I originally started this blog with the idea it would be more focused on Adenomyosis. But as my condition has progressed over the years, I found I don't enjoy my writing when I'm in the throes of dealing with it all. Not only is the pain distracting and makes it difficult to concentrate, but I just come across sounding like a grumpy, self-deprecating, angry little gnome and/or my self-esteem is so in the toilet that everything I make or do never seems good enough or worthy of posting.

But this last period, I started drafting this list of things I was grateful for instead. And upon re-reading it now when my period is on her way out and the feel-good chemicals are hitting my brain again, I was even able to edit out some of that grumpy gnome who takes over my writing voice.

6 things getting me through this terrible period:

My weighted giraffe

I'm not sure when or how this giraffe came into our house, but I recently found it among my kids' piles of stuffed animals they've collected over the years. It's weighted and scented and meant to be put in the microwave and used in place of a heating pad, but I started using it on top of my heating pad on my uterus most days now as an extra compression component. It also props the phone up when I'm in bed. I don't have any info on the exact maker, but it seems Warmies is a similar brand.

Should I name my Giraffe? We’ve gotten pretty close over the last few weeks …

Therapy

My mom hasn't been doing well lately, especially since my dad died in January. She's not easy to deal with and I have a complicated relationship with her that very few people really understand and there was intentional and unintentional mental and verbal abuse I'm still working through. It got to the point where I was having anxiety attacks regularly after dealing with it so I took advantage of a program through my husband's work that includes 8 free therapy sessions each year. I started working with a therapist earlier this summer who is familiar with anxiety and ADHD in adult women, as well as bipolar disorder (my mom). I intentionally sought those specialties out and I'm so grateful to be able to find someone who could speak about them specifically and not just in broad or dismissive terms.

My therapist is great and she’s quite different from some of the generic CBT therapists I’ve seen in the past. I've gotten to try nature therapy and hypnosis and can now add those to my tool bag of mental health self-care. My therapist helped me work on setting healthy boundaries (keyword: "healthy"). I'm also grateful for telehealth and being able to talk from the comfort of my office/studio — it gave me that brutal honesty truth serum that podcasting and being on a mic seem to bring out of me!

SpecStick

As much as I love my Pair Glasses and Toppers, the New England humidity in the summer and the sweat it produced on my face meant they were slipping down my nose irritatingly often (and obviously PMS/period grumpiness added to the frustration). And then I remembered something I saw on Shark Tank. This lip-balm-sized stick is a type of odorless wax you put on the nose grips or inside the bridge of your glasses to help. Once I got it, I was surprised how well it worked. I noticed I needed to reapply every few days, but it's easy enough to keep with me and super convenient! (PIC OF SPECSTICK)

Goblin Tools

I wrote about the Goblin Tools app last month, but this time I'm writing about the Judge feature. It's a feature in which you can copy and paste the text you receive to get a fairly objective perspective on it. It helped me analyze an email that had me so angry, I couldn't concentrate on anything else for the rest of the day. I ran it by the Judge feature to see if maybe I was interpreting it out of proportion and, while the email was emotionally charged, the rewrite by the "Judge" helped me at least see the original goal of the email. I may even be able to respond without dropping the F-bomb, which was why I had to delete all my previous draft responses.

USB Heating Pad

I finally have a heating pad for the car. This changes a lot of stuff.

My husband got a fantastic portable heating pad for my birthday that wraps all the way around my waist. It was fantastic, but the battery he got, while big and good for long stretches of time, was too heavy for the heating pad's pocket and would fall out frequently. This caused the wiring to get pulled a little too much and now it has trouble connecting. I really loved my portable heating pad for car rides and decided to buy a cheap replacement while I try to fix the other.

The cord on the new one is longer and I love that it can reach my car USB charger, which is where it's been plugged into for the last few days — and that's how I now have a Car Heating Pad, in addition to my Couch Heating Pad, my Bed Heating Pad, and my Desk Heating Pad. PS — I got the ok for a hysterectomy and I'm realizing how I've been dealing with this for so long, it's actually hard to imagine life without my heating pads.

CBD/THC

Thank you, Connecticut, for legalizing adult-use cannabis! It's the only thing that helps with Adeno pain and discomfort. Over-the-counter pain meds help with some inflammation and headaches, but I've found CBD/THC together to be the best combo for relief to be able to get through my day without being distracted by unpredictable pain, and the CBD helps minimize the psychoactive properties of THC so I'm not high as a kite all day.

So another period I've survived and one less period between me and the hysterectomy I'm counting on to bring much-needed relief I can't even fathom at this point.

That said, if these lists help others deal with their period pain, Adenomyosis, ADHD, or life in general, I'm glad and I hope others don't have to suffer as long as I did/am.

WHAT TO READ NEXT …

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