My Experiences with Surgery Induced Early Menopause: Part 1

Surgery with a latex allergy is downright terrifying. Once a latex allergy has developed into a Type IV allergy, every latex glove has the potential to kill you if it's used on you and the right steps aren't taken to treat a reaction.

Surgery with a chronic illness like fibromyalgia is scary, but for a different reason. Personally, I've always taken forever to recuperate from anything. Take the average person's recovery time, and double it. That is the absolute best case scenario. Most things have taken me a good four times or more longer to recover from.

With this sort of background, I elected to have a Da Vinci hysterectomy the beginning of January. It was not suggested by my gynecologist or even hinted at. My husband and I requested it, and while surgery is never fun, I am so glad we made that decision.

Why Have a Hysterectomy if You Don't Need It?

Since age 13 I've been on birth control bills. I've pretty much tried them all, and I was at the point where I was running out of different types to try. I absolutely hate trying new meds as I never know how I'll react, and the birth control pills just weren't doing their job anymore. Cramps were so painful I would cry some months (it takes a lot of pain to bring me to tears) and periods were so irregular we thought I was pregnant on multiple occasions.

I'd had multiple procedures done over the years: cryocauteries, a D&C (no baby or anything, just a lot of crap down there), countless ultrasounds, abnormal pap smears, and a laparoscopy. 

The real factor, though, was the ovarian cysts. Oh. My. Gosh. The first ovarian cyst I had rupture was after I had kidney stone surgery. It was the exact same pain, same symptoms. It felt like my insides were going to explode. Indescribable pain. We went to the ER expecting there to have been some sort of complication from the kidney stone surgery, only to find a ruptured ovarian cyst.

Those little buggers kept popping up in the years since. Without warning, I would be down for the count. Unfortunately, there was no treatment left for them in my case. I was just supposed to deal with the pain when it came, knowing that at any moment in time one could rupture and leave me gasping for breath in agony. I wasn't down with that.

From about August through the end of December, I was either in pain from ovarian cysts or completely out of it with fog from latex allergy. The sleep disorders and fibromyalgia were probably hanging out with me then too, but I don't remember that.

The latex allergy I couldn't do much about, but the ovarian cysts I could.

One additional factor going into the decision that we had recently discovered is that I essentially had a partial wall in my uterus. This made getting pregnant risky for both a baby and myself, with the likelihood of a miscarriage or other birth complications sky-high. My husband's always been terrified of me getting pregnant anyways, scared that it would kill me with all of my other medical problems. I always thought it was a completely irrational fear, but he may not have been too far off the mark with that discovery.

Stay tuned for Part 2. I just couldn't fit all I wanted to say in one post!

Natural Treatment of Cold Flashes

If you haven't yet read my last post about cold flashes, be sure and check it out. Also check out I'm Hot... No Wait, I'm Cold... Nope, I'm Hot, which is pretty self explanatory.

Scouring the Internet, I've found a number of natural ideas and treatments for treating cold chills/ cold flashes. Some I have already tried, others I have not. Just as with Fibromyalgia, what works for one person may not work for another, so if you're not good buddies yet with trial and error, you might want to set up a play date.

Dietary Treatment of Cold Flashes

• Avoid or eliminate sugar.
• Avoid or eliminate caffeine.
• Drink lots of water.
• Avoid or eliminate alcohol.
• Drink tea. (But leave out the sugar!)
• Eat a well-balanced diet.
• Avoid very cold foods such as ice cream. (Ha!)
• Avoid tea. (Contradictory, I know.)
• Drink green tea.
• Use coconut oil.

Herbal Treatment of Cold Flashes

• Evening primrose.
• Raspberry leaf tea.
• Black cohosh.
• Selenium.
• Ginger.

Lifestyle Treatment of Cold Flashes

• Exercise or just plain get moving.
• Quit smoking.
• Learn and practice stress control techniques.
• Eliminate toxic relationships.

Other Natural Treatments for Cold Flashes

• Avoid cold weather. (Anyone want to pay for me to move somewhere tropical?)
• Take a hot bath or shower.
• Load on the sweaters and stay at home socks.
• Put a hat on. Yes, inside your house.
• Cuddle under a few heavy blankets.
• Use a heating pad or electric blanket.
• Acupuncture.
• Apply a hot water compress to your feet.
• Soak your feet in hot water. 

As you can see, there are a number of ideas here, but not nearly as many as I would like. What works for you?