Wednesday, November 14, 2012

About my cycle

This may be a little too much TMI for some folk.

I forgot.  I ate Chinese food just days before I am due to start my cycle.

Why is that a bad thing, Heather?  Because, much as it pains me to admit, I have a hormonal component to my migraines.  I am very prone to nasty migraines the week before my cycle.

Trust me, the best part of my whole experience is putting the supplies away for another month.  Ugh.

And the last thing I want are more medications.  I did some research.  The treatments include: NSAIDS (already doing that), Tripitans (I cannot take that due to bad side effects and serious risk of heart attack. A fat woman with a major family history and one parent dead of a heart attack - no way.)  Magnesium - already taking it!  Birth control - I'll refer you back to the major family history of heart attack.

I met a woman once, on paratransit.  She had a stroke due to birth control and was completely paralyzed on one side of her body.  She was completely dependent on others.  She was only in her late 20's.  She told me she was pretty thin and young when she began taking the birth control, at the request of her then-boyfriend.  She had the stroke shortly afterward, and when the boyfriend got a look at her he ran off, leaving her alone with a toddler.

She had made a pretty good life for herself.  She said she had good caregivers, a loving son, and a fulfilling life, but she wanted to warn every fertile woman about the dangers of birth control.

When I told her Ron was fixed, she gave him a lopsided smile of approval.

So, I am not interested in the drugs.  I also take an herbal thing for migraine prevention.  I haven't decided if it helps, yet.  I avoid my triggers: peanuts, chocolate, coconut, and red dye.  It took a lot of heaving to figure those out!

I have considered getting the reusable pads for women.  They are washable, and have a snap to secure into the "undies".  It circles around and snaps on the outside of the garment.  I haven't decided if that's something I'd like to try.  It might be handy for the disaster kit.

Can you imagine having your cycle and no supplies?  OH!  Especially if you have a heavy flow like me, that could get gruesome.  I hear about little cups and all, but I don't know that I want to try that.

I'll stick with what I'm doing, for now.  

In the meantime, I took my Headache tablets, with caffeine, and boy I'm awake.  Once I took them I knew I wasn't going back to sleep, even if I did have a big, cuddly, Bubba-cat in my bed.   Happily, the headache is gone too.   I already did my God time and even played with the kitten for a while.

She needs a lot of attention or she gets pretty wild.

1 comment:

Jillian said...

I wish more women (and couples) could meet women like the one you have, and know that The Pill is not the be all and end all many people think it is.

I was on the Pill off and on from age 17, and I'm convinced it made things worse rather than better, in many cases. I tried taking it again at about age 32, and it turned me into a bipolar monster. Forget that. It also is against my beliefs as a Catholic (we can use Natural Family Planning, a very effective method if done correctly and it's super easy to learn, to space out our children, to achieve pregnancy, or to prevent.), and when I did more research on the Pill, the less I decided it was for me.

I wish women were better educated about hormonal methods of birth control like the Pill and all that they can do that is NOT positive. Young girls put this in their body without a second thought, many of whom don't know their medical history!

Y'know, hormonal birth control was supposed to be "empowering" for women, but I don't see it...