Angela
MemberNewcastle, 40. I lurk more than I post, but this place makes me feel less on my own.
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Activity (7)
May 28 · Replied
tried the cold water thing
Six times is a reasonable sample. I would keep a note of sleep hours alongside it, even just rough ones, so you can start to separate the variables.
May 28 · Posted
eight weeks in, what has actually changed
Eight weeks ago I started on a low-dose progesterone alongside the oestrogen I had already been taking for a few months. I want to write down what happened because I spent a long time reading posts like this before I made the change and found most of them either too positive or too vague. The first two weeks were unremarkable except for one bad night around day ten where I felt restless and could not settle on the train home. I nearly wrote the whole thing off then. By week five my sleep had changed enough that I noticed it on Monday mornings. I was arriving at work less depleted. I still have the same commute, the same desk, the same inbox. But I stopped losing the thread of conversations in meetings, which had been happening enough that I had started writing everything down as a workaround. What has not changed: my cycle is still irregular, I am still short with my family on tired evenings, and my weight has not shifted. I have a review in three weeks. I am keeping a short log so I do not walk in and say everything is fine when it is only mostly fine.
May 27 · Posted
sleep has been the main thing lately
Six nights in a row of waking at the same time and lying there for an hour before dropping off again. Nothing dramatic, just steady and wearing. I have started going to bed earlier to compensate and now I am just tired earlier.
May 26 · Replied
Three months on progesterone, the ordinary version
The Monday mood detail is interesting. I had something similar that I had not connected to anything in particular until much later. Useful to have it written down like this.
May 26 · Replied
What I am tracking this week
Ordinary is underrated as data. A run of unremarkable nights tells you something too.
May 25 · Replied
small thing that helped at work
I switched back to a paper diary for meetings about six months ago. It does make a difference. Something about the physical act of writing seems to anchor things in a way typing does not.
May 25 · Posted
finally made the appointment
I booked a GP appointment last Tuesday. I had been putting it off since around January, partly because work has been relentless and partly because I could not work out how to describe what was wrong without it sounding like a list of unrelated complaints. I ended up writing things down the night before. Sleep disruption, cycle changes, mood that I would describe as brittle rather than low, and a level of fatigue that does not match how much I am sleeping. I also wrote down that my running has dropped off, which matters to me and which I would not have mentioned out loud without the note to remind me it was relevant. The appointment was fifteen minutes. She did not dismiss anything. She ordered bloods and said to come back in three weeks. I do not know yet what I want to do with whatever the results say. I left feeling neither relieved nor resolved, just slightly less like I was carrying it alone. My commute home was the same as always. I noticed I was less tense than I had been going in.
Posts (3)
eight weeks in, what has actually changed
Eight weeks ago I started on a low-dose progesterone alongside the oestrogen I had already been taking for a few months. I want to write down what happened because I spent a long time reading posts like this before I made the change and found most of them either too positive or too vague. The first two weeks were unremarkable except for one bad night around day ten where I felt restless and could not settle on the train home. I nearly wrote the whole thing off then. By week five my sleep had changed enough that I noticed it on Monday mornings. I was arriving at work less depleted. I still have the same commute, the same desk, the same inbox. But I stopped losing the thread of conversations in meetings, which had been happening enough that I had started writing everything down as a workaround. What has not changed: my cycle is still irregular, I am still short with my family on tired evenings, and my weight has not shifted. I have a review in three weeks. I am keeping a short log so I do not walk in and say everything is fine when it is only mostly fine.
sleep has been the main thing lately
Six nights in a row of waking at the same time and lying there for an hour before dropping off again. Nothing dramatic, just steady and wearing. I have started going to bed earlier to compensate and now I am just tired earlier.
finally made the appointment
I booked a GP appointment last Tuesday. I had been putting it off since around January, partly because work has been relentless and partly because I could not work out how to describe what was wrong without it sounding like a list of unrelated complaints. I ended up writing things down the night before. Sleep disruption, cycle changes, mood that I would describe as brittle rather than low, and a level of fatigue that does not match how much I am sleeping. I also wrote down that my running has dropped off, which matters to me and which I would not have mentioned out loud without the note to remind me it was relevant. The appointment was fifteen minutes. She did not dismiss anything. She ordered bloods and said to come back in three weeks. I do not know yet what I want to do with whatever the results say. I left feeling neither relieved nor resolved, just slightly less like I was carrying it alone. My commute home was the same as always. I noticed I was less tense than I had been going in.
Likes & Replies (4)
May 28 · Replied to tried the cold water thing
Six times is a reasonable sample. I would keep a note of sleep hours alongside it, even just rough ones, so you can start to separate the variables.
May 26 · Replied to Three months on progesterone, the ordinary version
The Monday mood detail is interesting. I had something similar that I had not connected to anything in particular until much later. Useful to have it written down like this.
May 26 · Replied to What I am tracking this week
Ordinary is underrated as data. A run of unremarkable nights tells you something too.
May 25 · Replied to small thing that helped at work
I switched back to a paper diary for meetings about six months ago. It does make a difference. Something about the physical act of writing seems to anchor things in a way typing does not.
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Comments (8)
I could have written this word for word. The notes are there. They just don't read them. I've started saying 'it's all in my record' and waiting. Sometimes that helps. Sometimes it doesn't. x
Really glad you went to the GP with notes. I did the same after reading something similar on here and it made a real difference to how the appointment went. The brain fog has been the hardest part for me too, especially at work. Hope the clear runs keep coming. x
This is a big deal. Five kilometres without stopping after months of joint pain and mood issues is a meaningful marker. The bit about being kinder to yourself on pace resonates. I started doing the same and it changed how I felt about running completely. Good reminder that progress isn't always linear but it does happen.
The explaining-it-to-family calculation is real. I have started just saying fine and moving on. Not worth the energy most days.
Mine did this for a while. I started keeping a note on my phone of things to actually raise at appointments, otherwise I'd get in there and forget the whole list. The stiffness did ease off for me after a few months, but I never did ask anyone directly.
Six weeks of logged data is actually useful to bring to a GP. It gives them something concrete rather than a general description of how you feel. Whether they act on it is another matter, but it is not wasted information.
Six times is a reasonable sample. I would keep a note of sleep hours alongside it, even just rough ones, so you can start to separate the variables.
I switched back to a paper diary for meetings about six months ago. It does make a difference. Something about the physical act of writing seems to anchor things in a way typing does not.