Downtime is starting
I’m very glad that I did not have two weeks of symptoms before george shows up. It’s only been a week on and off.
Last Thursday I got intermittent right side ovarian pain. On Friday, I got stabbing uterine and ovarian pain while walking a short distance (about three blocks) with the children I care for. On Saturday, I was totally fine until I hoola hooped at a Fourth of July party, and then I got pretty bad uterine cramps and low back pain. My friend gave me 600mg Ibuprofen, and I believe I took a Tylenol 3 when I got home.
I don’t recall any cramps from Sunday until today. Today isn’t really cramping though - it’s been more like mildly irritated bladder. I’ve had the constant need to urinate all day, but no outright cramping.
I have biked to work all week this week. As of this morning, I noticed I could not pedal as fast as I usually can, and I was out of breath a lot quicker.
This afternoon, when cycling home from work, my body treated the experience as though I’d ridden 35 miles. I was simply exhausted and my muscles ached. When I got home, I took a shower and went to bed for an hour-long nap.
I’ve done nothing differently - my daily bike ride to work is a mere mile!
This happens every month and every month I’m surprised when it happens; this is downtime.
I wish I could remember the year I really began to notice when downtime was coming, even if I wasn’t getting cramps beforehand, because one week I’d be flying through the chosen route that I did every weekend, and the next week it would feel like I was a total beginner again, huffing and puffing and not having any muscle or energy to push the pedals more than 4 M.P.H.. And then I’d get my period within a few days to a week of the intense fatigue.
I’m guessing it was around 2003 when I started paying attention to the fatigue factor as an early warning system for my period. I assume the fatigue is directly related to the immune system being triggered by the mounting inflammation.
According to an article I just found on MicroNutra.com, “Inflammation involves the activation of the immune system, a very energy-costly activity; consider how wiped out you feel upon getting sick.”
Makes sense to me!
And now, it’s time for a refresher course on handling the fatigue, as discussed over on endo-resolved.com. Go there now to read it.
I just read it and will read it again and again to remind myself. But right now I’m going to bed - over an hour early - after already having taken that hour nap after work. Here’s hoping the worst of the pain hits this weekend so that I don’t have to miss any work.
*sigh*