like a phoenix..

I have been awake since 5.30, and up since 6.15, full of energy and surprising Mr T who’s already up for work.  This early awakening has been happening for a month or so now and I have to admit, I quite like it.  Extra time to sit and drink coffee and read or surf or wonder at the world outside my window before it wakes up.

The energy I feel on waking and throughout the day is complemented by sudden surges of fiery bodily heat that has me casting of clothes in all directions.  I appear to be arising like a Phoenix from the flames.

It is amazing to me to have all this energy, I am immensely grateful for it, especially at this particular time when I am packing and organising and having to be ‘on to it’.  I try to remember not to regret all the years spent living in the grey mire.  After all, I couldn’t fully appreciate how I am now with out experiencing the opposite.

In addition to all this unexpected menopausal energy is the fact that I am no longer able to drink alcohol the way that I used to – and that is so weird. I have gone from easily drinking the best part of a bottle of wine at a party with little or no ill effects to cautiously drinking one glass of wine because two will not only give me the start of nausea but also give me the hangover of the century.  Why does no-one tell you these things may happen?

What is even weirder for me is that if this alcohol intolerance thing had happened a year or so ago I would have been devastated – no more social crutch, boo hoo, throw my toys out of the cot time.  Now however, I feel quite calm about it and that is so odd – almost like I am on some kind of hormonal valium.

In my down time I am stitching and enjoying it so much.  Around 5pm, after dog dinner time, I seek my spot on the sofa, gather the fur babies around me, cue up what ever I am binge watching (at the moment it is The West Wing and The Great British Bake Off), adjust the Anglepoise and happily stitch away.  I have finished one piece  –

 

 

and working on another..

and trying to organise supplies of embroidery cottons, fabric and yarn etc so that I have enough to keep me going after everything is packed.  Then doing the classic of realising that I have packed something that I am actually going to need and then not being able to find which box I’ve put it in, grrr.

This morning I have dogs to walk and a fridge to clean before a prospective buyer visits this afternoon so I am off and running – hope you all have a happy, energetic day too.

off again..

We are moving again..

Only this time it’s not a little move, it’s a great big journey across the briny and back to beloved Wales.

We arrive on the 21st September and are being picked up by our good, kind friends Kath and Jules, who are celebrating their wedding anniversary that day, the wedding that six years ago in Swansea, I acted as best woman..  What a fantastic day that was.  And I had forgotten, I have enough problems remembering our own anniversary without remembering anybody else’s – yes I know that’s bad.  In my minds eye I think of their wedding as being in high summer, it was such a hot, sunny, beautiful day.

I have been having a hard time of it lately and I know that because now the hard time has stopped I can look back and see what it was through clear eyes and shudder.  Mostly I think it’s been to do with my thyroid medication.  Those of you who have been reading my blog for awhile will know that I have Hashimotos disease.  It’s an auto-immune disease where the immune system attacks the thyroid gland and causes fatigue, depression, weight gain etc.  To treat it most people take a synthetic thyroid hormone called Thyroxine, usually it works and people return to normal, for some the symptoms can last for a long time.  I’ve been taking it for years, but in the last six months, since I have been living in Carterton, the pharmacist has be giving me a different, generic form of the drug.  And when I asked about it they told me that it was the same thing – no problems and they wouldn’t consider giving me anything else.  So I took it and for months I have been feeling bad, crashing fatigue, depression (more than normal) , anxiety – constant tight ‘butterflies’ in the stomach and occasionally suicidal – oh yes..  I put it all down to ‘The Change’  good old menopause adding to my misery.

So about ten days ago I found a sheet of my old Thyoxine in the bathroom cupboard and thought – what the hell, let’s experiment. Five days in and I was feeling better and the last five days have felt like a major gift.  No depression, no anxiety, normal energy all day, and happy.

I cannot begin to tell you how good that is.. Moving is always a stressful time, especially when you are going such a long way – packing, selling, sorting the dogs for their health checks, rabies vaccinations and flight.  Trying to deal with everything with constant anxiety was awful – and now it has stopped.

I rang the medical centre yesterday for a new prescription which I will have filled in a pharmacy where they will give me the real deal.  I spoke to the nurse and told her of my concerns about the generic drug – and she was tripping over herself to tell me how right my concerns were, how many patients say they have had the exact same experience as me – honestly WTF?!!

I never thought we would be going back to Britain,  I just thought that this was it, we were here for good and tried very hard to just enjoy being here, and for the most part that worked.  I think that if Mr T wasn’t so home sick I would be happy to stay right here, but he is not happy and we are going and now I am feeling better I am getting so excited I could pop!  To think that in five weeks time we will be driving that beautiful drive from Swansea to Brecon and to our new home near Hay-on-Wye is just mind blowing, let alone seeing and hugging all our lovely friends who I thought we would never see again – it still feels really unreal.

I thought I would leave you with a photo of a visitor we found on our doorstep the other day – Australia may have way more fearsome critters than us but only we have The Weta!