I look back over the decades since becoming an adult. There wasn't really anything special about my 20th birthday. Ringing in my 20s just wasn't a big deal because I was living in New Orleans. I was going out with friends, getting drinks on Bourbon Street, having the time of my life. I actually turned 21 in New Orleans and was disappointed as most of the people kept reminding me that they were using my birthday to pregame for Cinco de Mayo. I jumped into my 30s by going sky diving with my mom. We did tandem jumps at 13,500 feet. It was amazing and I loved it! I turned 40 in May. Originally, I wanted to have a party. Nothing big and huge but a party nonetheless. 40 is a big deal right?
Color me surprised when I wake up one morning and realize that I don't want a party because a) I don't want to scrub my house for people to come over and b) I don't want to clean up when people leave! I wanted to be left alone and I was. My daughter would try to come to me for some reason or another and my husband would swoop in and take over. It was about this time that I had been dealing with my ears for about a month (side note I got a nasty ear infection around Easter and was dealing with fluid in my ears) and all of a sudden I realized that I was no longer okay with just feeling okay!
What does that mean? Well I went to my doctor and told her that I wanted a referral for Gynecology to talk about my hormones and perimenopause, radiology for my mammogram, and GI for the hemorrhoids I got when I was pregnant to be taken care of. Oh and my ENT gave me a referral for physical therapy for my jaw since we ruled out that my ears are not what has been causing my right ear to feel like it's constantly plugged and needs to pop.
As I approach almost 2 months since I turned 40, here's where I'm at. I have had 2 mammograms. The second being a diagnostic imaging with ultrasound and that was because I had no images to compare to and this is very common. If you're not 40 or have never had a mammogram before, be prepared to have to schedule another one and also ask if you need the referral to include an ultrasound because mine didn't and they had to wait for 2 hours after my diagnostic images were done to get the approval from my doc because of training the office was in (my primary doc not the radiology office). Now I'm good until December when I'll have another diagnostic imaging mammogram and as long as everything looks good, I'll be back to only annual unless something looks off in the future!
I've had 1 physical therapy appointment for my jaw. While I wish I could go once a week or every other week, here's the issue. They are 1.5 hours away from my house. That's at least 3-4 hours round trip, plus the 1 hour appointment, the gas to get there and back, oh and apparently it's a $40 copay also (which I didn't know about and shouldn't have). Odds are, I'll only be going once every month.
I talked to my gynecologist about perimenopause and had blood work done to check my hormones. I told her that if I am one of those women who has loved having an IUD but getting rid of it will help me drop weight, sleep better, get some energy back, and feel normal, I'll gladly resume my period especially if it makes the constant sweating stop! While all of my results came back in the normal range, a few were on the lower side. We discussed all the different routes that could be taken and have settled on a low dose estrogen pill and that should hopefully help with the hot flashes! That's the thing that drives me nuts the most!
I went to the GI doctor. She confirmed that I do, in fact, have external hemorrhoids but unfortunately she does not handle those BUT wants me to get a colonoscopy to make sure that there's nothing inside causing any issues...YEAH!!! So that is scheduled as well as the appointment with the colorectal surgeon to discuss the hemmies (as I love to call them).
If you're waiting for the go ahead to talk to the doctor about all the things, here is your sign! We do not need to be okay with just being okay! I'll keep y'all posted as things continue to get checked off the list!
