Woman with Issues

John 11:4 “When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.”

Perimenopause

Great news. I’m not just a grouchy insensitive woman I am now (added to all of my other disability issues) going through perimenopause. This is great news that as a woman who is now ‘not getting any younger’ has even more issues to deal with. At least there is a reason for my instability of the mind going, I’m a woman! I feel so sorry for men who have to put up with women, love or no love, no wonder they’re considered the stronger species, they never have to go through HALF of what women go through, they just have to put up with us. That takes strength, my friends, even though men are the biggest babies I’ve ever seen at the slightest of ailments.

By the way, this post isn’t for the single man, stop now. 

Everyone’s experience of perimenopause is unique. This is nice to hear.

35 Symptoms of Perimenopause

Hot flashes, hot flushes, night sweats and/or cold flashes, clammy feeling
Irregular heart beat
Irritability
Mood swings, sudden tears
Trouble sleeping through the night (with or without night sweats)
Irregular periods; shorter, lighter periods; heavier periods, flooding; phantom periods, shorter cycles, longer cycles
Loss of libido
Vaginal dryness
Crashing fatigue
Anxiety, feeling ill at ease
Feelings of dread, apprehension, doom
Difficulty concentrating, disorientation, mental confusion
Disturbing memory lapses
Incontinence, especially upon sneezing, laughing; urge incontinence
Itchy, crawly skin
Aching, sore joints, muscles and tendons
Increased tension in muscles
Breast tenderness
Headache change: increase or decrease
Gastrointestinal distress, indigestion, flatulence, gas pain, nausea
Sudden bouts of bloat
Depression
Exacerbation of existing conditions
Increase in allergies
Weight gain
Hair loss or thinning, head, pubic, or whole body; increase in facial hair
Dizziness, vertigo, light-headedness, episodes of loss of balance
Changes in body odor
Electric shock sensation under the skin and in the head
Tingling in the extremities
Gum problems, increased bleeding
Burning tongue, burning roof of mouth, bad taste in mouth, change in breath odor
Osteoporosis (after several years)
Changes in fingernails: softer, crack or break easier
Tinnitus: ringing in ears, bells, 'whooshing,' buzzing etc.

What else is good to know is that I have two more stages:
Menopause. This is the point when it's been a year since a woman last had her last menstrual period. At this stage, the ovaries have stopped releasing eggs and making most of their estrogen.

Postmenopause. These are the years after menopause. During this stage, menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes ease for most women. But health risks related to the loss of estrogen rise as the woman ages. 

Great, more health risks after all of this? I guess my eight-hour sleep-filled nights will be over too! Maybe I’ll be an exception to the rule, but I’m not counting on it. 

I thought I had permanent PMS but since I’m no long in my thirties, nope, it’s the OTHER PMS woman syndrome, PeriMenopauseSyndrome. Yeah, I made that up because I’m so happy to find out that what I’m going through isn’t a life threatening illness that is going to take my life so early, although, I’d probably be glad to get away from the earth at this point in my GOS, (growing old syndrome).

So you probably thought this was yet another God post or something and stumbled upon a woman and her issues post. Issues is an understatement, I’m trying to figure out what in the name of God I am going through. (See what I did there?) Well there you have it, I turned this into a God post after realizing that this is part of the woman’s suffering.

Gen. 3:16 “Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.”

I guess I’ll just have to live with it AND die with it, YAY women. I think I’ll find ways to deal with these issues that are bombarding me like a fourth of July fireworks show. I’ll be a better person for it, right, dealing with the syndrome with grace? Praise be to God. 

Good Things Happen

Gal. 5: 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

We spoke of bad things happening this week. While we know bad things happen, we also know good things happen. It seems to me, being an optimist and all, good things happen for me all the time.

I listen to people complain about things over and over again. The same things they complained about last year are still the same things they complain about this year and will complain about next year too. They never try to change.

People flee from the optimist because they’re always applauding the good things happening; people flee from the pessimist because they keep harping on the bad things that are happening. But people flock to the realist because, let’s face it, they embrace the good and bad things and just go through life accepting the fact that good and bad things happen, deal with it.

Let’s pick these three apart:

There is the optimist, who when something bad has happened, chooses to see it as a bad thing but something good is about to happen, or something better is yet to come. It’s not bragging when something good has happened, it’s sharing. I like to share with people (who may be going through the same thing) that while I was on a darkened path, something in the form of a ray of light came through and Lightened the way. And more often than not, it happened by way of Divine Intervention. That’s just the way * I * see it, the optimist.

Then there is the pessimist. While he or she is on the darkened path, they feel the need to share that pain and anguish. It is as if they are wallowing in the pool and waiting for someone else to throw them an anchor to hold onto, preferably from another pessimist.

They scream and wail for help and the bystander pessimist announces to the sufferer, “Here’s the anchor, just claw your way to shore and I’ll give it to you.”

Or they’ll scoff and say, “Well I told you so. You got yourself in that mess, you can get yourself out of it!

The pessimist takes a negative and amplifies the situation with more negativity. That’s just the way the pessimists work.  Negative people feed off one another. Not much good can come from two negative people! Put an optimist in the path of the pessimist and guess what, we toss that anchor of hope out and reel in the pessimist.

Then there is the realist who says ‘Deal with it.’ Yup, they’ve been dealt a raw deal and they just shrug and deal with it. They don’t seek promise, hope and faith. They just deal. They don’t trash the situation, they just deal. They see things as they ARE not the possibilities of what could BE.

I guess that’s an okay kind of merry-go-round sort of life but in reality it is no life. They just circle the days and deal with whatever comes; they don’t strive to become anything more than what they are dealt, they just deal. TO ME, a realist has covered his tracks in rose petals and lies to himself that a swift wind won’t blow them away. And remember, a liar always believes what he sells himself; and usually more times than not, the lie catches up, a gust of wind blows all the rose petals away and they are made to see what reality they have created for themselves.

I’m not ragging on the pessimist and realist of society, I’m just enlightening the fact that they’re out there. Society is made up of billions of them actually and basically that is why the world is in such disarray. We optimists can’t carry the world, you know, but we do keep it spinning. Why? Because we see HOPE in tomorrow, no matter how  bad it is today.

What I’m trying to say is this: pessimists survive, realist live, while optimist have hope. I have friends in each of these categories and I don’t judge their choices. I try and give them hope in turning that negative into a positive, even when they SWEAR there is not a problem, I extend HOPE! Call it the optimist in me trying to see the good in everything.

Good things happen to me because you can throw all the negative crud you want at me, and somehow, some way, I’ll make it positive and good will flow like living water from me! It’s all any of us can do to make it in the world today.

Maybe try looking up > optimist, instead of down > the pessimist, or side to side > the realist. Walk with a clear conscience and embrace the good about to happen, the hope that the best is yet to come.

Amen!