LAcrone

winter vacation is over

my hot flashes seemed to go away when the cold weather came (where are they when you need them?).  the other symptoms (the nausea and that awful nerve sensitivity thing) also faded.  but now that the weather is warming up, the hot flashes are back.  so far they are mild and always come at night or in the early morning while i am still in bed.  the other symptoms have not returned.  we'll see what the rest of the year holds

listen to the uterus

(cross-posted to LAmom)

so the preliminary results of a dutch study say:

Women in stressful jobs who become pregnant should virtually halve their time at work right from the start of their pregnancy, according to Amsterdam specialist Gouke Bonsel.

Bonsel, a professor of social health at the well known AMC hospital in the city, says women should work no more than 24 hours a week, if their occupation is stressful.

Preliminary results from a recent study had shown surprisingly strong results, he said.

'We were astonished and we thought long and hard about publishing the results, but it is perfectly clear.

'Women who work 32 hours or more in a stressful position have noticeably lighter children, with all the consequences,' Bonsel says.

The study, a major long-term investigation into pregnancy, found an average weight decline in newborns by 150 grams, the same as that caused by smoking during pregnancy,

there are some instances where pregnant women need special consideration, but i don't think this counts as one of them.  i believe that many of us, male or female, pregnant or not, abuse our health by allowing ourselves to be put under chronic stressful conditions and accepting it as normal.  for us, the consequences may not manifest themselves for a long time.  pregnancy just happens to be a time when the results of this neglect are more immediate and easier to recognize

the right response to this data would be to conclude that overstressing people is bad.  the wrong response would be to decide that pregnant employees are a hassle because they can't take the heat

these stressed-out pregnant moms and their low-birthweight babies are trying to tell us something about our lifestyle.  you can call them our canaries or you can call them our prophets

all that hippy-dippy ecofeminist talk about the uterus being a cauldron of wisdom -- this is an example of what that means (at least what it means to me).  for instance, some say that the emotional changes women may get premenstrually are not indications that the women are losing their grip.  rather it's that they are genuinely confronting feelings that they (and the rest of us) are usually in denial about.  we can either listen and learn or we can push it away -- Don't pay any attention to her.  She's got PMS.

pms, menstrual problems, menopausal storms and more.  i think our wombs are sending us a lot of messages about the toxic (both physically and emotionally) environment we live in.  and a lot of treatments for those problems seem to be aimed at getting those uteruses to just SHUT UP, without looking at what the underlying messages might be.  Your hormones are making you unpredictable and unproductive?  Try these hormones in a bottle.  They'll regulate you nicely.  And if that doesn't do the trick, maybe we'll just take that uterus out.  OK?  Now, back to work.

don't get me wrong.  there are indeed some instances where women have female problems because their reproductive systems are just plain broken.  but often, we're too quick to conclude that it's the woman's body that's at fault and needs to be either fixed, pitied, or ignored

similar ideas are discussed here, but not female-related

is he having a mid-life awakening?

my husband has started talking about getting his life in order.  understand me -- he is not one of those problem husbands.  but he is starting to embrace the fact that he's getting older (he's 41, just like me)

he is actually following his prescribed diet and medication regimen, and his blood sugar is under control.  he's also working on reducing his cholesterol level

and he wants to reorganize his activities so that the family can have more time together.  and he plans to take a good hard look at his financial situation

if this is his mid-life crisis, i'm lovin' it

p.s. --  here's how our valentine's day went

freedom where it really counts

i would never write about stuff like this on my other blog

in my continuing quest for comfort for my newly sensitive body, i started searching for new underwear.  i wanted something nice and loose, no elastic rubbing against my thighs, no cloth pressed up against my girly parts.  something that would feel like i was wearing no underwear at all.  i wanted liberated underwear

i googled around for a while with search terms like "loose comfortable underwear" and was coming up dry until i noticed that one of the results included the word modest.  it turns out that if you want freedom where it counts, you have to go to the other side of the aisle.  i had quite a field trip checking out the numerous web sites that offer girls' and womens' clothing that meets the farthest religious right standards of modesty.  one-stop shopping for ankle-length skirts, yoke-top dresses, and head coverings, usually hand-made by proverbs 31 women.  and "modest" underwear!  bloomers and pantalettes, mostly for young girls (so they can turn cartwheels while wearing a dress), but some for grown women, too.  i think their idea is to wear the bloomers over their panties, but my plan was to wear them instead of panties

i was all set to buy some pantalettes, but then i found what i really wanted. long panties from an amish clothing site (i have to wonder who they're selling to, since the amish don't have computers)

anyway, i ordered the long panties and i'm absolutely in love with them.  i got them one size larger than my regular size, and i wear them inside out so i don't feel the seams.  they're just wonderful.  i've found feminist liberation in amish underwear

sensitive

it seems like my body is getting more sensitive in a lot of different ways

for example, my skin.  i'm having trouble finding a deodorant that doesn't eat me alive.  even the natural ones i've tried are hurting me.  and my mouth can start tingling from eating inadequately washed fruit.  i also got a rash on my thighs recently.  when i tried to think back, the only thing i could think of that had changed was that one time in the shower, instead of using the health-food-store soap i usually use, i grabbed the my husband's soap.  it was ivory brand, for goodness sakes!  could i really have had a reaction to ivory soap?

another form of sensitivity is that i have a more physical reaction to everyday stresses.  i'm not feeling any more emotional about stuff than i usually do, but little things like forgetting an errand will trigger a butterflies-in-the-stomach, adrenaline kind of feeling, and i almost feel like i might get a hot flash, but i don't

and the one that's annoying me the most right now is that i'm more sensitive to unpleasant sounds.  you know how it feels when you hear someone scratch a chalkboard?  i now have the same reaction to three more sounds that never bothered me before: the scraping sound that baking powder makes when you scoop it out of the can, the sound that the metal spout on the box of salt makes as it rubs against the cardboard when you open it, and the sound of styrofoam rubbing against styrofoam.  just thinking about these sounds is giving me the heebie-jeebies

so i'm just a big bundle of nerves, huh?

good old susun weed suggests that we should approach health issues through the six steps of healing.  here's how she describes them:

Step 0: Do nothing (sleep, meditate, unplug the clock or the telephone).  A vital, invisible step.

this one is probably a very good idea.  sleep certainly helps maintain a healthy nervous system

Step 1: Collect information (low-tech diagnosis, reference books, support groups, divination).

i've started gathering a little info.  here's a lady who talks a little about having edgy nerves associated with menopause (it's the last paragraph in her hot flash article).  and there's a discussion in the susun weed forums about skin sensitivity.  and here are some theories about why we hate certain sounds

Step 2: Engage the energy (prayer, homeopathic remedies, crying, visualizations, ritual, aromatherapy, color, laughter).

i think this step would include the questions that we're encouraged to ask ourselves when looking at a condition in a holistic way: how is this problem my ally? how does this condition benefit me? how can i open to receive the gift of this situation? how can i nourish wholeness in myself, my community and the earth in this situation? i can view this as my body asking to be treated in a gentler way -- fewer chemicals, more organic foods and natural products, less stress, a less dissonant environment.  moving away from harshness and toward gentleness would surely be a good thing

Step 3: Nourish and tonify (herbal infusions/vinegars, love, some herbal tinctures, life-style changes, physical activities, moxibustion).

for nourishing and easing the nervous system, oatstraw and yoga are obvious choices

Step 4: Stimulate/Sedate (hot/cold water, many herbal tinctures, acupuncture, most massage, alcohol). Risk of developing dependence on step 4 remedies is influenced by frequency (how often), dosage (how much), and duration (how long).

Step 5a: Use supplements (synthesized/concentrated vitamins or minerals, special foods like royal jelly or spirulina). Supplements are not step 3. There's always the risk with synthesized/concentrated substances that they'll do more harm than good, e.g., the men who took fish liver oil in capsules and had a greater mortality from heart disease (the oil was rancid).

Step 5b: Use drugs (synthesized alkaloids, oral and injectable hormones, high dilution homeopathics). Overdose may cause grave injury or death.

Step 6: Break and enter (fear-inspiring language, surgery, colonics, Rolfing, psychoactive drugs, invasive "diagnostic" tests such as mammograms and biopsies). Side effects are inevitable and may include permanent injury or death.

i don't intend to move up to steps 4, 5, or 6 in dealing with this.  just be good to myself and accept myself as a more sensitive person

happy new year

i'm back to my exercising after totally letting myself go during the holidays.  the difference was startling.  i had trouble getting through the easy routine on my yoga video.  even one of my very favorite poses was not feeling good.  i got through it, though, and even did some yard work afterward, and now i feel pretty loose

i'm the type that finds it easy to focus on my mind and neglect my body.  maybe my new year's resolution can be to work on keeping both in balance.  my goal is to have this body for 59 more years, so i'd better take care of it

tomorrow i'll do a nice long walk, and then maybe the next day i'll tackle the pilates video

what 80s movie does your life resemble?

i found this quiz via good old RB

Pretty in Pink Your life mostly resembles Pretty in Pink.  You have some financial difficulties, but because of them you are more creative.  You are prone to having a sidekick who follows you everywhere because you are so cool. Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

gorillas go through menopause

a study done by the brookfield zoo in chicago has documented menopause in gorillas

The oldest gorilla in captivity is believed to be 51-year-old Jenny at the Dallas Zoo. She was one of 30 gorillas in the study and among the 23 percent of older gorillas found to have undergone menopause when researchers measured the gorillas' hormones.

Another 32 percent of the older gorillas showed irregular hormone patterns over several months, signs that they, too, might be approaching menopause.

The average age of the post-menopausal gorillas was 44. In American women, menopause hits around age 51.

are we there yet?

(cross-posted to LAmom)

when i was a kid, i would sometimes look ahead to the year 2000.  in the year 2000, i would turn 36 years old.  i imagined myself as an adult with a house and a family.  the idea in my mind was that i would be stable.  i would have reached the place in life where my career, my life plans, and everything else would be settled.  i would have arrived

when 2000 came, i did have a house and a family, but i didn't feel settled.  i still don't.  my career is in flux (and so is my husband's), we don't really know if we're going to stay in this house or move, and our financial situation is pretty dynamic, to put it kindly.  i feel like i'm still on my way to becoming "what I'm going to be when I grow up"

and yet, middle age is here, whether defined by age (41) or by physiology (hot flashes and a bit of graying hair).  one of my first thoughts when i started getting hot flashes was that my life had failed to keep up with my body.  i'm supposed to have my life in order by the time i reach middle age, and i'm not there yet

when i talked with my mom about it, she was a big help.  she's 20 years older than me, and she has plenty of money, but she still doesn't feel like everything is settled

i need to remind myself sometimes that even though i'm older than the people i see on billboards and magazine covers, there's a good chance that my life is not yet half over (i'm in good health and come from pretty long-lived stock).  if i plan to retire at 70, then i have more working years ahead of me than i do behind me 

there's a woman at our church who is about 75 years old.  after being a nurse since the dawn of time, she's started a new job working for my brother, a lawyer.  she's excited about learning the ropes.  just like my mom, she said that she doesn't feel settled and she doesn't feel particularly old, either

will I ever feel like i've arrived?  maybe it doesn't matter

menopause and nausea

nausea is the symptom that i'm experiencing more than any other.  seems like at least every other day this month i have done battle with it (and i almost never got nauseated during my pregnancies!)

according to the power-surge forum, all the tricks that i used to give to pregnant women are my first line of defense.  saltines and ginger ale, here i come

and more dandelion salads, too