Mittelchsmerz!

Yes, that is a German word. And if you are male and reading this, may I suggest you stop here unless you want to know more about your wife, your girlfriend or your significant other's monthly cycle.

Mittelschmertz is German for "middle pain." It is a term to denote midcycle pain associated with ovulation, a very common phenomenon. Mittelschmerz is usually on one side (the side that's ovulating that cycle) and is sharp and short-lived, lasting only a few hours. Most women would not consider mittleschmertz to be excruciating. Unfortunately, it's either I'm not like most women, or I have reached a phase in my womanhood when mittelschmertz makes itself more evident every month that it arrives.

Thank God for the three-day holiday in the Philippines this past week-end. Last Saturday I was doubled over in pain because of my German visitor. What a bummer. I had my day all set but I guess God had other plans for me. He wanted me to rest - the whole day. "Mittles" had me googling ovarian pain over the last couple of days and I came up with a wealth of sites related to this monthly "malady" if you may call it that. Man, I had not had mid-cycle cramps that bad since I was an adolescent! Some of the mpre helpful ones I found were the Mayo Clinic's explanation which I found pretty thorough and featured also on the
CNN Health site and also the e medicine site. However, one other interesting site I cam across was the early menopause site which has a chockload of information for women experiencing perimenopausal signs in the early 40s and late 30s. I also found a menopause forum (in of all places, a gardening site!) that was so loaded with wisdom and information and humor that i went through all 10 pages of it in one night! Whether you are in perimenopause, menopause, or in denial :) that you are - these sites are worth visiting if only for the additional knowledge that you can pick up for when YOUR time comes.

So after about 36 hours of "Mittles" visit, she finally left (thanks to Naproxen and countless hot water bags) and I was up and about today. I had a breakfast meeting at our local Coffeebean and Tea Leaf for a project and met some pretty good-looking Siberians (in the photo above) while I was there. Afterwards, H and I headed for the gym to bust some calories. I normally don't like doing weights but as I did them this morning, I realized that the moves really helped alleviate the stress I had been feeling in some areas due to Mittles visit - my lower back and my butt for example.. and I really felt great afterwards!

The afternoon was spent with the kids at the mall doing errands and then splitting up into mommy-daughter father-son pairs for one on one bonding time. This perimenopause stage is an intersting place (though albeit painful at times) to be in and you discover many new things about your body - both your strengths and your weaknesses. And in the learning process, as you struggle and try to keep those hormones in line, you hopefully become a better person. As they say, change is constant and you learn something new everyday. For now, I have no choice but to exercise more, take out certain things from my diet (substantially less of the "bad" carns and totally no caffeine!) Ill be trying this PMS tea which I bought from Healthy Options, drinking much more water and more soy milk, and beefing up on my Vitamin B and other supplements. Hopefully, Flo and Mittles will be kinder to me the next time they visit.
I'll keep you posted :)