Bitching.

[freyakitten]

I am teh ITCH! My forearm is bright red from scratching whilst my brain is elsewhere. Don't know what the forearm skin is reacting to. I know damn well what my butt-crack skin is reacting to - work opened a new bag of toilet paper and it ain't hypoallergenic. I'll have to take some in, because I'm tired of flinching every time I move, and then flinching because that makes the sore, splitting, freakin' itchy skin move against itself some more, and my stock of officewear that doesn't show pantylines or the colour of my underwear (mostly black when it comes to briefs) is running very short. Then there's stockings. Pantyhose p*** me off. Anything that I can pull over my shoulders while the crotch is falling down my legs is Wrong. Right at the moment, I can't stand my thigh-highs either, because my thigh-skin is reacting to the slight friction as I walk and my thighs rub together in freakin' suit skirts and the rubber what holds them up moves. There is a healing scar from welts and blisters caused by the last pair I wore for a full day a couple of months ago. So before winter, I need to buy a couple of pairs of office-work trousers. Which means getting them made so that the hips of the garment don't end 6-8 inches below where they need to to look not-stupid.

Then there's the spotting. Freaked me out today, go to the bathroom, it's two days too late for spotting but there it is. If it happens again this year I'll go to the GP and ask for ultrasounds again, so they can make sure that everything's OK. Since there's Polycystic Ovary Syndrome in the family, they'll do it like a shot.

And is it normal for the heaviness of menstruation to taper off after puberty? I remember needing to change super-absorbency tampons every four hours during high school, but I haven't needed to use a super one at all in the last 4-5 years. Even when off the pill. I knew the lack of stomach cramps recently was probably due to the reduction of blood lactate and stress. I used to go through an entire packet of painkillers that week, now I might use one, generally to combat the headache I always end up with, trying not to snap at people.

Probably another Urinary Tact Infection. Again. I just got rid of the sinus infection, and now I have a backache (my main symptom of UTIs) and I stink (to my well-trained nose). One of these decades I shall go 12 months without needing antibiotics. Some day. And with UTIs I can't get away with not treating even the minor ones that go away by themselves eventually because I get reflux there, too. That means the valve between the bladder and kidneys is screwed and lets liquids travel in both directions instead of only one. UTIs and bladder infections can very quickly become kidney infections, and while I have no scarring (yet) from those, I'd like to keep it that way. Bloody chronic problems.

This mood-picker thingy doesn't have lachrymose! I wanted to say lachrymose, AND have an icon for it. Stuff it, cranky is near enough now.

Comments

[penguin2.livejournal.com]

Take it from someone who lived with nearasdammit 40 years of menstruation, there's nothing that is not normal in the period arena. I've had about every sort of dysmenorrhea going, including endometriosis (early teenage anorexia is a great cure for that!), all the very worst of PMS symptoms, random spotting, mittelschmerz pains, the Cramps From Hell...you name it. Plus I was never, ever regular - sooo not good for one's nerves...though as I started heading for perimenopause, I did get a vaguely regular (21 to 26 day) cycle. It's *all* normal. Trust me :-)

[freyaw.livejournal.com]

It's just I worry too much. I've always been regular as clockwork - 28.5 day cycle, off the pill. Packet of painkillers, packet of tampons. Reduction in menstruation levels goes with increased body and facial hair growth, weight gain (I'm finally up to normal weight for my size and very happy about that), and sugar problems as symptoms of PCOS. See http://www.4woman.gov/faq/pcos.htm for more information on what I'm hypochondriac-ing about.

[penguin2.livejournal.com]

Ahh, won't follow that link actually - I already know more about polycystic ovaries than i want! - though it's about the only reproductive-system hassle I never had :-)

I hope you get as sorted as you want to!

[freyaw.livejournal.com]

What I want to do is not have to see any medical professional except for checkups and socially. It doesn't look like that'll happen this decade, at least.

But at least I have good medical insurance. My parents' family health insurance policy is almost the top health policy they can have - and my sister and I have made it very worth while over the years. Even if they won't cover the entirety of my glasses frames.

[penguin2.livejournal.com]

As a person who spent much of the first half of her life-so-far having to deal with doctors and hospitals and endless malfunctions, I give you my sympathy!

These days, I don't do doctors. Or medical insurance. Or anything. If bad shit happens, c'est la vie. Let's not go into that!

[freyaw.livejournal.com]

The amount my medical insurance is willing to cover a new pair of glasses frames is more than equal to what the insurance costs over the course of a year. Not to mention the fact that I don't have to wait to see a dentist...

We need to buy you a mobile bubble!

[placeboid.livejournal.com]

Freya,

I wonder if all the antibiotics that they dose you up on could be leading to all these other problems as if you have been on longterm antibiotics your immune system gets no workout. Also too many antibiotics kill the bacteria that assist your enzymes to break down food. I had a really bad lung infection once which required a course of ABs and i was left with shocking reflux for months(I ended up on Zantac) I thought I was having heart attacks the pain was so bad.

BTW I read your blog on bridge with your mum and the letter I submitted to the YBF. It's never easy to tell a parent that they screwed you up accidently. I think the trick is to soften the blows with random acts of appreciation...the only catch is that whenever i tell my folks how much i appreciate what they have done for me throughout my life they freak out and assume that I am suicidal!

I am curious to see what is listed in the newsletter...I had kind of figured that the YBF would whitewash the issue as usual in an effort to protect the guilty parties...

Anyway I hope you feel better soon and that we get a good chance to catch up soon. Sounds like you could do with a work and bridge free holiday. How's your garden going by the way?

Re: We need to buy you a mobile bubble!

[freyaw.livejournal.com]

Problem is, I started having difficulties with reflux at the start of one of my non-antibiotics-there's-probably-untreated-infections-of-lesser-seriousness times (IIRC, anyway). I was supposed to grow out of the other stuffed valves, but didn't, just like I was supposed to grow out of being lactose intolerance, but didn't (congenital lactose intolerance does not generally get grown out of, unlike the more common environment induced lactose intolerance, which the doctors in the hospital assumed I had because they didn't ask my mother whether anyone else in the family suffers from it, so she didn't get the chance to say that I got it from her).

About 80% of my medical problems occur somewhere relatively close in the family tree. Urinary reflux and mitochondrial dysfunction are the main ones that I can't trace.

The bit in the ABF newsletter was mostly from Uncle Dave the editor going 'Does this sound familiar? This study I've received makes me think that this is probably just the tip of the iceberg'. More of a synopsis hasn't got in there yet, nor have I seen any further publication. Yet.

From your blog it sounds like YOU need the holiday, 'boid. If coming down here away from things for the weekend would help, you're definitely more than welcome at our house for some R&R.

Re: We need to buy you a mobile bubble!

[freyaw.livejournal.com]

The puns! The PUNS!