Archive for 2019

Good mothers safeguard and lend support. So too should endo copers "mother" themselves.

THERE’S AN OLD LOVE SONG that goes: “Make every day Christmas for your woman.” Can you imagine having a guy like that?

But here’s the thing, why can’t we, as whole, entire persons, take that approach to our own lives for ourselves, when coping with a chronic ailment like endometriosis?

Period neglect

Almost every woman on Earth will have intimate, decades-long experience with menstruation. Yet, a disease connected to it remains mostly obscure and unrecognisable to the very people hardest hit by it.

That is a disturbing indication of how little we women explore the natural, miraculous dynamics of our period and ways in which we can live better with trials it might spill our way.

This in turn exposes how little time most of us make to truly take good and proper care of ourselves on the fronts that should really matter.

Thought, full of you

If Christmas is about sacredness and warmth; showing appreciation and gratitude; giving meaningful gifts and “Making merry and bright,” then if we endeavor to make every day like Christmas for ourselves as we live our lives and face our challenges, well imagine what that would look like and feel like.

Of course I do not mean in the commercial way so many people approach the season these days. I mean in the way that has as its core – as its heart impetus, the intention to demonstrate thoughtfulness.

Toward self care

This little lass uses her power to spread the “good word”

in song. Equally, she should be encouraged to exercise

her power to learn, grow wiser, take care of herself

and spread knowledge to others.

Today, we are better able to ensure that future generations have greater access to information about endo than we did … than we do. Government health ministries seem to be making very little effort to effectively mass educate about the endo pandemic. But the information is out there: caringly researched, compiled and put forward by people who want to make the many different types of endometriosis pain go away. Then once we become aware, it is up to us first to change our attitudes and demonstrate thoughtfulness toward our well-being.

The truth is that we can be better equipped than ever before to take care of ourselves as we battle endometriosis today. Learning about, then doing all the progressive healing things daily will be just like giving yourself a gift each and every day: the gift of good health.

Sounds like Christmas to me.

In beauty may you walk

Photos by Jhaye-Q Baptiste
Want some Trinbago sunshine Christmas cheer? Hit the link Trinbago Come Good

A Christmas Cure for Endo?

When you get an ease from endometriosis woe, you feel full of light and magic.

IT WAS A guy pal who suggested: “Try taking a purge prior to your period.”

A little something he’d picked up from his girl, that has served me well over the years since I listened.

We endometriosis-copers tend to be anxious about trying anything that “messes with” areas close to our uterus, ever fearful it will exacerbate pain problems rather than improve. I get it. But we can try prudent new things in a careful way, to find out for sure if it will work for us.

A purge can be part of, but is not the same as, a detox (that topic for another day; and I’ll be sure to come back here and include a link). This purging I’m suggesting is something simple to do a few days before you menstruate. This can ensure that at least your bowels lighten up while your uterus, etcetera gets so heavy around this time.

Better out than in

Gives new meaning to "Nothing should be this hard."

Some women get constipated on their cycle, so this helps. And even for those who experience the opposite, a planned purge beforehand can have a controlling effect on your common period diarrhoea.

A purge can alleviate water-retention and bloating; rid your body of toxins and assist with expelling clots. Altogether, these can diminish pain.

You will have to take a laxative, and I advocate using something natural. My personal go-to options are: a full teaspoonful of castor oil; or two aloes powder capsules; or an 8 oz properly steeped cup of dandelion tea. Now, each of these causes a different reaction that can be discomfiting. Be aware.

Flush for a cause

I try to have yogurt when I purge, to reboot my acidophiles; and coconut water to boost my electrolytes. Peppermint, fennel, ginger and green teas all offer soothing during more unsavoury feeling moments.

Rather than simply pop something and wait to poop, you might want to approach your purge in a more structured manner. Three or two days before your period is due, ingest your choice of laxative and then follow some or all of the day-regime beautifully outlined by Dr. Keri Glassman, R.D. at the link: Today

Finally, even if you work a pre-purge into your prepare-for-period routine, you can still aim to get and stay regular. Proper eating, hydrating, exercising and relaxation methods will help with that goal, and profoundly and wonderfully improve endometriosis issues overall.

In beauty may you walk.

You'd be surprised what simple, nice eats can keep you regular

Word Warrior long time now, hit the link to see The Jhaye-Q Brew Archive

Hot Flushes, Anyone?

Looking to leap into something
to help your endo? Well please do
look carefully before you leap.

“JUST GET PREGNANT and have a baby!”

That was the exact advice given to a friend on how to combat her chronic endometriosis ... by her obstetrician-gynaecologist.

Think I’m kidding?

So you can take pills for a headache, to combat depression, heck, even to get a boner, but for endo you have to resort to childbirth?

Okay, so let’s say that does cure your endo, there’s the the little matter of NOW YOU HAVE A CHILD.

The next real issue with the good (guffaw) doctor’s advice is that this woman might actually have been trying to get pregnant.

It’s a fact that many women first find out they have endo when they seek professional medical help with fertility problems. Endometriosis is a major contributing factor to infertility, affecting some 40% of women who have the disease. (More about this pressing issue in later posts)

“Advice” like up top would effectively be: “Fix the problem you came in for by doing the thing that the problem you have is preventing you from doing.”

MINE OVER MOTHER

It is appalling that with all the paths blazed by scientific research and discovery a specialist doctor – and female, no less – would be spouting this utter rot to a patient who has placed trust in her.

The glaring truth is that there seems to be a societal conditioning that has problems with a woman committing to, "I am going to take control of my health and well-being." People are so busy still trying to keep us pregnant (even if shod), they’ll try to pass it off as some kind of quick-fix cure-all for a perfectly treatable ailment. “You know pregnancy can prevent cavities.”

Should all we endo-copers rush to follow that advice, what’s going to be the result? Real question.

The endometriosis- sufferer, like all people combating a chronic illness, should be allowed to focus on herself, rather than being told to take on responsibility for another human being.

Aside from which, pregnancy is no guarantee cure for endo. Ask the millions of mothers around the world whose interactions with their families are affected by challenges and struggles with endo.

There is nothing wrong with not having a baby until you choose. (If you are trying and endo is preventing you, work to fix your endo and the baby will follow, rather than the other way around.)

HER STORY VS HISTORY

It is largely myth spurred by historical bias that insisted women who delay childbearing are at higher risk for endometriosis. The “career woman’s disease” they called it.

To quote the book Coping With Endometriosis by Robert H. Phillips, Ph.D and Glenda Motta, R.N.:

“This myth was perpetuated by uninformed physicians and reinforced by a lack of research.”

Recent studies clearly expose there is no difference in the occurrence of endo among women who have been pregnant and those who have not.

Placenta produced hormones prevent ovulation, and this can reduce or stop the endo progression during pregnancy. Researchers still conclude that pregnancy offers no protection against getting the disease.

There are easier methods that can, and do often, offer fortification against endo. Instead of waiting around with fingers crossed and legs uncrossed (wink, wink) hoping for a miracle or some’at, why not give some of these tried and true techniques a go first?

ABC: Endo will keep you in the know.

In beauty may you walk

Photo by Artem Beliaikin from Pexels

Care to read more about Trinbago culture than just health approaches, hit the link: Trinbago Come Good

Waiting on Kiddo

We're women. We can learn to do anything! So slide into homeplate with your endo know-how.

MY OPTOMETRIST diagnosed my endometriosis-induced anemia. Which should tell you something about the state of endo treatment in my country.

At a yearly eye exam, my optometrist tried to figure out why I was still experiencing headaches and dizziness despite having astigmatism countering spectacles. Why would I mention endometriosis? I mean, come on: the eyes, the uterus; what’s the connect?

Until he asked outright if I had any chronic ailments. Intro endo. He probed even further (no pun intended): Do I have heavy periods; bleed in between; get nauseous? Could he see my palms?

He then explained to me what any number of gynaecologists I had visited thus far should have elaborated on: that some symptoms of endo arise from the serious ailment anemia; itself an almost guaranteed symptom of endo.

Arrest distress

It’s wonderful to get answers. Suddenly, you go from being ignorant and incapable, to having the ability to deal with what’s afflicting you.

Distress is a key trigger of endo flare-ups, so copers would do well to limit it. If having answers can help with your peace of mind, well there’s no real hard sell there.

The more you know about endo’s symtoms, dangers, triggers, patterns, the better able you are to find treatments, practices and methods to fight it.

Still daunted? Listen, of all the ailments that strike females, endometriosis is the one most innate to our very status as women. It is not any foreign invading entity; but something produced naturally by our bodies. Just, our bodies try to protect us from, basically, itself and its own creation.

Period neglect

Of all diseases we may have to meet head-on in a lifetime, endo is the one easiest to become familiar with. But not if you wait for doctors to tell you how to help yourself; because they might NOT tell you!

Even when you find a doctor you can put faith in, you must be prepared to act as partner in your disease diagnosis and treatment. Women today are in perfect position to do so. We have knowledge at our very fingertips via Internet access.

What’s more, we are better equipped to ensure that future generations gain greater insight into endo than we did … than we do.

In beauty may you walk

Photo by Pixabay from Pexels https://www.pexels.com/@pixabay

Word Warrior long time now, hit the link to see The Jhaye-Q Brew Archive

Let the Brain Lead the Womb

Beyond Blood and Tears

Walking regularly at a decent pace is medicinal in a quick and refreshing way.
Holding hands helps lots, too.

KNOW THAT old highwayman predicament put to hapless prey: “Your money or your life?”

Well imagine endo is the highwayman, but instead he puts it to you, “Your way of life or your life.” What do you do?

Endometriosis, being a chronic, auto-immune type of disease, as with all others of that ilk, asks you to commit to lifestyle changes to see real results.

“Such drastic measures!” I’ve had sistuhs say when I tell them some of what they can begin by doing.

Wha-?

Darlings, what’s more drastic than having your womb cut out? Yet, women are going along with that all over the place in my country ... women in their twenties and thirties, because some doctor “just said so.”

Unless your endometriosis truly falls into the category of desperate-surgery-needed, there are ever so many adjustments you can make to battle the condition and come out reasonably, or even immensely, on top.

Sure, some of these changes would involve big alterations to diet and exercise; altered outlooks on complimentary and alternative treatments; definitely cutting ties with toxic relationships or even jobs (stress is dangerous enough to normal, healthy people, imagine the havoc it wrecks on an endo-grrrll).

Hear what, it’s not like a wedding: you don’t have to do it all in a fell swoop then live with the results.

Nay! There’s the “Jiffy-fix.” Namely, this is a little thing you can implement without much ado, that’s fairly easy to adhere to, but packs a wallop of over time, long-term, legitimate help punch.

Here’s one that can have positive effects on your endometriosis issues and help you trim down while you’re at it. It’s pretty darn simple despite being a threesome programme.

JIFFY-FIX No. 1

Three’s Companionable

Take a good Omega-3 twice a day. Bonus: if you take it before a meal it helps keep you cholesterol A-okay.
Drink your recommended dosage of water. I say dosage, because water is the most underrated medicine on the planet. 8 glasses of 8 ounces spread out throughout the day is a good start. But once you get into gear for the third part of this Jiffy-fix you may need more than that.
Wherever you’re going, walk a bit faster than you usually do. Be it to the bathroom, the corner grocery, up the steps at work, to the water-fountain for an 8 ounce dose – just walk a bit faster. After the first week, up the speed, then again, until you hit a happy medium.

Remember lifestyle changes are so called because you are opting to live differently. But it may also be called that because it feels like a lifetime before you see results.

Commit, follow through faithfully for a month at least, measure results honestly (notice what benefits occur, more like it) before you make up your mind whether this Jiffy-fix is a keeper or not.

In beauty may you walk

Photo by Jhaye-Q Trinbago

Take in more Trinidad and Tobago talk. Link to Trinbago Come Good

Letting in a Fix

Castor Helps Oil How

I LEARNED about castor oil packs while helping a sistuh save her womb.
She, in her forties at the time, was being told by doctor after doctor that the best "solution" to her fibroid issue was a hysterectomy.
They would say, "At your age, and you have two grown children, you don't need it."
You wish I was paraphrasing.
Ever the book-buyer, I passed her my copy of Sex, Lies and the Truth About Uterine Fibroids. The author, Carla Dionne, a registered nurse, saw fibroid patients face the same as my friend over her career. Then she faced it herself when she was diagnosed.
Her intent was to arm women with knowledge, thus, options; toward preventing the callous cutting away of a vital part of our female make-up.
I had not read the book fully. My bugbear was endo, after all.
But my friend took things to heart, and near well learned the book off by heart; then gave me the 4-1-1 on CO-pacs.

That's what sharing does: it comes back around again and the learning goes both ways.

Thanks girlfriend!

Speaking of which, CO-pacs can be an endo-gal's best friend as a long-term, curative method. My friend shrank her fibroid to half its size using this. I diminished endometrial implants, scar tissue, clotting, constipation and some of the pain resulting from them.
It's not a cure-all. But it is another piece of "regimen-arsenal" to rack up for your combat-endo forays.

WHAT YOU NEED

Castor oil (to local sistuhs, PLEASE, not that stuff sold in pharmacies by a certain charlatanesque local brand, that's mixed with who knows what. Check an authentic essential oils outlet, like Mustapha's on Henry Street, Port-of-Spain).
Plain white flannel
Saran wrap (or recycle clear plastic bags like your bakery bread comes in)
Heat pack of some kind (check on-line for make it yourself ideas)
Wipes
Scissors
Old Tee or towel on standby

Run off and gather these items, dearies!
In the next post, I'll tell you all the benefits of castor oil and HOW TO DO YOUR CO-PAC.

In beauty may you walk

Photo by rawpixel.com from Pexels

Did It Oil With Friendship

Would you jump this high to help yourself against endo? How about without an audience?

MET A MAN who deals in chocolate for helping and healing purposes.
Well, to be exact, he deals in the stuff that chocolate is made of: pure grade Trinbago-grown cocoa. And in the sweetest little gingerbread house set-up, he and his Japanese-Trini partner-at-arms peddle chocolate bars, cookies, syrups, spreads, body butters, skin polishers, hair products that stave off graying, cocoa for cooking and baking, cocoa for drinking and, as I mentioned before, cocoa for medicinal purposes.
Got that died and gone to heaven feeling?
I was never really a chocolate fan until I turned on to dark chocolate. I'm sure you've heard how wonderful that is for your health.

"It has been shown as proof positive that carefully prepared chocolate is as healthful a food as it is pleasant; that it is nourishing and easily digested ... that it is above all helpful to people who must do a great deal of mental work," -- Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

Here's the thing, though, this post isn't really about chocolate at all.
See, this same man who is a cocoa-advocate (only Trini sistuhs will get the joke in that), is also a supporter/educator of alternative, complimentary and lifestyle changes medicine.
Which brought us to talking about my chronic endometriosis battles and dissemination; that led to him expressing his frustration that more women coping with the disease aren't turning on to things like -- ta-da-ta-da-dahhh! -- castor oil. Castor oil packs in particular.
As Trinidad and Tobago approaches March 30th, the date for the first Endometriosis Walk put on by the Trinidad and Tobago Endometriosis Association, this man and I raved about this simple, proven effective method created to "shrink" fibroids, that has also been shown to help against endometriosis inflammation and pain; as well as resultant swelling, scarring, clotting, constipation and soreness.
We wondered at the fact that many women will walk a mile, or two, like literally, to support "highlighting" a problem, but WILL NOT expend the same amount of planning, energy and devotion toward committing to adopting long-term, even little solutions that WILL help.

I will always quote a reader who E-mailed me during my newspaper columnising years: "It's hard to get the sisters excited about anything other than shoes."

It's not a true true statement, but there is truth in it. Re-read my last post, it's right up the alley of contention.
I definitely plan to blog-cover that upcoming endometriosis awareness event; because it's something, right, in a land where there is really not that much, comparatively-speaking, on the hidden epidemic.
I'll post pictures and everything.
Before that, though, I'm going to let you in on what is not a secret, but might feel like a secret because so many endo-women here, there and everywhere DO NOT know about it: THE AMAZING (and easy to do) CASTOR OIL PACK.
Next post for sure. ♛

In beauty may you walk (pun acknowledged)

Topmost photo by The Lazy Artist from Pexels

It's the Little Things That Will

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY!!!
I don't know if the commemoration means anything to you, but I'm always up for especially celebrating anything good and wonderful, and women sure are that.
Despite the fact that I suffer under this woman-disease, that has often laid me waste, even threatened my life, I LOVE BEING A WOMAN, and I wouldn't change that for the world.
Being also deeply spiritual, liberal feminist and humanist means I must always be for the educational upliftment and advancement of women and men, all people really: because love is at the heart of all these things I practice.

Fit to wear her shoes?

You know there is this thrust called Walk a Mile in Her Shoes (click on the link to learn more), that's grown hugely popular. I remember using an image on my TV talk show when it was just a starting up seedling: of men wearing pink and crossing the finish line in high-heeled shoes after walking a mile.
Now I see it's described as The International Men's March to Stop Rape, Sexual Assault & Gender Violence; thus it deserves all applause and support. I seem to remember, though, that early on, it was to support the fight against breast cancer, which is vitally important and should never stop.
What this has to do with endometriosis is I started today's post intending to write that if doctors, policy-makers, medicine-makers and others could walk a mile in endo-copers shoes, they'd work harder to help.
Then I realised that there are doctors, policy-makers, etc. who DO walk miles and miles in endo-sufferers shoes, because there are women in all these positions in the world today, and with the rate of spread that endo has, a lot of them have it.
Think about it: they used to call endo "The Career Woman's Disease."
Aside from that, there a millions more women and girls who have endo than have breast cancer and HIV combined, who are walking day in day out in their own suffering shoes yet are not being moved to do anything about fighting against this most common of female ailments.
What is wrong with us?
Maybe the problem is what is right with us: women are so strong against suffering; so holding on to hope; so often seeing the rainbow mid the rough clouds, so always putting the interests of our loved ones before ourselves that we just don't jump down the throat of some things even when it's killing us.
Time to STOP THAT SH**!!!

In beauty may you walk 😇

Photo by Jhaye-Q: Trinidad & Tobago Kiddies' Carnival 2018; sometimes we need help to "take our broken wings and learn to fly again." But we've got to keep pulling our own weight, too. It's what women do.

If an Endo-Woman for A Mile

THE JOURNAL of a thousand stories begins with a single word.

Unfortunately for endometriosis-sufferers that first word is usually PAIN. However, while pain may be the beginning of your endo journaling journey, it does not have to be the end.

The first word I wrote in my endo diary was, literally, pain. Then the dictionary definition. Then in the top left corner I wrote my name etc. (see pix 3 at bottom).

Why put pain first? Trust me, I did not want to; but it had so absorbed my whole life and it was the thing I most wanted to be rid of, that when I started to chronicle my endo issues it was really all about the pain at first.

If I was the heroine of my saga, pain was the dragon to be vanquished. But how? We learn these things from storytelling, right.

In chronicling my endometriosis, I hoped to gain insight into it, enough to help beat it back. Which is not to say that an endo journal should be all bleak. Like any diary, or tale, it would be full of all that adds up to life: the dread, the glee, the bittersweet.

It did what now?

It is like creating a word-map to see the facts of your endo, with everything dated, maybe even timed, so you will know exactly where you were when.

For instance: every time you try a new pain medication make notes on how it made you feel, its side effects, its effectiveness on a scale of one to ten. Then when you talk with your physician, it will help her help you.

I noticed that every time I was administered a pain shot the first and second time I was hospitalised, I would actually experience more pain after. I took note and described it to one of the young interns ushered in each day. She was able to then figure out that since this medication causes muscle cramps, it was actually wreaking havoc on my uterine muscles. So she changed my pain injection med, and instructed me to always tell this fact to any prescribing doctor afterward.

That's how it can work, big or small. You can record what happens to you every time you have a certain type of seasoning, like msg; or food, like lentils. How you feel after yoga versus high-impact aerobics. Then, looking back, you can actually figure out your approach to that thing.

Be as structured or casual as you want, just be sure to make your notes. I believe in writherapy: that putting something down in words helps, heals.

Pretty wise

Oh, and please, on the days when you feel up to it, have fun and aim for beautiful. Cut pictures and poetry, doodle with crayons, think funny quotes and stickers. That way, when you are going through your journal at the rough times, you'll come across entries you made that, like wind-chimes, can refresh with sudden sweetness.

You'll figure it out, and I'll make suggestions every so often, or your endo-sistuhs in your support group (starting one is a whole other post 😵) can share their ideas among you all.

And speaking of support, remember, there are burgeoning numbers of younger and younger women getting diagnosed with endometriosis, or going undiagnosed. So all these amazing journals, that we manifest now with our empowered selves, can be used to pass on insider information to those who walk in our wake and save them from suffering much of what we did.

How wonderful to know that we can help others by sharing our endometriosis recorded history.

In beauty may you walk

Photo 2: Don't shy away from something beautiful, especially because endometriosis feels so ugly

Photo 3: Inside flap, first word, PAIN

Photo 4: First page entries, after three months of debilitating pain.

Endo Diary of a Bad, Red Woman-disease

Sometimes with endo rough spots, sisterhood works best

THERE'S RESEARCH showing that ill people may become so attached to a trusted person or favourite item they instantly begin to feel better by being near that person or thing.
After years together I certainly attest to that sensation with my BBF (beloved boyfriend). He's seen me through the worst of my endometriosis, and that could be where the seeming magic of this phenomenon lies.
Another very specific surprising way he helped me feel better came in the effect from pressing my aching pelvis to his firm butt. Sounds insane?
There was something about the exact feel of his derrière, taut but not hard, with a lovely apple curve, that gave such comfort. I wanted to spoon him and press myself to his rear whenever I was in pain. (It was to his advantage, too, since he LOVES having his back rubbed.)

Holding on to help

Of course that was not always possible, so sewist, I designed a pillow that came close to feeling like my BBF's actual posterior.
I could have or take it with me when I couldn't be near him, and use my arms to press it to my pelvic area. It actually helped ease pain some.
Maybe it's mind over matter, but when you're going mad with hurting, anything that eases is something good. Sometimes the thing is actually bad, so focus on finding what's all-good.
Sometimes it's not a person or thing, but an activity you enjoy that can distract you from pain; enough so you truly feel a bit better.
I love reading so much it always makes me feel empowered and fires my imagination. So at times, simply reading about endo facts, remedies and help would give me a sense of relief. It was like being given fuel to "image" agony improvement.
If you have not done so before, it is time to start taking notice off what people, items or simple enjoyments have this kind of effect on you during bad endo bouts.
Here's what can help you track such things: a committed, comprehensive journal.
Next post for sure

In beauty may you walk

Photo by nappy from Pexels

Thought, full of you

Toward self care

In beauty may you walk

Better out than in

Flush for a cause

In beauty may you walk.

MINE OVER MOTHER

HER STORY VS HISTORY

In beauty may you walk

Arrest distress

Period neglect

In beauty may you walk

I will walk in beauty

JIFFY-FIX No. 1

Three’s Companionable

In beauty may you walk

Let’s meet this friendly essential oil properly:

CASTOR OIL PACK-UP AND DO!

In beauty may you walk

WHAT YOU NEED

In beauty may you walk

Photo by rawpixel.com from Pexels

In beauty may you walk (pun acknowledged)

Fit to wear her shoes?

In beauty may you walk 😇

It did what now?

Pretty wise

In beauty may you walk

Holding on to help

In beauty may you walk

In Knowing We Accept Light and Shadow

BLOG OF PURPOSE

Featured Post

Categories

Blog Archive

Popular Posts

Translate