{ Day of rest, a Netflix show and more doctor appointments }

Good evening everyone, come on in and sit a bit with me.  I have coffee and tea and a slice of this delicious Portuguese Milk and Cinnamon Tart. (recipe on the food blog, if you're interested).

So, news.



Had my doctor's appointment yesterday, for my perimenopause.  Everything went well, and the plan is for me to basically skip my periods the next two months.  That sounds strange to say but I am on the contraceptive Ortho-Evra patch, and you wear it for 3 weeks, then remove it for a week and that is the week you will have your cycle.

The gynecologist wants me NOT to skip that week and to rather wear it continuously to see if that helps balance my hormones and give me the Estrogen that I am lacking.  We will try it for 2 months and then I'll go back and we will see how I'm feeling and take it from there.

In the meantime, I need to get some blood work done as well as a bone density scan.

Why any of these?

Well you begin to lose bone mass after going through menopause and it can start as early as your 40s if you're in perimenopause etc.  Osteoporosis is prominent in the women in my family and so my doctor wants to check my bone density to see if I've lost any bone mass already.  If I have we will start treating it now, if not, then we will also start with Calcium and monitor from there.

The blood work is because when you start any kind of hormone treatment, in my case not taking that one week off for my cycle, if you have high cholesterol or diabetes there is a higher risk of blood clots.  On my dad's side there is a lot of high cholesterol, gout, diabetes and so on so I usually get tested every few years.

I'm glad that my doctor is being thorough and covering all the basis, although I'm not sure how any of this is going to play out or if I'll feel ok with that extra hormone week.  Will be playing it all by ear and go from there.

Tomorrow morning I have to fast, drop my daughter off at work and then head straight to the lab for the blood work and then book my bone density scan.  I'll take my coffee and breakfast with me, because I know I'll be feeling slightly off after the blood test, especially when I've had nothing to drink or eat.

I'm sure everything will be fine, I wouldn't be surprised to see some bone density loss but I'm certainly not expecting it.  I'm pretty certain both the blood work and the scan will come back ok.

Back to my Tuesday.  Two days ago my throat started hurting, just on the left side, and I woke up this morning with the same issue going on, but with an added headache.  It actually feels like I'm coming down with a cold, my head has that weird pressure stuffiness going on.

Because my house is already clean, I gave it a good once over yesterday, I was able to sit back today, relax and watch a show on Netflix.

I started Unbelievable, which is based on a true story, that of Marie Adler.  Marie was brutally raped at the age of 18, and after informing the police of the rape, she was questioned, not believed and even charged with making a false crime report.

It is a very hard series to watch, it breaks my heart that any rape victim will have to be treated in such a manner, and my heart just went out to her.  Like I said, it's hard to watch but it is very good and if it's something that you think you would be interested in watching, give it a try. 

While watching the series, I also had a cup of hot tea with lemon, ginger and honey, and worked on the new menu plan.

I have so many Gooseberry Patch cookbooks. 

I started collecting them back in Arizona, anytime we went into Cracker Barrel my husband would buy me one.  Many of the recipes contained in these books, have become family favorites, not just because they taste good, but they're simple meals that you can get on your table without all these crazy ingredients, and let's not even start on the cute little tips each page contains.

Well friends, my tea has gone cold so it's time to top it back up with some hot water, take a motrin for this headache and watch some Star Trek with my husband, before bed.