We are all in it together!!

I just checked when I posted last on this blog and noticed it was almost three months ago and started thinking back on what caused this long gap between posts. Christmas is obviously one reason and I generally turn crabby starting Thanksgiving day because the whole holiday season and its attendant craziness as described by the media isn't exaggerated. Materialism and commercialism take over one of the most seminal festivals in the Christian religion and just listening to ads pushing every irrelevant vapid product onto more vapid consumers just puts me over the edge.
I was recently telling my husband about how an ad for cosmetic surgery during the holiday season talked about looking your best when you have visitors this holiday season and how cosmetic surgery would help.....it's the season before Christ's birth and all that gets you is looking good for visitors?
Oh that is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes the buying up spree that those four weeks have turned into.
So that itself sets me on edge but this year( funnily, last year too) January brought with it a vague sense of unease, physical as well as psychological . It might have been just Seasonal Affective Disorder, but I went off to my doctor and I've had a whole gamut of tests run which only pointed out that I need to control my sugar consumption, lose weight,exercise more, have regular Pap smears and mammograms.....meaning nothing is wrong...but my sense of unease persists....still does....
The internet being a fount of information, was an enormous source of trepidation as well as comfort and one thing that jumped out at me was the term peri menopause. PMS,Menopause were both common term but perimenopause was something new to me.
I read up enough to notice two things- the regular medical world does not focus too much on it. The alternative medical world composed of naturopaths and such embrace it. The years before menopause , anywhere between ten to three years before menopause is a time of change for most women where the cycles start getting irregular. The first time you hit twelve months without having a period is actual menopause, but you body doesn't come to a full screeching stop as regards your period one fine day, it lurches along and finally sputters to a stop.
So any change in your cycle, not just the frequency, but the very process, the length , the intensity and the surrounding physical and psychological changes can actually lurch along too- after all it is your hormones that cause them in the first place, and if the hormones are not in their usual groove, then their effects aren't going to either right?
Some women go through these changes very mildly, some, moderately and some- full blown crazily!!
I am sure genetics plays a part in how you go through it which is why I questioned my Mom about how she felt in her forties.I remember her being moody,very tired and kind of vague in those days and yes, she did say she used to feel tired and anxious back then.
Again, like I said symptoms aren't necessarily identical for all and that sent me running to my school mates, my compatriots on this journey called life...funnily it struck me that almost all of us hit puberty while still in school and  then went our separate way, but after twenty five years, when our female cycle is starting to wane,we are back together!! Whatsapp rules!!
So they are really good source of not just information( we have really good doctors in there!!),but a ton of emotional support, a shoulder to lean on, hands to hold on to when the going gets tough, a gaggle of like minded girls to giggle with and laugh uproariously at the vagaries of life , and sometimes,a couple of close ones who will get off whatsapp and text you to ask if you are ok....
So when the going gets tough, get on whatsapp!! But the you might not be lucky enough to have a group of ladies like I do!!
As for me, I've started yoga,workout a ten minute routine at home, take walks whenever possible( considering this is Portland, OR!),cut out carbs, ditch the sugar and generally keep myself busy doing things around the house or go in for retail therapy- believe me, it works!!!