After menopause group

So, so much is better after you change your diet. I am 51, was completely through over 2 years ago. I felt so awful. I had hot flashes that could heat a room! I opened windows in 30 degree weather. My poor sweet husband.:-( Fresh ground flaxseed calmed the flashes in days. A good diet--the chips had to go--leveled my system even more. My body will not give me any slack either, the better I eat, the even better it requires. My snack foods are bing cherries, cantaloupe, watermelon, celery, food like that. I am nuts for nuts, and even more nuts for dark chocolate. I know chocolate is questionable, but a girl's gotta have some fun. I had to give up white bread, and crackers, anything that didn't have much substance to it. Juices can be controversial but I love fresh juice and it makes me feel good. Too much will make the stool too soft so take care if you try it. I can drink a 1/2 gallon a day, a glass would probably be much more sensible. We make carrot, apple, orange combination. I use a supplement called Bocu Superfood. It is a green powder that you mix in water or juice and it looks just ghastly but doesn't taste as bad. The effect on my body has been nothing short of amazing. Between the Bocu and the flaxseed, my skin looks younger than it did several years ago, and my hair is so much healthier. The Bocu seems to clean the mind fuzzies, as well, and does wonders for the aches and pains. You can check it out at www.bocusuperfood.com --I have to type it into Google search because for some reason the site won't come up properly. I also have had wonderful results with Ginsana. You can find it everywhere. You can google it for information, as well.

Please take care with the surgery thoughts. You'd still have the other issues to deal with. Exercise helps too. And having fun, being kind to yourself, the things of the spirit are vital to feeling really good.

I think the biggest lesson I have learned in menopause is that we can't get away with what we did when we were younger. We have to work with our own body and give it what it needs. The systems it robbed from for years just can't keep up.

I love the settled-ness of menopause. I love the deep seated rooted-ness that lets your spirit rise up like the morning sun. I love the way it lets you love without neediness, give without wanting-ness. But we have to assist ourselves more, we really do. We have to take care of ourselves more, and take care with ourselves more. It’s tough going sometimes. It really is. No doubt. I just gave up coffee. Don’t do everything at once, give yourself time to acclimate.

Hope this helps a little. I can't help much with the surgery discussion. Kit

Nancy,

There are so many chips on the market these days, why not look for Snyder's Multi Grain Snacks. These are made with whole grain flours and they are low sugar and salt. When you eat your chips, do what I do - I make a bean dip. I experiment with different beans like black beans and split peas and lentils - cooked and mashed and seasoned and laden with vegetables and fruit like onions, tomatoes and avocados. I use plain yogurt which I'm horribly allergic to or sour cream which I love but is too fattening.

Try buying something called whole wheat PASTRY flour and make yourself some whole wheat treats. Regular whole wheat flour tastes like dirt, but the PASTRY flour is interchangeable with white flour.

Bread is supposed to clean out the system. It's also supposed to fill you up and satisfy you. It's supposed to suck out all the poisons in the small intestine and clean sweep the colon. White bread can't do that because it's lost it's whole grain in processing. In fact, white bread has been labeled as a possible cause for colon cancer because it sits in the colon until it festers in there. So next time you reach for a loaf of bread, think skulls and crossbones and buy the whole grain stuff. Best bread for you is pumpernickel bread and it is really pretty.

Worst thing available at the grocery store is soda pop. Might as well be drinking lighter fluid. Diet soda is worse than regular soda.

Fruit juices are likely to cause your blood sugar to rise if you drink too much. It's wonderful to taste, but it's an indulgence. I mean how many days will you sit down and eat 7 oranges at a sitting? But we think nothing of drinking 7 oranges!

Like you, I'm through crazypause. I suffered a lot - 7 years from start to finish. I'm 57 and like you a hard worker. I work with kids so I rarely sit down. I went back to using a tampon to hold everything up for a while, and I'm finding it a great relief. Some women say they can't use them any more, but I do so first thing in the morning, and I put it in while I'm flat on my back. If I insert it standing up or sitting down, it falls out. I tried the sponge but it was too scratchy and it slipped out and drove me crazy.

Because my work is on my feet as many as 12 hours a day, I had no relief. I can't just sit or put my feet up, so I had to find my own solutions. I am in posture as much of the day as I can, and the tampon helps me stay in posture because without the tampon the discomfort is just too much and I'm just too tired with all I have to do. The discomfort was exhausting me. With the tampon, I have a new burst of energy and I feel twenty five again.

I think I would never opt for surgery because once you're cut, you can't go back; you can only go forward with more surgeries. If they make a mistake; if your body doesn't respond properly; if something else happens, there is nothing to do but suffer the rest of your life. For me, a tampon is a lot easier than facing surgery and its possible consequences. It's simple, disposible, convenient and available TODAY.

I also use olive oil as a lube job once or twice a week. It makes everything more comfortable.

Judy

just wondering you thoughts on not eating bread at all. I have been slowly (over the past year) eating less bread. Usually I make my own. I wonder if quinoa has the same cleansing effect that whole wheat does.

oh man and I have to share. I used the sport tampons you recommended during my last cycle and they are nothing short of amazing. I have a very low rectocele and for my past two cycles I have used regular tampons and they insert well above my bulge (so you can imagine the fun of removing them). Well, I was able to place the sport tampon low- and it stayed in place and as it filled it did the flower thing that you described and pushed my rectocele back until after 3 days I had a flat back wall instead of a bulge. I finished my period feeling better than usual- crazy right? I could get addicted to using them all the time if it weren't for all the chemicals in them.

Alemama,

Glad they worked. I worry about the chems too, but at this point, I'm making the attempt to get some of my energy back that has been zapped from the prolapse, and then try tampon free again.

Tampax puts out another short one now too. I used it today and like it even better than the sport tampon.

Judy

Ale,

I think quinoa is a whole grain. I'm guessing that it like any other grain could be made into simple cakes. Bulgur is another really good cereal.

I don't eat much bread either, but I do know from my studies that pumpernickel bread has the lowest glycemic load.

Sourdough is what I make a lot. It's so easy to do.

Judy

Oh Nancy, you poor darling.

I am so glad you are going to ask the doctor about it pronto. When you can't pee you will get stale urine building up and risk infection. Have you had a proper urodynamic analysis? ie do you know that there is nothing else other than prolapse causing this?

Another thing you could try is having a pee in a nice warm bath. Then shower off afterwards. It sounds awful, but I find that in the bath gravity doesn't count. Everything just floats. It might work. If it does you could do it every day if necessary.

You know exactly why you are fighting hysterectomy! The same reason as the rest of us. If you do think about it seriously, have a look at the Hers Foundation website. I don't say this to put you off, but there is a very good description of the process which will tell you what is cut to get the uterus out, so you know what you would be consenting to.

I still don't quite understand how a hysterectomy is going to help you pee?

You must be under a lot of pressure from your daughters, subtle or not. It would be very difficult to remain objective about it.

Thinking of you.

Louise

Hi Nancy

I have not had it. It is a raft of tests used to diagnose causes of incontinence. It is supposedly used as part of prolapse diagnosis, more often for people who cannot control their bladder. Googling it will give you lots of info. It looks like you have cracked the code on yours, which is great, but I am sorry to hear that this has happened. Make sure you get lots of B vitamins and a course of probiotics afterwards to repopulate your gut.

Keep in mind though, that the UTI may be a result of incomplete emptying (which is what I was talking about in my previous post) rather than the cause (of preventing your emptying altogether). It might be time for you to have a look at how you keep your bladder emptying properly so it doesn't recur.

I hope this will solve the problem that had you thinking about surgery again, and you can carry on doing what you were doing.

Cheers

Louise