MENOPAUSAL MARGARET

menopause (or 'the change' as it was called by my nan in hushed tones - was this because when you went through it, you changed from a normal gal to a completely demented out of control crone?) - I know a few of my blogging friends suffer from 'menopausal symptoms' and I am in total sympathy - it is just awful - oh I know that PMT is bad but at least women know just when PMT is going to hit and they can be warned - not so with menopause, you just never know when Menopausal Margaret is going to rear her ugly head - one minute you are normal, the next it seems you have to moved to the tropics & the love of your life is being silly - stoking the fire up as if he is Casey Jones on the steam train. all you want to do is throw a bucket of water on it (and him too!) Menopause is the time in your life, when people hurry past you in the street, with their heads down, not looking at you. menopause wasn't something that I was going to 'suffer' from - oh no. When I was younger and heard horror stories of hot flashes and screaming like a fishermans wife - I thought smuggly to myself - I am not having that happen to me, oh no. But of course as life does, it decided differently. I got cancer, had radiation and that put me into instant menopause. one minute a sane women, the next waking up from an anaesthetic instantly into menopause screaching like someone who put Linda Blair in the Exorcist to shame. So I muddled along for a few months ignoring my doctors plea of 'please take HRT' and ignoring the pained expressions on my familys faces. Until one day, I 'woke up' in the garden, crying. I instantly removed the gloves and raced to the Drs - screeching 'give me the patches'. ha! they became the bane of my life - they kept falling off and I was using one every two days, I developed a rash all over so obviously they weren't for me. So I went onto oral HRT and haven't looked back. Well, except for when I forget to take them - and yes memory loss is another menopausal symptom. I am reminded by Joe if I ever forget - he just simply says ' have you taken your HRT lately?' ha! poor long suffering guy he is. sensitivity is another symptom - do I need to explain more? I am sooooo sensitive - my nan would be pulling her hair out - telling me to get a tough shell. But nan - I am in menopause and I am a wise woman now, in the years of my life when I feel that I deserve to have a menopausal episode when I need to. Sometimes, I feel I just don't fit in anywhere. I flit from here to there and back again trying to find my niche - like a butterfly who has lost her way. I am just a confused gal. Is anyone else like that? I need to find me a support group, I am thinking - something like 'searching for the meaning of life anonymous'. A club, where we hold each others hand & support each other through this thing we call life. oh gawd, menopausal margaret is rearing her ugly head. I know there are many women who are menopausal out there and I am here, just an email away - I will hold your hand if you will hold mine - we gals hafta stick together xo