I AM SOOOOO MAD, Headaches update

[JannaLee]

Yeah, I've been reading about HRT and trying to decide if I want to fight my doctor for it.

Apparently the thinking has changed in the last couple years as research has shown therapeutic benefit if the dose is lower and certain risk factors are considered.

The thing that is kind of stopping me is a study showing women on HRT tended to weigh more after a certain period.

I don't need any more joint pain!...and I feel like my fat fight is hard enough without adding to it, but on the other hand, if I felt better would I be more physically active?  And could the weight difference in the study be muscle?  They don't say.

Janna

[Katybarstool]

Hi Janna

I can truthfully say that Igained around 7 lbs in the first 6 months of hrt. Then the weight stabiised. To me, that is a small price to pay, considering I lost the hot flushes, the depression and some of my joint pains.

Interestingly, I have cut my oestrogen dose by 1/4 this past 10 days, as I wondered if it was causing an excess around my middle. For 4 or 5 days I have been feeling quite weepy, and my joints are beginning to flare. Tonight I'm going to increase again. The confusing factor in this past 10 days or so is that I have had a urine infection and been taking cefalaxin. So, with hindsight, it may have been a bad time to reduce. I will try again at some point in the future, but feel I need to keep as healthy as possible just now, so it's not a good time to manipulate hormones.

I think the thing to remember with hrt, is that a trial does not have to become permanent, so long as you reduce gradually.

Kathyx

[JannaLee]

Wow, Kathy!

Knowing that you experience less joint pain with HRT is extremely helpful to know.  I certainly understand that there is no guarantee my results will be the same but I'm really encouraged to give it a try.

I've been thinking I need this for the last year and a half but just don't have the energy to scrape and grovel for it!

Janna

[SassieCat]

Hi everyone,

Sorry I wasn't on for the last two days but I was out of it.  My heart has finally gone back to normal and I don't feel so weak as I was feeling. 
Now I just have to work on all the aches and pains, especially in my back. 

Thanks for being there with me!!!!

SassieCat

[irish]

I was "gutted" as I call it back in 1990---tubes, uterus, ovaries and appendix. My gyne started me on Premarin the day after surgery. I asked him how long I should take it and he said to figure out when I was going to die and quit 5 years before my demise.

I was on the premarin .625 for about 13 to 14 years. I can't remember which year I quit. All I know is that I got to the point where I felt like I didn't want that going through my liver when I was on so many other meds. Also, our fatty tissue holds on to the small amount of estrogen that our body makes even when the ovaries are gone. I have enough fat storage to hold me for at least another 10 years.

My estrogen level is very low when blood work is done but I don't worry about it. I am on antidepressants and I think that keeps me from getting to upset. Also, I have sweat like crazy years before my ovaries were removed and I can't tell any different. I just plain sweat a lot and have to drink a lot to keep my fluid intake up.

I don't know what to tell you gals that are suffering with your menopause. I do know that I have a friend whose doc put her on Prosac about 1 week before her period and the week of her period to keep her on an even keel. Guess it worked for her. It really is a crap shoot knowing what to do cause no matter what we do it is going to cause cancer. Good luck all. Irish

[SassieCat]

Irish,
I had complete 'gutting' (lol) eleven years ago.  I used to take premarin but for some reason my endo doc wanted me off and he put me on vivelle dot as it's plant based hormone more like our own. 

I sweat easily, as did my father.  I think I literally melt when the hot summer days are here.  I still don't know what I am going to do about the hrt.  I've been in a daze these last few days.  My bp goes up and down and still hasn't settled yet and I feel weak.  I try to get up to do something and I'm so tired I could almost take a nap and then I start hurting. 

Next week I see my heart doctor.  I skipped my last appointment simply because I didn't want to go.  Sometimes I get so tired of seeing doctors that I mentally just take a break from them.  I will have to change my bp meds from Coreg CR to a generic twice a day pill.  I just can't wait to see what all fun that is going to be.  I'm thinking I'll ask the doc to call in my Levoxil and throw the generic crap away.  I really don't need my system to get off kilter any more.  The fibro pain afterwards just isn't worth the stress.

I still had my appendix and gall bladder after my surgery.  I had a friend tell me, "they just took away the babies and left the playpen!"  thought you'd get a laugh at that one!

[Rostradamus]

SassieCat, just failed to two finger type you answers .Got shut off line ,this will be breifer. I'm studied in formal med ,holistics and herbs tutored all sciences and maths  ,all chemisties.over 30 yrs now .Helpful web sites formal and holisti c herbal, all in one in some cases. Medline Plus.com,  HolisticOnLine.com, PDRhealth.com, Drugs.com, WrongDiagnosis.com, . Hormonal imbalance,hot flashes, head aches, research; Black Cohosh, Dong Quai, Daniana, to start always cross referance 3 ways. For brai fog Gotu Kola, Ginko Biloba and Blessed Thistle, folic acid for bloob oxygen to brain. Before dagnosis I couldn't use things that would help me and often in the morning I was inchoherant. My Sjogren's is very severe, and my spinal vertabra are being desrtoyed, spine collapsing by unknown . Likely a rare lymphoma, I'm, one of the 6%. Hurt to sit more than a little but I've studied well over two thousand pages and much reseach. Even my own on the EXACT chemical triggering of autoimmune disease by a virus. Sjogren's Foundation administrater asked for my notes. I'm learning to type now. And Hope to get it out soon. Stuck in doctor referal circle. My case is rare, And in  southern California there are NO autoimmune clinics . Hope this is a Hepful start for you , want to do what I can . Herb books user friendly for srarters, Today's Herbal Health, the essential referance guide, by Louise Tenny, M.H. and The Little Herb Encyclopedia by Jack Ritchason N.D. Hope this post this time  I'm only good at coputer research. back screaming gotta lie done. More tricks later. Rostradamus
..

[Linda196]

Hello Rostradamus, welcome to Sjogren's World and thank's for sharing your studies and experiences.

As always I'd like to remind everyone that all alternative medications and supplements may have side effects, interactions with RX meds, and everyone reacts in their own unique way to them, just as we do to conventional medications.

Please discuss their use with your doctor and/or pharmacy, and research them thouroughly before trying.