Chicks Rule!

I don't have anything in particular that helps with cramping. If ibuprofen doesn't work, try Aleve. If that doesn't work, try anything but aspirin. I found that our the hard way. You know, great for thinning blood, but not if you're a woman. Try some of the herbal remidies. I take valerian tea because it does relax muscles so it just might help with cramping. Don't hesitate to talk to a doctor because there's no reason you should have to live in pain. I am actually on Vicodin for chronic pain. My doctor was ok with giving out pain medication. He said that he guessed that most doctors under prescribe pain medication. The FDA guildlines for pain meds, especially narcotics, are very generous and the chance you'll get addicted if taken as prescribed is 4%.

So if you find a doctor that's unwilling to give you medicine that will actually help you cope in life, go to another. I have chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia (which includes, but is not limited to: chronic pain, weakness, irritable bowel syndrome, raynaud's phenomenon, irritable bladder, short term memory loss and difficulty concentrating) and the most valuable thing I've learned in all of this is that doctor's are just people. Just like me. They are not god and do not have all the answers. They can be condescending, but don't let them get away with it. Speak very frankly with them. Use direct words to describe your pain and how it interfere's with your life. Like "When I have my period, I have stabbing pain that makes it impossible for me to stand up straight and I'm in horrid pain." Let them know in no uncertain terms how it fucks with your life.

I tend to go off here, but I have no patience for doctors who won't listen and just want to get you out of their office. I didn't shoot off at the mouth at any doctors, but I did write letters stating my unhappiness and went elsewhere. Really I wanted to tell them to fuck off, but that doesn't do much good.

So yeah. Oh, something else they told me to do while in the hospital is take 4 ibuprofen and 2 tylenol. Together. At the same time. That does help with the pain pretty effectively, just take it with food in your stomach.

I hate the odor of blood myself. It grosses me out. Someone sent me the link to, what was it, thekeeper.com? Or www.keeper.com. It's this thing that's like the product Instead, but it's made out of rubber and looks a lot easier to insert. If you can get past the total awfulness of emptying this thing out and then reinserting it, it would be ok. It looks a lot healthier than Instead too. But I just have to get past the grossness of it all. Think of how many women use tampons and pads and how they're going either down the toilet or into landfills.

I just looked it up. KEEPER is what it's called and it's made out of rubber like I mentioned. The only problem is, what if I'm allergic to it? It's not exactly like I can say "Hey, this didn't work for me, you try it! It's been in my vagina, but don't worry, I washed it."