June 09, 2013

Menopause - Welcome to my World

I have gotten out of the habit of blogging.  This came about when I was feeling depressed and suffering from anxiety as I didn’t feel like doing much of anything.  Over the past month I have been feeling better.  In fact, I feel the best I have felt in about 3 years. 

About 2 weeks ago I made the decision to totally go off the Valium part of my drug therapy.  It wasn’t hard to do as I was only taking it in the morning instead of 3 times a day.  So I tried it and I have had no problems.  I have a prescription in case I would ever need some, but so far I have been just fine.  I am taking the Lexapro at night and my normal thyroid medication in the morning.  What is the result? 

Well, I feel so much better.  I have blogged how much better I was feeling but the few weeks have been wonderful.  I honestly feel the best I have felt in a couple of years.  So I have taken advantage of the energy I now have and have cleaned the first floor of our house which is our main living area.  I haven’t been doing a very good job cleaning over the past few months.  When you feel lousy mentally, it is hard to do some basic things like housework.  Keeping on top of it on a daily basis was hard and eventually I had dug myself in a hole of a messy, dirty and cluttered house.

Since cleaning the main floor last week, I have been able to keep this area fairly neat and decluttered.  It feels good to come home to everything in a good order. 

I have been doing some reading about menopause and I have the classic symptoms leading into that next phase of my life.  No menstrual cycle for several months, the depression, the anxiety, hot flashes, memory problems and moodiness.  I now realize that what I have been experiencing is something that is normal for some women as they enter this phase of their lives.  I’m just glad that I have obtained help by taking Lexapro that controls the depression, anxiety and the moodiness.  As for the hot flashes, well, I’m glad we have air conditioning. 

Something else that helps me is exercising.  I have lost 20 lbs. since the beginning of January and getting out and exercising has helped me so much.  The center of my exercise program is walking.  When I have my grandson and the weather is beautiful, I take him in his stroller and go walking.  He falls asleep and I listen to music on my cell phone and off we go.  I can average around 5 miles a day sometimes. 


So what does all of this mean?  I feel great because I have lost the weight that had been bothering me for a couple of years, got medical help for dealing with the symptoms of Menopause and finally have the energy to do the projects I want to do, and most importantly have the energy to be grandma to my little grandson, Ryan.  

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