Overall, happy (but of course the obligatory george discussion)
On December 25th, we slept in. When we finally dragged our asses out of bed, we had breakfast and opened presents. As usual, my man got me more presents than I got him - I think I just have to accept this as a fact of life, heh.
I got him “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier”, and a DVD of “The Shield - The Complete First Season”, as well as a HUGE book called “Tour:Smart: And Break the Band” by Martin Atkins. And, to add to his Badger altar, I got him a tin of Badger Balm. It’s SO cute! The badger is scowling on this tin as he fights off bugs!
My man got me several astrology books for my business, the fifth season of Absolutely Fabulous, a documentary from the 1970’s called Harlan County, U.S.A. - but it’s the criterion edition, woo! I’m drawn to this documentary because my gramma was a coal miner’s daughter and grew up in Harlan County, Kentucky, where this documentary takes place. Although my family was not directly involved in the particular strike documented in this film, it is an excellent snapshot of the lives of people very much like my own family. And when they sang the striker song “which side are you on”, I knew the tune and lyrics, cuz my own Ma had sang it on the line when she was on strike a few times from her grocery store job.
And lastly, but most fun, for December 25th, my man got me Godzilla slippers:
Oh! And my soon-to-be father-in-law got us a SIX QUART crock pot!!! Lordy, it’s humangous. This is because we were so interested in his chili recipe last month, and I had my dad and his dad swap their recipes. Now WE can make these recipes, woohoo!
In more boring news, george arrived tonight around 7:16pm. I’ve been pre-medicating with Ibuprofen 600mg for the last 48 hours, so the pain was minimal leading up to the bleeding. I’ve had thigh/leg pain pretty bad this time around; it goes from the pelvic region, down the front of my legs to the knees. I always get the thigh pain but not always to the knees. It’s a dull, continuous deep pain associated with george. I took no chances when george arrived, and popped a Tylenol 3 when the bleeding did hit. I feel the pain, dulled, wanting to come forward through the fog, but it can’t. MUWAHAHAHAHA!
I shall have continuous doses of pain medication every four hours for the next friggin three days in an effort to keep the pain dulled, if not muted. That is my latest attack plan.
Regarding the Budwig diet and food in general, oh it’s all been out the window because of the holidays. There’s junk food out the wazoo here, and I have NO control whatsoever. My body is saying, “Hmmm, what could POSSIBLY be THEE worst thing I could put in my body right now, food or drink-wise?” And then my body drives my brain to go for it with gusto, no stoppin me.
So this is a bad month to see if the Budwig diet has any effect whatsoever. That and I reached Pill Overload and stopped taking EVERYTHING in the last two weeks. I was taking eight of the “Xue Fu Zhu Yu Wan” herbal pills twice a day for menstrual pain, taking eight of the “Xiang Sha Yang Wei Wan” herbal pills twice a day for my liver/stomach cleansing, and at night I was taking a calcium pill and a vitamin C pill. Then I got sick and was constantly drinking green tea on top of all the pill chugging, and popping cough drops. I tried Robitussin cough syrup for a total of two doses before firing it because a) it has CORN SYRUP in it and b) it tastes nasty. Then I went to the doctor and got on antibiotics, so I was taking one antibiotic pill per day.
PILL OVERLOAD.
Red lights flashed all around and sirens went off in my head, I swear. ;)
Alas, pills are my life … on the advice of my surgeon when I spoke to her around the middle of this month, I decided that a few days before george, I’d try the premedicating route again. I used to do this about eight to ten years ago, but stopped. Don’t remember why - probably, like everything else, it didn’t work.
Yeah, yeah… try, try again, and this time I’m DOCUMENTING it.
Of course, it’d be nice if I could adhere to a diet without sweets or any kind of junk food, and adhere to no booze, for 6 months straight, in order to rule out whether such abstaining is also worthless to the onslaught of the pain of this disease.
Things that never stopped the Endometriosis pain for me:
- Taking up to 1000mg of Tylenol until I was told that doing that will kill me… but less of it didn’t work. Can’t remember if 1000mg was working, it’s already 20 years ago. I went to Advil instead cuz my doctor said it was safer.
- Taking up to 1200mg at a time of Advil as soon as the bleeding started - nothing less than 1200mg worked. Taking that much only worked for a few years. My body got used to the dosage and I plateaued, and taking more would not have any further effect, I was told.
- Exercise by bicycle, gym workout, stretches, just walking, etc… it makes the pain WORSE.
- Praying to God (I was raised Southern Baptist Christian Fundamentalist, and I listened to Coretta Scott King every week on the radio up through my teen years)
- Taking the doctor-prescribed amount of Naproxen as soon as the bleeding started (later it was called Anaprox, and later still it became over the counter in Aleve form, but it never worked for me for very long).
- Having sex to orgasm during the pain to stop the cramps (I swear, this idea is STILL pushed to this day by ‘experts’ and doctors) - I tried this on at least three occasions over the years and it does NOT work for me - it makes the pain WORSE.
- Going vegetarian for six years.
- Omitting corn syrup from my diet.
- Omitting yeast and gluten from my diet.
- Getting chiropractic care (for over a year and it didn’t help).
- Surgery (the surgeon removed what she could of the Endo, but there’s still some on the back of my uterus at the bladder which can’t be removed due to fear of puncturing the bladder. The fact that it’s ON the bladder and can’t be removed means that even a hysterectomy will NOT stop the pain of this disease).
- Smoking pot (I’ve tried both street pot and medical marijuana) - it makes the pain worse AND makes me extremely bitchy for the next three days.
I left off The Pill, because when I took it in 1990 and in 2007, it did stop the pain …but it made me a danger to myself and others, so overall it too has failed.
Soooo, this is a big, interesting puzzle, isn’t it? So I cock my head and say, “Let’s try it from THIS angle now….”
But you know, I have Godzilla slippers. And Tylenol 3. And kitties to chase through the house.