A painful weekend

I had one of the worst weekends I've had personally in a long time.  My cycle finally arrived, yay!  Not having a cycle since October has had me worried.  With PCOS and endometriosis, I knew when it finally arrived it was going to be a doozy.  I had been cramping for about 2 weeks prior to starting and knew my endometriosis was flaring up.  There is just a pain I can't describe with having endo.  It's certainly not anything I would wish on my worst enemy.

Saturday, I went to the grocery store.  I woke up in a cranky mood and really wanted to stay home.  We had had a majorly busy week and I needed food.  Frankie was working so off I went with the kids.  I had no more gotten in the car then the cramping started.  I just figured it would go away like the other times in the last two weeks and ignored it and went on to town.

The pain just kept intensifying as I shopped.  By the time we got done and got in the car, I was nearly in tears.  It was a full blown endo flare up.  I just knew I had started.  You don't cramp like that for no good reason.  We had planned on doing other things in town but I just headed home in a pain filled fog.  I didn't have any ibuprofen with me so suffered until I got home.

Once I got home and realized I had started I knew I was in for some rough days. With PCOS I never know how my cycle is going to be.  Sometimes I can have a normal (well, normal to me) period and other times its like it was this weekend.  The bleeding started that afternoon and boy did I bleed.  I was soaking two pads in an hour.  All I could do was lay in bed and moan and cry.  Bless my husbands heart, he went to town, got me a heating pad and took such good care of me.  He knows how quickly my well-being deteriorates when it gets this bad.  We've been down too many roads of blood transfusions, hospital stays and surgeries.

When you are laying in bed and you have taken a 600 mg prescribed ibuprofen and it is not touching your cramps, satan loves to attack me.  "Look at how broken you are", "If God loved you, He would heal your body and you would be able to have babies."  I have to admit I wasn't strong this weekend and the devil absolutely whipped my tail!  When you are in so much pain you just want to rip out your uterus, nothing can console you.  I knew so many THM ladies on Facebook might have some suggestions for ways to help with my pain and bleeding.  I immediately started asking online for advice on how to deal with my pain.  Here are some things I did that helped me tremendously.

I made a lavender oil and peppermint oil salve using drops of each with coconut oil as the carrier and rubbed all over my tummy.  I soaked Castor oil in flannel and placed it over my lower abdomen and put the heating pad over this for 45 minutes.  I did this twice Sunday and slept like a baby pain free Sunday night.

I also bought some bilberry and red raspberry leaf tea.  Both are supposed to help with cramps.  I'll have these on hand for the next cycle.  I love ibuprofen but it makes my bleeding worse.

The biggest thing I did to help with bleeding was to start taking apple cider vinegar. I take 2 tsp in a glass of water 2-3 times a day.  I started doing this about a 2 years ago when I was researching ways to help slow my bleeding naturally.  You ever been to earthclinic?  It's a great resource for natural remedies.  I can and have bled for 60 days before, so I know if it goes past a week of heavy bleeding, it's too much.  The vinegar was a life saver.  It will slow my flow in two days and by day 3 or 4 I am almost completely done with my period.  It's a miracle cure drug!

You may be wondering why in the world I am devoting a whole post to my period.  Well, it's a part of me and every other woman I know.  As I am on this weight loss journey, I know that it's going to take a long time for my body to heal.  I thought eating lower carb/sugar free would make my cycles somewhat normal.  My body is more messed up than I thought.  I know God will heal my body.  He has given me a brain that loves to research and find natural remedies to help myself.  I will get there, eventually.  He's my anchor.  My rock.  I am nothing without Him.  And He says in His word, that I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

NOT BROKEN

Take that devil!