MIDDLE-AGED WOMEN 40-60ish
Comments
-
Juanelle that just made me laugh out loud, perhaps I better not clean my mind up either!
0 -
I was 26 at the time my baby was born. He has 4 months and three days left at home. I am so looking forward to empty nest syndrome.
Went for my physical today. I have had a problem with my eye for 4 days, it is twitching every 5-10 minutes. My GP says she wants me to go see my opthamologist so he will get me aproved for an MRI. Has anyone else had a "twitch' that lasted over four days? Did it go away on it's own. I was hoping the stress of scheduling an MRI would scare it straight, but not so lucky yet. My GP was very supportive on getting my VitD levels up. That's a relief.
0 -
meece--I'm betting the eye twitch is not bc related. There are nerve irritation syndromes that cause eye twitching, Stress can cause it. I've got an eye twitch that predates the beast, never had it for days continuously, but have had it intermittantly for up to 2 weeks. It's just a stress reaction for me
Ohamahagirl--. I laghed and the mind washing idea, too! I'd be afraid of shrinkage, and then where would I be?
cookiegal--where in Maine are you? Where are you getting treatment?
0 -
NativeMainer, yes it certainly could be stress. I woke up at 3 this morning and dozed irregulary until 4:30. When I finally decided to get up I thought "maybe the twitch has gone away." Nope I have already had a couple of bouts of it. I tried to get in to my Opthmologist, but they have no appts open this week. I have a referral from my GP for a different Opth, so I will try that one today.0
-
Sorry about your eye twitching Meece. I also have one that pre dates bc. If I hold it down for a few seconds it goes away. It may come back a time or two but eventually it goes away and stays away for a while. Hope it gets better for you. Good Luck at the Opth.
0 -
Meece-I get twitching eye when I am fatigued.
NM- I live in NYC, but was in Bangor during 2006.
0 -
I'm a big cheerleader for magnesium for things relating to muscles and cramping, so maybe it could help an eye twitch if it's a little muscle spasm. If it's a nerve thing, that probably won't help.
0 -
Speaking of magnesium have any of you tried the "Naturally Calm" product it is a powder and you add it to hot water at night like a tea, my chiropracter gave me a sample and then I bought it at the health food store. It is great for muscles, sleeping problems and regularity. I was having a lot of muscle spasms and it really worked well to counteract the Arimidex.
I used to have eye twitches for day's it is so annoying!
0 -
What are the ingredients of Naturally Calm?
0 -
Wow, Meece - when I was 21, I was totally not ready to be a mom, nor did I have anyone in my orbit with whom I wanted to make people. I spent most of my 20's enjoying personality changes, and a wild assortment of college majors before finally choosing one and graduating. Then I met the man I ended up marrying in 1988 when I was 25. Took us four years to get married (travel jobs and we originally lived in different states) and another couple to start reproducing. I was totally happy about being an "old mom" (31 and 33) I preached the virtues of that path until just last year when it turned out that perhaps I created a monster by letting my boobs age too much before allowing them to finish maturing via pregnancy and nursing... Can't go back, can we? I still know I would've been a terrible mom in my 20's.
My husband had testicular cancer in 2000 - it appears to be totally gone. We've discussed how if one of us has some sort of recurrence, we're going to give up our life of conservative behaviors and start cliff-diving and bungee-jumping and skydiving...
I don't need "Naturally Calm." What I need is something for daytime - "Preternaturally Alert," perhaps. Anything like that at the health food store? My energy and mojo appear to be under the sofa somewhere, embalmed with the dustbunnies...
0 -
Hi Meece - I have had the worst eye twitching forthe past couple weeksalso- i did watch and think it gets worse when I'm stressed - Valerie0
-
Naturally Calm is all magnesium and then I suppose there are inactive ingrediants also. I don't have the bottle with me. I just went to this little Mom and Pop Nutrition Store here in Omaha and they know everything, and the woman was just telling me I should take the liquid vegetable chondroiten for my achy bones due to the Arimidex, and she gave me a booklet on supplements and breast cancer what has proven to be helpful and what to stay away from. I will read it later and share if I find anything great!
0 -
Wait, I used to take Naturally Calm to help with depression and sleep! I had forgotten that one, I'll need to get some more next time I'm in the Natural Food store.
cookiegal--I live in Etna, just outside Newport, used to work in Bangor!
kleenex--I used to use a ginsing product to help with energy/alertness during the daytime. It came in little, single dose bottles lined up in a box about the size of a box of chocolates but thinner. Can't remember the name, I do remember it had oriental writing (Chineese? Japaneese?) on the package in addtion to English. While it didn't taste horrible it didn't taste good either. I do remember that it worked really well for a while. Don't remember if I stopped using it because I didn't think I needed it anymore or if I couldn't find it for a while. I did see it in the Health Food store a couple weeks ago, so it's back.
0 -
Oh, my, gosh! I just watched 6 doe walk through my backyard, in the rain! I just love these simple days...
0 -
That sounds beautiful, smithlem.
The twitch is still plugging along. I started to write the time of each twitch this morning, so when I called the opth at 10 am I could tell him how frequent it was. From 7-10 it was every 2-4 mintues. I stopped writing once I got the appt. but it is still acting up. I really thought it was stress and getting in to see a dr. would releive it and it would go away. I told my mom I was getting tired of all the cute young men following me because they thought I was winking at them. My regular opth. wouldn't give me an appt. this week, but a total stranger gave me an appt for tomorow afternoon.
I have got to get some of that Naturally calm. At my physical yesterday, my GP said it sounds like I have a primary sleep disorder which, if we fix it, could lead to better health all over.
0 -
Now there's a subject that I think is at the root of a whole bunch of health issues: SLEEP. As in not getting enough. Just in reading through different threads on here, so many women are having trouble sleeping. Some have trouble falling asleep, but I can easily do that; only I'll wake up two or three hours later and can't get back asleep. I thought it was middle-aged aches and pains that kept waking me up. Now, I know melatonin production drops off as we age so that doesn't help. Some days I know I don'tr even get enough natural daylight to keep my circadian rhythm in order. I probably have not had more than a few good night's sleep in the past 20 years. I've tried a few sleep aids, to limited success. What I'd give for a couple good nights in a row!
[p.s. The stuff that is in Tylenol PM is off limits to those of us on Tamoxifen.]
0 -
My three best sleep aids at the moment (LOVED Benadryl, bummer that it interferes with Tamoxifen - it was working great, probably by blocking Tamoxifen's effectiveness and dimming hot flashes!):
(1) Melatonin - big drum of pills from Costco w/ "natural anti-anxiety" herb added. Sometimes this results in weird dreams, but is that due to the Melatonin or to the fact that if I don't sleep well, I don't even get to HAVE dreams, whereas with the Melatonin I might sleep well enough that my poor deprived brain finally whips up something bizarre???? Still worth it for the relaxation.
(2) A mild anti-anxiety med I got when I was a "flight risk" when I opted not to have a bilateral but before I scheduled a lumpectomy
. Works great, but fuzz-brain on day 2 can be an issue, so I do this perhaps once a month.(3) Exercise! I hardly ever get my act together to get enough, but when I do, I sleep MUCH better!
NativeMainer - the little "shot" bottles of ginseng almost sound illegal... yet intriguing...
0 -
Sleep has been such a problem. I can get to sleep for the first couple of hours too and then wake up and can't get back to sleep until about an hour before I have to get up for work. If DH is snoring then I'm really in trouble! The only thing that has worked is a low dose of xanax - calms my racing mind down enough to sleep. I think I'll try the Melatonin and see if that works for me since I hate taking yet another prescription drug (xanax). Then to stay alert at work the next day, I spend all day drinking iced tea and caffeined beverages. Hmmm, lack of sleep, Rx meds, and caffeine - not an ideal healthy life style!
0 -
I have the same problems, no trouble going to sleep, but wake up after several hours and watch TV for a couple. Normally I get up at 4:30, so if I am in bed at 10:00 that doesn't give me much rest. I did ask the Onc for some Ambien and it seems to be helping. I still get up and go to the bathroom, but can right back to sleep. I think that is why I am feeling better this week. When my kids were at home, they would let me sleep for about 15 minutes, then come in and tell me they needed money or whatever in the morning, then I was awake for the rest of the night. I started taking Benadryl back then and since I have allergies, I still can take it. But it doesn't work like it use to. I am glad to know I am not alone on something else.
Juannelle
0 -
My GP prescribed an anti-depressant to aid my sleep. She said it really wouldn't affect my mood at the dose she wants me to take. I am trying it out for two weeks. Tinight I took 1/2 tab. I will take it that way at 9pm for one week and up to a full pill for another. If it works, I can go up to two a night. she said it could make me jittery so we'll see. I look forward to a good night's sleep. I haven't slept well since chemo. I keep a Nintendo DS on my night stand, so I can play Soduku quietly when I wake up, and it dosen't disturb DH.
0 -
meece sounds like trazadone
even the tiny slep dose did help mood
0 -
I think that is the name of it, but I didn't want to get out of the bed and look. My mood is not really bad. I just don't feel great.
0 -
I have been taking Restoril for about 6 months. I was taking Ambien before, but I started to get headaches every morning. Tylenol PM makes me "jumpy" when I just start to fall asleep and Benadryl does next to nothing. I slept off and on through chemo because the hot flashes were terrible. Full blown chemo-pause. After my hysterectomy w/BSO I thought it couldn't get worse...wrong. I have trouble falling asleep and staying asleep. Last weekend I was visiting my daughter and thought I'd try and go off of the Restoril. Two nights of lying awake with hot flashes and I remembered why I take the darn sleeping pills. I was exhausted by night three and took one. I still wake up a few times at night but it's better than being awake all night. If I can go 5-6 hours without waking up I am thrilled.
0 -
Sleep!!! I've been up for an hour playing Farkle on the computer and checking in here. I actually sleep with a light on (probably caused my cancer, I know...) and read until I doze off. Then when I wake up, I can usually go back to sleep by reading again. My DH sleeps with an eyemask and I sleep with ear plugs! hehhehehehehe
0 -
Funny, Barbe. When I was going through chemo and rads, I slept with the t.v. on. hat way when I woke up, I had built in entertainment.
Well my first night on sleep meds and I still woke up quite a few times, but I was able to go back o sleep fairly quickly. I guess my trip to the opth today will still be worth it, because day six and my eye is still twitching.
0 -
Let us know what the opthalmologist says is the cause Meece, since so many other ladies have had bouts of this eye twitch. I have the same reaction on the sleep meds. I STILL wake up, but they make me mentally groggy so I can get back to sleep. I tried Ambien, but it gave me rebound insomnia for a few days after I stopped taking it, so I ended up losing as much sleep as I had gained. I did not want to commit to long term use on it.
Otherwise, I think I am similar to one-L where I need to get up and stare at a t.v. screen to "relax my mind" again. I have seen about ALL the "Law and Order" episodes this way. And that is A LOT. Have to stay away from the 4 a.m. informercials, too agitating; plus I might end up with a ShamWow! I have the snoring husband sleep-blocker going on too, and now compounded by the "midnight creeping" of the teens in the house, which goes way past midnight. Then, sometimes, doggy barking in the early a.m., so forget about sleeping in if that happens.
Melatonin does seem to help. I did get some vivid dreams on it (which I enjoyed.) That seems to keep me drowsy in the mornings til nine o'clock or so. I tried to take it earlier, but then fell asleep earliler and still had a drowsy morning. I have seen Melatonin listed as both something that could be used with Tamox. and as something that should not be used with it. Has anyone followed this very much?
0 -
I use melatonin to help with sleep, have for a long time. It doesn't interfere with tamoxifen as far as I can determine, and some reserach shows that larger doses (20mg) actually have some anti-bc activity, too. 20mg makes me too groggy in the daytime, but 10-15mg helps me get to sleep and stay asleep for up to 3 hours and get back to sleep after an hour or so when I wake up--vast improvement over taking hours to get to sleep, waking up after 1 or 2 hours. The day time grogginess went away after a week or so. I'm not sure if I got used to the melatonin or if I got caught up on lost sleep. Whatever, I'll take it.
Someone mentioned exercise--and I've found that days I'm more active I do sleep longer in one stretch. I suppose that means I ought to work harder on getting exercise. I love to walk, but with the snowbanks on the roadsides that's not the safest thing to do, not to mention wind chills of -20 predicted for today. Gotta dig out the balance ball and the DVD's, I guess.
0 -
The old "fresh air and exercise" does tire me out too, but sometimes I'm more achy after exercising. I'll still do it to stay fit, but the joints want to act up afterward. My sleep goal is to get 5-6 hours of uninterupted sleep (then maybe doze for some more throughout the night.) I am sure I do not get enough of the Stage 3 and 4 deep, restorative sleep. Sleep is where Stage 4 is a GOOD thing to have, unlike our usual B/C terminology.
I rarely meet my sleep goal.
0 -
I agree - sleep goal is 5-6 hour uninterrupted. I too need the TV on to relax and go to sleep - I've been watching Roseanne reruns all night. I'll take the suggestions for ear plugs to block my sweet DH's snoring and maybe that will help (along with the melatonin). I must admit that I only woke up three times last night and got right back to sleep - ahhh, maybe it was the two glasses of wine I had with the xanax before went to bed?? I'm a very bad girl.
0 -
Elimar: You cracked me up with your description of nighttime TV. I used to work night shift and if it was slow I would end up watching "Law and Order"- -I don't think I ever watched it otherwise.We actually have a ShamWow--LOL.Got it at Walmart though:) And my husband is a major snorer too-in denial I might add. I don't have teens in my house but for some reason my 10 yr old came into our room last night because she was having trouble sleeping....guess I'll have to try for a nap today! I don't know too much about melatonin but i'll be interested to see what you find out. TCK0
