Hysterectomy video 3. Post op 48hrs

I’ve now made it home and am laid up in bed hopefully to start my recovery! I’ll continue with the video diary during my recovery.

Hysterectomy video 2. Post op 24hrs

7.00am
I had my surgery yesterday at 12.15 and was taken up to the ward about 2.15pm. I was sick up to 11.00pm, when we finally found an anti-sickness drug that worked. Not a pretty sight as you can imagine. Once I felt better I told the nurse I was going to use my HRT oestrogen gel and she advised not to until I spoke to dr today. I explained I’d used it for nearly three yrs so intended on using it and I did. From what I’ve experienced so far, I don’t see the point waiting to talk to a dr when they seem totally ill informed and disinterested in discussing menopause and HRT it fully.

Hysterectomy Video Diary 1. Pre op

PLEASE RETWEET TO RAISE AWARENESS!
I decided to keep a video diary to record how my hysterectomy effects my menopause. I’m having my ovaries and cervix kept, so it’s removal of womb only. I’m already in n peri menopause and taking HRT. The effect of surgery on menopause  has not been discussed in depth, it’s been touched on very briefly. I had two consultations pre surgery one of which I requested to discuss menopause and HRT. It had still not been addressed fully to which I’m astounded.

Presently my HRT is managing my many menopause symptoms well both physically and mentally. Follow my diary to see how/if my menopause is effected and how menopause and HRT is dealt with post surgery.

Menopause Clinic! I’ve been to clinic! Part 6

For those who watched me as a women on the edge, trying to get a Menopause Clinic  appointment, I’VE BEEN.!

Part 6 (previous video clips on blog site in Part 1)

Fobbed off no more! Video Diary #makemenopausematter

When I originally set this blog up it was a kind of tongue in cheek story of a menopausal women. Thing is, menopause is no joke and needs taking seriously. I’ve been peri menopausal for nearly 6 yrs and I’m having the most horrendous time. 

I’ve decided enough is enough and I want referring to a menopause clinic to get this dealt with properly. I’ve decided to make a video diary to record my journey. Let’s see how I get on with getting to the clinic. The filmings a little rough but I know there’s thousands of you out there in the same situation as me and we all need to be heard! I’m very much on board with the #makemenopausematter campaign and this is my contribution to the cause. 

Wish me luck! 

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Maggie Oliver the Unsung Heroine......

If I do not spill out my feelings and thoughts today over this keyboard, I do believe I will literally implode with rage, sadness, hopelessness and hopefulness. Who would have thought that one Celebrity Big Brother eviction could stir up such a rage within. I'm just a humble single mum doing my best to raise my children the best way I know how alone. I hold no position of power or the ability to influence beyond my own front door, but my God what has stirred in me today seems irrepressible.

Maggie Oliver, a simple name one however that will be etched into my brain for ever. This years CBB theme is The Year of the Woman, a refreshing and fascinating format change to the usual CBB formula. Admittedly, I am a die hard fan of Big Brother be it celebrity or just us plain old civilians incarcerated. Usually I watch just for the intrigue of people watching, I'm not that fussed who wins. But last night was an eviction of a housemate that has seemed to rocked me down to my foundations.
Maggie Oliver. The police woman who worked relentlessly along side another woman to bring a stop to the grooming of girls in Rochdale. Why is she in CBB house? She's not a Celebrity! No, but if there were ever a woman to be celebrated in this house it's Maggie Oliver. This heroic woman fought against the odds to be heard and for the sake of young women that were being badly abused.  She was acting how a member of the police force should, she was protecting the public. And how was Maggie Oliver thanked? Well she wasn't, she was in fact forced to resign from her job in the Police Force. This woman was not acknowledged and rewarded or decorated for what she had achieved. She was shockingly shut down and silenced.

Now, in order for Maggie to be evicted from the CBB house fellow housemates had to nominate her. Maggie had no nominations from any of her housemates. She was given nomination as a result of housemate, Ann Widdecombe, winning a task and being given the power to relieve a housemate from nomination. She then had to nominate another housemate ,which was Maggie to the shock and disbelief of the her fellow housemates, and the viewers. Ann Widdecombes reasons were in my opinion invalid and hugely hypocritical. This however is not the thing that has enraged me and left me feeling all out of sorts still the following day. My problem is how CBB ironically exhibited how someone in power can shut down the power-less, and the irony of it being a politician over a (now) civilian. This i believe is more powerful than they could have imagined when planning this years theme.

Here's my massive problem. Maggie Oliver when doing her job was repeatedly hitting brick walls, attempts made to shut her down, silence her.  Thank God for Maggies bravery, persistence and tenacity for the sake of those abused girls. Maggie managed to create a crack in those concrete walls created by people with power and money.  She managed to create a space just wide enough to infiltrate the closed ranks ultimately making it near on impossible to ignore her and her colleague. She would not go away, Maggie Oliver was fundamental in the arrest and charging of a group of men grooming young girls. This in my book not took only astonishing guts but complete commitment to those girls, in her role as a police woman to protect them. This is what the police are supposed to be for, this is their role in our society.  It is a disgrace that she was batted away continuously whilst trying to for fill her job description as a police woman.

I have a close friend who was horrifically abused from a very early age for a number of years. She has never been able to do anything about it, she has been silenced, had her hands tied by those in power. After many years of horrendous emotional struggle she dug deep for the bravery to approach the authorities.  Initially she was listened too and a case opened only for it to suddenly be stopped in its tracks and shut down with a senseless excuse. If she had been heard by Maggie Oliver her story may be completely different now.  But there are not enough Maggie Oliver's and my friend along with many other children and adults who have, and are being abused are left with a voice that won't be heard. This makes my gut twist with anger at the scale of injustice.

The Big Brother house ultimately failed as being the year of the woman with Maggie Oliver being voted out 3rd.  Her presence in the house clearly flying over the heads of the voting viewers. Wether or not Maggie Oliver won this series is in my eyes irrelevant.  The relevance however is huge if this gives Maggie Oliver the platform to tell her story, exposing the abuse of power in places of hierarchy shutting down the powerless. The places that we are taught are there to protect us such as the police force, the army, the navy the house of commons, places of care for the young and elderly.  The tiny divide Maggie Oliver made could be the simple wedge that needs tapping on to blow these walls apart putting them under the microscope.

In these times of  'Me Too' involving movie stars, directors and the likes, surely the wellbeing and safety of our own flesh and blood, the child  next door, the adult living with the scars of mental and physical abuse is imperative. This is the time for the Maggie Oliver's in our society to be heard. Like I've said I'm no political expert, or activist I'm just a single Mum who's been drastically affected by a series of CBB, sounds ridiculous I know.  If nothing else comes of Maggie Oliver's visit to the house, Big Brother can be rest assured that the Year of the Woman series has got this woman's, and I pray many others, backsides up and down to the polling stations to vote again and again and again. The suffragettes fought for our right 100 yrs ago and this is bigger than Big Brother, this needs changing from the top and there's no more time to waste.

MENOPAUSAL FOG. FACT OR FICTION?

Now I've never been an organised Annie and have been known to attend appointments the wrong date but right time, or vice versa. I'd think that's what I'd heard/read three weeks prior and won't bother to check, that's how I roll, badly I admit. I am convinced that the menopausal fog exists. I find my self in the middle of a sentence when.....? I can be in mid flow and suddenly I can't remember the bloody word I wanted to use and instead of styling it and replacing it with another, I shall stand there stammering and stuttering, scratching my head 'What's the bloody word?', while the person I'm conversing with stands guessing as I shake my head vigorously, 'No not that, like that, but different!'. It can go on for hours! I'm aware we all have the usual, for instance going upstairs then standing in the bedroom or bathroom not knowing what the fuck your doing there is a classic. You know no matter how long you stand there, unless you run back down those pissing stairs, you're never going to remember. It's as though the bottom banister post is a memory jogging device and as soon as you place your hand on it you shout 'Bollocks, toilet rolls!'. At this point I usually knock the mound of coats and bags piled high onto the floor screaming 'If I've said it once I've said it a thousand times stop dumping your shit here! Hang it up on the pissing pegs!'. You then  pivot round and breathlessly head back up. Or, if you're like me you'll be sat on downstairs toilet with your knickers round your ankles ' bollocks toilet roll!'.

 Then there's trudging out to face the ordeal of the 'big shop' having spent a week practically adding goods to the list that I've placed on fridge, using a parrot magnet from Tenerife with its tail missing and no beak left to speak of (ha! do you get it, I surprise myself sometimes!). I even have a pen holder I've devised from blue tack, cat hairs, and something hard that I can't identify which pokes out the side (I thinks its a Cheerio but I'm to scared to stick my tongue on it to taste). Top tip, always place pen nib down as bastard pen won't work. I rummage through my 100 bags for life, picking out my favourites, the most practical. The one from M&S, its getting shabby but got the bottle slots in end, its a keeper. My Sainsbury's Xmas one with Rudolph on front, his nose no longer lights up but the bags broken in nicely making it flexible for when a speedy bag change over is required at the tills. Waitrose, well because its Waitrose even if it does have holes worn in the corners and only one handle, one likes to keep up appearances. You know, the favourites. I always aim for the supermarket between 10 and 2,  quiet time and offering prime parking. The golden oldies having been and gone up with the larks, and Mums are heading back in time for the school pick up. Of course I cover both of those categories but I'm a rarity, there's not many idiots who timed there child bearing as appallingly as I.  Once parked I remove my precious trolley token hidden away in the back of the disused ashtray behind a euro, hairy hair bands and half melted wine gum. All of which are strategically placed to stop sticky fingers trying their luck (sticky fingers, wine gum, do you get it? I'm on fire today!). So, I've got my trolley I'm armed with my fave shopping bags, I've got my parking hot spot......hold on. I'VE FORGOTTEN THE EFFIN LIST. I then have to shop unguided, needless to say we lived on Tena Lady and Nutella that week. Still, least it will shake up the kids packed lunches. Now, many may say that all this happens all the time, and it does, but only as you get older!

 Another thing I've become aware of is I can not concentrate on anything. A film, T.V, reading a book,even listening to my children talking to me which is a rarity. Eagerly they'll be sharing an exciting event which happened at school where apparently fuck all happens, ever, when I ask. But recently I find myself secretly thinking hurry up your boring the shit out of me and I can't keep this interested nodding act up for much longer (don't you lot make out it's just me). In fact I've got to the point where I only read magazines full of tat, the longest story line I can handle on a screen are the telly ads.  Maybe my patience levels have now dropped down to zero. Maybe nothing holds my attention as I am now at an age where I am so wise and knowledgeable that nothing is interesting or stimulating enough for my brain to retain! By Jove I think I've cracked it! This is not menopausal fog this is self awareness, self appreciation, self indulgence! Nothing else matters except me and its about fucking time, it's only taken me 49 yrs (50 this yr!) to realise it! 

Back soon Mave x

P.S. Or rather note to self, need toilet roll and Tena ladies.