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Late March Snow Ducks
For the past couple of months I’ve been sharing my experience with menopause. January and February were very low months for me. March was considerably better and April was really quite awesome. I’m beginning to feel like myself again.
Exhaustion and Hot Flashes
The exhaustion that had hit me so hard for so many months is now very minimal. I’ll still have an occasional day where I’m tired but not the extreme bone weary can’t move off the couch type of exhaustion. The hot flashes seem to be decreasing in occurrence and even seem to be a little milder. I suspect the Wild Yam has been helpful for this.
I made a Wild Yam tincture around the first of the year. I took it for a few weeks but then stopped thinking it was giving me headaches. Early in March I started taking it again with no headaches. But now I have a problem. Last week I went to refill my dropper bottle with Wild Yam and discovered the jar that the rest of it was in had spoiled. It looked like it had a SCOBY of some sort in it that was covered in mold. Very gross. I asked on my facebook page what might have happened and the suggestions were that either my jar was contaminated or I didn’t completely strain the particles out. Either way I am almost out of tincture. I’m going to make another batch but it takes six weeks. In the meantime I think I’ll do Wild Yam tea. I do plan on chatting with my acupuncturist to see what she recommends. I’ve made tea out of Wild Yam before and it does not taste good. If you take Wild Yam, how do you take it? I’d love suggestions.
Body Aches and Pains
Since early February I’ve been doing Structural Integration (also known as Rolf Method) for assorted body pains. SI is usually a ten appointment series. Officially I just finished appointment number nine and have only one more appointment to complete the program. In reality I’ve had 13 appointments.
I had so many aches and pains that we could do the regular schedule. Now I actually feel terrific. I still have a few small aches but nothing like what I was experiencing. In fact, I’m doing so well that I went roller skating last weekend. A few months ago there would have been no way I could do that. Most of my body problems are the result of an auto accident 18 years ago. Through research and talking with others it seems that it is common for menopausal women to have extreme body pain from old injuries. Another interesting thing suggested to me is that the body problems spurred the menopause. Kind of a chicken and egg scenario. Thinking of it in those terms, perhaps by relieving my body issues my menopause symptoms will continue to subside. I’m quite happy about that prospect!
The Structural Integration has worked so well for me that my husband has now started the program. He has had a very hard winter with working lots of overtime and shoveling lots of snow this spring (we’ve had more snow since spring hit than we did all winter!) and he is feeling it. Also, several years ago he fell out of a tree and landed on his back. It was a pretty big fall and he was fortunate that he wasn’t severely injured. He has had some residual pain from that fall and is hoping the SI can get him back in shape.
Along with the SI we are both taking Turmeric for inflammation. We are also going to add in Ginger. We were taking it and ran out. We noticed a difference combining the Turmeric and Ginger so will be adding the Ginger back in.
Mid April Snow Birds
Spring Plans
With spring on the horizon we are both looking forward to being physically well and able to do the things that need to be done. We are planning our garden (we already have the potatoes in the ground), reworking our poultry area and even considering getting dairy goats. I’m very glad to be feeling well enough to be excited about these plans.
Do you make tinctures? Have you ever had one go bad? What was the cause?
