT!” I said with blissful menopausal emotional uproar, “JUST DO IT!”

Yes, this was a week of flipping and flopping. Great downs and great ups. This was a week when I did think my feelings were ‘out of proportion’ as Susun Weed says a menopausal woman can feel. No wonder I liked Susun’s book. As she says:

“Grandmother, what is happening? Everything seems so strange. I thought I was comfortable with myself in many forms, but I don’t know who I am any more. What is overcoming me? What am I becoming?”

“Not even I can promise you that, granddaughter. The journey of each woman into and through menopause is unique. If you encounter harsh weather or unexpected setbacks…well, that is the truth of the journey.”

Judi

Note: I do not agree or endorse Susun Weed’s herbal remedies for menopausal women, but I do like her book.