Journeys Unexpected

Originally published on 01/27/2018. Since my hysterectomy almost 6 weeks ago, I have felt some soreness, as is normal. I had to take the Norco and Ibuprofen as a piggy-back option, Norco the first four-6 hours, then the Ibuprofen the next time I needed pain meds because Norco tends to make me sick to my stomach. It worked very well for me for about two weeks, when I got a little nauseous after Norco, so I went to only using the Ibuprofen as needed. I had two full weeks off of work, which was great. I probably should have taken a few more days, but I didn't. I have two amazing aides in my classroom that did most of the work for me that I typically did. That made it much easier to get myself back into the swing of things. I was exhausted those first few days. I felt really good by the first weekend, and did too much standing. I paid for that mistake with lots of pain the next day. Lesson learned, I decided to still sit more than stand, walk around a little at a time, and gradually...

It’s been a little while since my last blog post, and I’ve been going through some really tough stuff of late. I had to go see a “lady” doctor on the 1st to discuss a very sensitive-to-me topic with him: I have PreMenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD) and cannot take it anymore. I have symptoms that begin 7-10 days before my cycle starts and I’m running like clockwork: every 29 or 30 days. These symptoms are much more severe than your average PMS symptoms. I never realized just how bad the symptoms were getting until last year during the late summer months, Larry looked at me after I had yelled at our cats for something stupid, and said, “What’s wrong with you??” I realized in that moment that something was truly wrong and I needed to figure out what it was. Lots of research led me to learning about PMDD and light bulbs went on. By early October, I had the diagnosis. PMDD is what I “lovingly” call PMS on Crack because it is life-altering for those days leading up to and into the fir...