My experience with BHRT begins...

My girlfriends and I graduated from college in the early 80's. Recently, my old college roommate went back to school to become a dental hygienist. We had a graduation party for her, because at this point in our lives, any excuse for a party is enough reason to get together! The last 25 or so years have brought many changes to our lives, jobs, careers, marriage, a divorce or two, children, and a few health scares for some of us. Needless to say, even though we feel like it was yesterday when we were in college, just a look in the mirror, reminds us that it wasn't.

In my case, my running times are consistently slower and more painful, recovery times are longer, I can't sleep through the night, my hair is thinning and my skin is dry and splotchy. I have hot flashes several times during the night and a couple of times during the day, at least, where I feel like if I can't take my clothes off I'll just melt away. This has played havoc with my youthful appearance, in other words, I feel like I'm looking older by the minute.



So when my friend Teri walked in to the party, she was a vision! She has always been beautiful, but like most of us, she has a lot of stress in her life. But that night, her hair was golden, shiny, and healthy, her skin was luminous, and she looked like she'd lost about 10 pounds. I just chalked it up to her taking good care of herself, but marveled at how beautiful she looked. We took a lot of photos that night and she looked like she was at least 10 years younger than the rest of us. The next day, I went on a 50 mile bike ride with my friend Syndi, and was complaining about my lack of sleep, lack of energy, hot flashes, blah, blah, blah. Syndi said, "You should go see the guy Teri saw...he put her on some kind of vitamins and hormones and she's feeling like a new person!"

Now, I exercise daily, eat pretty good, and have NEVER been on the vitamin bandwagon. I don't take anything. I've always said that I eat a balanced diet and should be able to get anything I needed from food. That taking supplements and vitamins makes for expensive urine.

Never say never.

When I heard that Teri had gotten relief from menopausal symptoms from this Doctor, I was ready to sign on. I called her to ask about him, and she had nothing but glowing reviews for "Dr. Mark". He has an anti-aging practice, and I promptly called to make an appointment. I spoke with his assistant, who described the process to me. He would do an initial, hour and a half, "interview" session with me, and would order a panel of blood tests. Then I would get a personalized "dossier" with his recommendations for me. I was ready for some relief yesterday , so I decided to go ahead and get the blood tests done before my appointment.

He ordered so many tests, they had to draw FIVE huge vials of blood. I'm not good with pain, but luckily, the technician was very good and I hardly felt a thing. When I arrived at his office for the appointment a week later, I was anxious to find out what he would recommend for me. But he didn't have anything specific to my needs yet. We spoke at length about my symptoms: Hot flashes, lack of sleep, irritability, poor exercise performance, slow recovery, bloating, loss of libido...it went on and on. I felt like I was a completely different person when I had to start labeling how I felt. When I told him that I knew I was getting older (49), and I realized this was probably just normal aging stuff, he promptly disagreed. He said, "With all that we know now about the aging process, there is no need for any woman to go through menopause." He also feels like our children will never have the symptoms we have now.

So I left the office, anxious to get more information. It took a little over a week, but I received the packet of information. My "Personalized Client Dossier" was about 30 pages of information, from my projected lifespan (current: 116.7 years-potential: 133.7 years), specific measurements (height, weight, bodyfat, etc.), goals and problems, an overview of aging, hormones, and disease, to a ton of recommendations for increasing my well-being and life span.

First of all, I'm not sure I have any interest in living to be 133.7 years old, but eliminating menopausal symptoms, improving my athletic performance and energy level, improving my hair health, increasing libido, decreasing forgetfulness, etc. are all things that I would LOVE to have happen.

Last week I received the five medications from the compounding pharmacy (bi-est, progesterine, Thyroid (Armour), DHEA and Indole-3-carbinol. I bought a few of the things he recommended from Whole Foods: Vitamins B6, B12, C, D3, E, Coenzyme Q10, Omega 3, Rhodiola, Melatonin, and Calcium Citrate/Magnesium. Now every morning I'm taking a cocktail of supplements. The benefits of each range from antioxidents/disease fighting, to prevention of stress and fatigue and increasing sexual energy.

Terri says to be patient. It takes awhile. Patience is not really my virtue. Especially when I've added such a large arsenal of pills to my daily life. I can say that after taking the hormones for a little over a week, I slept last night without a single hot flash. That is the first time that has happened in over a year.

As far as the energy...still out for debate. I did stay up after midnight the other night moving exercise equipment around in the workout room, which was unlike me. I'm sleeping like a rock, due to the Melatonin. Crazy dreams, too.

I will keep you posted. I think I should start another blog just for the crazy dreams I'm having.

My Facebook addiction

Nope, I'm not dead.

I've been in rehab, for my facebook addiction. See, this is the problem. I'll be just doing my mom thing, running H all over the place, and waiting for her to come to the car, and my iphone is there, just waiting, with notifications of all kinds of things...responses to my posts, old friends trying to re-connect, pictures of my friends doing whatever they're doing, old pictures of me that I have never seen before, status updates from H, telling me what she's up to (because even living in the same house with a 15 year old does not guarantee that she actually talks to you about what she's REALLY doing).

Or I'm at home, paying bills, and an email pops up with a notification. Or I see the "scramble" bookmark and think I have three minutes to do a quick round (which turns into half an hour at least...every time).

You know, just thinking about playing Scramble makes my fingers itch to click on it.

Seriously, facebook has eaten into my day more than any hobby I have ever had. It's good to re-connect with old friends. I actually had lunch with my friend Julie from college last week. We've both been here, in the same city, for over 20 years and have NEVER run into each other. It was so great to see her beautiful face and catch up with her.

I also got a message from a girl whose name I didn't recognize (at first), asking if I had worked at Opryland in the 70's, which I had. Apparently we worked together, she remembered me, and even had a photo of us from the Opryland YEARBOOK! Who knew there was such a thing as an Opryland yearbook???

I guess there was. Five points if you can recognize me in this photo.

Speaking of five, there are Five Clues you're addicted to facebook, according to CNN:

1. You lose sleep over Facebook

2. You spend more than an hour a day on Facebook

3. You become obsessed with old loves

4. You ignore work in favor of Facebook

5. The thought of getting off Facebook leaves you in a cold sweat

Anyway, I don't know how many steps you need for a facebook addiction, but when you can't get through a conversation without pulling out your iphone to show someone a picture, you're deep in it. I haven't reconnected with any old boyfriends, or neglected my family, but I have definitely wasted a ton of time.

So, first step for me was to stop trying to beat my high score on Scramble (171). I was doing fine, until my friend D. got to 182. Now I'm off the wagon.

Help!

Driving with a Learner's Permit

I pulled up to the gym to pick H up from basketball. She had been up until midnight the night before, cramming for two tests that she had that day. Then, after school she had an hour workout with the D1 trainers, lifting weights and sprinting outside, then an hour with the "Dr. Dish" working on her shooting. She was red faced and looked absolutely exhausted.

"Can I drive home?" (She has her permit, and ALWAYS wants to drive home)

"You look so tired, why don't you just let me drive you."

"No, I promise, I'm fine."

So I got out and walked around to the passenger seat. The side that has no brake pedal, even though I stomp on it whenever she's driving. It drives her crazy. There's also no steering wheel. It's a problem when you're a control freak mom who is trying her hardest to let go a little bit. But nonetheless, I think she needs all the practice she can get, so she drives me around a lot.

Usually I can't help but coach her through the whole thing.

"Slow down!"
"Pull out a little bit more!"
"Look both ways."
"Don't turn so soon."
"Look out!!!!"

But she actually does fine. She's very conscientious, remembers all the rules of the road, and if anything, she's too careful.

So we make the 3 mile drive home. When we turned onto the road 1/2 a mile from our house, I looked down for a minute to check my email. I looked up a few seconds later, and as we went around a curve the car kept going straight.

"H...., H...., H...., WATCH OUT!!!"

And she swerved the car back onto the road, apologizing over and over again. She immediately pulled over and started crying.

"What just happened?"

"I DON'T KNOW", she sobbed.

We sat there for a few minutes while she calmed down.

"Did you fall asleep?"

"I DON'T KNOW", she said. "I don't think so. I just kind of zoned out."

So in my most gentle, motherly voice, I asked her what she thought could have happened if I hadn't been there.

"I could have hit a mailbox, or a telephone pole."

I said, "Or, what about a small child walking down the road?"

And with that, she became absolutely hysterical. We sat there for awhile, and I told her stories-including how I pulled over and took a nap once when I was driving home from UT, until she calmed down enough to tell me that she didn't want to drive the rest of the way home. We switched places, and drove home in silence.

The good news...She didn't hit anything (or anyone), and she still wanted to drive the next day.

And most important...I think she'll think twice about getting behind the wheel when she's tired.

When your iphone is in the bottom of the lake...

When you lean over to help dock the boat, and your iphone falls into the FREEZING cold lake, you know it's dead.  But it's too hard to just walk away, when you can see it sitting on the silty bottom, about six feet down.  So, you find a couple of oars, and make a game out of it!



Who cares if it never works again...that was fun!

Benefits of Friendship

This weekend was another one for the books. H had a three day weekend, so we scooted up to North Carolina to soak up the beauty, and to spend time with friends. H brought a girlfriend, and J and I invited a couple, who have been our friends for 20 years to join us. It's so much fun for us to share our little bit of paradise with friends. H and her friend started chatting from the moment we picked them up at school on Thursday, and didn't stop until we dropped her off at home on Sunday.

J came up with S early to play golf, and T and I came up on Thursday with the girls. We played cards, hiked, read, knitted, laughed, drank good wine, and had an incredible weekend. Didn't sleep much, but I feel energized whenever I spend good quality time with friends. I think J and I learned about the benefits of quality friendships from his mother.

My mother-in-law is the picture of health. She exercises every day, eats well, has an occasional martini or glass of wine, and when she wakes up every morning she takes about 20 vitamins/supplements with a glass of orange juice. People who meet her are drawn to her personality. She looks at least 15 years younger than she is, and has the energy level of someone younger than me!

And she also makes friends everywhere she goes. Her friends are found everywhere...of course, her peers, her family, the co-workers from her job, but also from less expected places. Her hairdresser, manicurist, housekeeper, alterations lady, shopkeeper...are all considered friends to her. She will strike up a conversation with a stranger and in the process of five minutes will already know their name, family situation, and whether they need a job referral, or even a date.

If you ask most people, they would say that her "healthy lifestyle", the exercise, diet, supplements, and moderation is what keep her young. But a 10 year Australian study shows that it's the other thing, the thing that comes as easy to her as breathing, her ability to form close friendships.

And her youthful figure? Of course, her exercise and diet are considered key factors in keeping her in great shape, but a recent shows that her circle of friends can also play a role in preventing obesity. In 2007, the New England Journal of Medicine published a study showing that the risk of obesity increased by 60% when your circle of friends gained weight also!

And that's not all, Harvard published research last year showing that social integration with friends, children and neighbors delayed memory loss by 60%!

I've always felt that time with my girlfriends gives me a boost of energy, and even though I don't get to spend as much time with them as I did before marriage and kids, I treasure the time we do get to spend together. It's great to see proof that it's both physically and spiritually rewarding!

I wonder if the benefits of friendship outweigh the late night, oreo cookie-eating, red-wine drinking, chat-fests?