Looking less tired already!

The challenge for Day Thirteen of Writing 101 is to write about something you’ve found, in contrast to Day Four’s challenge to write about a loss.  For day four, I wrote about my loss of sleep.  Today I think I’ll write about how I found it again.

It’s only just happened, see.  Ever since my surgery in January, I’ve been having more trouble than normal sleeping – getting to sleep and then staying that way.  I thought it was just because of the hot flashes, because they’ve been awful, and worse since I stopped taking hormone therapy in April.  It wasn’t working as well as I thought it should, so I decided to try a different doctor.

The only hang-up?  I couldn’t get in for six weeks.

Well, my appointment was a week ago today.  I got a different kind of hormone therapy, in addition to a bunch of bloodwork which revealed that I have low estrogen levels (big surprise), low progesterone levels (again, big surprise), and low thyroid levels (that actually was a surprise).  I left the doctor’s office last week with a sample of Estrogel and a prescription for a progesterone pill, which arrived in my mail the next day, and I have felt loads better ever since.

It’s actually supposed to take a couple of weeks for things to kick in, but the progesterone makes me sleepy.  I take it at night, and it helps me sleep.  Suddenly, I have a lot less trouble falling asleep.  Staying asleep is so much easier.  I actually don’t look overly tired!  I can’t remember the last time I didn’t look like I’d met up with the business end of a 2 x 4.

My mood has improved, too – since I’m sleeping better, I’m not quite so owly because I’m not quite so tired.  Now if only I could get rid of these stupid hot flashes, I’d really be on my way to feeling like my old self again.

But that will come in time.  For right now, I’m just happy to be sleeping.  It’s nice not to feel so strung out.  And since I’m feeling more rested, my concentration has improved, too.  For instance, I’m writing this post while the boys watch Scooby Doo.  A couple of weeks ago, I wouldn’t have been able to focus well enough to string together a couple of sentences with all the background noise of the TV and the kids playing and the rain hammering the windows.  Yesterday I wrote three posts with the radio playing in the background, the phone ringing off the hook, and various other distractions.  That wouldn’t have happened a couple of weeks ago, either.

I’m glad to be feeling better.  I can’t wait to see how I’ll feel in a couple more weeks, once this hormone therapy starts to really kick in.  Fingers crossed!

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