Trust me!

I have never been someone who shy's away from talking about all sorts of things and have often surprised people about what I do talk about!!

As I have mentioned in my introduction I am going to blog about my life; some of you may have assumed that this was just going to be about healthy eating (notice the loss of the word 'diet') and activity/fitness, but rest assured that this is not the case!

Those men who are following my blog may not want to read the blogs that relate to this but I actually think that if you know a woman who is a 'certain' age or will some day be that 'certain' age then you should indeed read what I blog! All of you have had a mother!!

As the caption reads only 13% of women talk to their close friends and family about the 'menopause'. I, indeed, did not find out until this time last year when my own mother went through the menopause. Those that I work with are well aware of all the things that I have gone through and are still going through; so I am now opening this up to others to gain some insight, maybe say 'I know that', be prepared for what it to come or even laugh along because, actually, that is exactly what I have to do.

I have mentioned previously that I am someone who likes structure and order. I have been using an app, WomanLog, for probably about 4 years. I log everything on this app related to my cycle and I would highly recommend it. Due to this I am aware of all sorts of changes that have been happening to me over the last 24 to 36 months. 

One of the first things that I want to educate everyone about is about perimenopause and menopause. The definitions of both are well explained in the picture below:

I found that when I discussed this at work several women did not even know what perimenopause was; notice that a woman can be in this period of her life for up to 10 years! I am so glad that the only men that I currently live with are my two sons, and this won't be for much longer! Here's where I say please be understanding of the woman in front of you. She is probably going through a whole load of changes/symptoms that she doesn't even understand herself!

You're not going crazy . . . it's menopause

This in an introduction to my 'life changes' and I am not going to talk about everything now but let me just tell you of the 40 symptoms that are listed in this picture how many I have . . . 18! Seriously . . . and having gone though the list there are some, for me, not even listed on there!

I have two major ones which affect my life and I will, briefly (yeh, right!), discuss them and the impact that they have/have had on my life.

For the best part of two years approximately 5/6 days before my period starts I get a lump in my left armpit; it can at times be quite painful. Now, I would not suggest that anyone does what I did and I promise that I have learnt my lesson! I 'ignored' this for about 18 months; I did occasionally discuss it with the 'girls' at work and several had a feel! I would tell myself that I was too busy to go to the doctors (I seriously was!) and that it was 'just' hormone related. I also knew that there was no point in going to the doctors until the lump was actually there so that they had something to feel.

This year, the Easter holidays arrived and I woke up the morning before my 46th birthday and the lump was there. I called and got myself an appointment for later that morning. For those that don't know me I'm a matter of fact kind of girl. I went in with a long list of 'things' that I wanted to talk to the doctor about, all perimenopause related. After I'd reeled off the list he asked to feel my lump; he then said that he was going to get a nurse and asked me to strip off to my waist! I was still thinking, 'yeh, whatever'. 

The next bit had me in a tail-spin for a couple of weeks; he also found a lump in my breast. . . now I know that many of you reading will either have had some experience of this yourself, or know someone who has and maybe we all say the same thing. It hit me like a bullet. I came out of the doctors knowing that by the next day I would have an appointment at the breast clinic within 2 weeks. I text my best friend; I couldn't 'talk' to her as I knew that if I did all I would do would be to cry. She tried to call me several times but fortunately for both of us neither of us had very good signal where we were!

I went out with friends on my birthday and shared my 'news' with them and joked, as I would (!) . . . I was told I was inappropriate by my best friend on numerous occasions!! The Easter holidays were long and my appointment was for a day when I was back at work. I like to think that I have a very open and honest relationship with my sons and it was very difficult not to tell them; although I very nearly told the eldest. I decided that until there was something to worry about what was the point in worrying them.

I went to the breast clinic on my own . . . my decision . . . stubborn, independence at it's finest. I bumped into one of my WeightWatcher's members who was there supporting a friend and that was great. An hour later, after a mammogram and a scan I was told that there was nothing to worry about. I didn't even have cysts. As you can imagine the relief was immense. The suggestion from the doctors is that the lump in both my armpit and breast (now I know where it is I can feel it) are obviously hormone related as I'd thought.

I know that others have not been so fortunate when visiting the breast clinic and the lesson learned is that YOUR life is important and as a mother, possibly wife, etc you need to make sure that you are healthy. Stop putting yourself at the bottom of the 'to do list' and make yourself a priority.

I still get both lumps at exactly the same time in my cycle but I will deal with any changes in my body in a very different way in the future . . . 

The second symptom that I have is headaches. Infact, I also get migraines. As I said that this was going to be brief I will blog about those at another time!!