Menopause and Mondays

MONDAY, JUNE 14, 2010

Menopause and Mondays

Being in menopause really, really stinks. Yesterday I was sitting in Church, and I started to sweat like a pig at a slaughterhouse; I looked around to see if anyone else was dripping water from their head ...... uh, nope, just me. I always thought I would look forward to menopause; my thinking was that I would not have to have that monthly visit from aunt Martha. So instead of her visiting every month for a few days, I get Mr. Hot Flash several times a day ...... what was I thinking? One of the side effects of menopause is weight gain. I have to watch what I eat; I lost so much weight during chemo but have now gained it back. Although Doctor Northfelt was happy about the weight gain, I am starting to get a little worried, so I am eating more of the Anti Cancer recommendations today. Every day, I have to remind myself that this is my new life; I need to embrace it and be happy about what I can do or eat rather than looking at what I can't. A few people asked me about giving up sugar; I will not give up sugar completely. Dr. Servan-Schreiber says it is ok to give yourself a treat once or twice a week; for me, Sundays are the day the whole family is together, so this is now my treat day. On the other days, fruit is going to be my new sugar.

During chemo, one of my teeth cracked in half, and I was not allowed to visit the dentist because it stirs up bacteria in my mouth and could make me even sicker (hard to imagine that). It has been almost 2 months since I first saw Dr. Goodman; he removed my tooth, took an impression, and sent it to the lab. The color of the temporary tooth did not match my other teeth at all, so I was anxious to get the permanent tooth back in. I have now had this tooth sent back to the lab 3 times. Finally, I went to the lab myself (Scottsdale), so they could do a custom color. Long story short, today is the day I get to revisit Dr. Goodman so he can take my tooth out again, send it to the lab, give me the temporary tooth, and hopefully, next week, I will have my permanent tooth. I love Dr. Goodman, but I think he likes to see me more than I want to go to the dentist's office. This is my menopause Monday.

LABELS: CANCER, DR. NORTHFELT, JOURNALING, MR. HOT FLASH