Never google your health!

I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry. I've been trying to find some help with the symptoms of many paws - and if I see just one more article starting with 'Stay cool', I think I just may scream!

Warning: If I have any male readers: you might want to skip today's blog :)

Okay, so here's what I 'learned' today: Firstly, it's only officially menopause, when you haven't had a period in 12 months. Great! So what am I enjoying? Oh, Perimenopause! Which apparently starts years before the real thing! Uhm ... but then they go on to say how it normally starts in your 40s. Please don't tell me this will go on for another 10 years!

I've had a mild bout of this before, lasting a couple of months. Somehow, instead of 'leading up to' the end of periods, with me it's kind of a see-saw effect: it's either one or the other, never both. This 'bout' started when my period should have started ... and the 'hot flashes' come in waves, throughout the day and night. Although, at night it's apparently called 'night sweats'. It's only been about two weeks, but the sleep deprivation is already getting to me. There's a reason that is such an effective torture!

Anyway on a positive note, apparently only two more things I can do: 1) eat soy - apparently it contains natural estrogen, which has the potential to ease the symptoms (although, as far as I could see, the only substance to this claim is that Chinese & Japanese women, who eat lots of soy, don't report many symptoms), and 2) eat more greens. Other than that, I'm already doing all that the various sites recommend. Well, except staying cool, of course! Ha Ha!

But basically, all the sites say the same thing: don't drink alcohol, don't smoke, eat healthy, exercise, blah blah blah - the same they tell you for everything! Don't live life, and you'll have a long time to enjoy ... not living life.

Anyway, I also found a really lovely suggestion: I should eat dark chocolate, as the cocoa is better than the sugar in milk chocolate! Yipee! So, my nightly chocolate cups (which ARE made of cocoa) are 'medication', he he he! That cheered me up somewhat!

At home, I let my mippies out and had to carry Ziva back inside when it was time. She wasn't quite ready, yet. I tried one of the new sachets - and Ziva won't touch it! The other three had no problem, but clearly, Ziva doesn't take to change.

For myself, I cooked dinner! I took a tin of tuna - sigh, of course, first I gave mippies their treat - then a tin of peas - again, letting each mip sniff the pea to be sure I'm not being ugly for not sharing - warmed it up, added tomato paste & coconut cream, a bit of salt, some lemon juice: Sauce! At the same time I boiled some pasta, which I then added to the sauce and enjoyed a quite yummy dinner!

Why am I making such an issue of that? Well, I'd normally just slap a chunk of meat through the frying pan for my dinner! Tomorrow night, it will be a pork chop.

I actually slept through the night and was able to get up quite early! Funny thing, though: my male colleague got a night sweat attack last night! Giggle. No, he gets that every couple of months, nothing unusual about it!

For now, it's another day at the office ... hopefully without any episodes of The Office!