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I celebrated turning 44 by spending six hours alone in the ER, getting diagnosed with two uterine fibroids! Weekday birthdays, am I right? My grandma: "only two? I had five when I had my hysterectomy." One's posterior and a little under 3 centimeters, so about the size of a grape, and the other is anterior and a little under 4 centimeters, so about the size of a bon bon. I also have a simple cyst in my left ovary, also grape-sized. Leave it to me to turn my unused uterus into

This is one of those points that I very clearly remember my mother reaching about 15-20 years ago. She flew to San Francisco, and splurged on a full Bare Minerals kit before finally declaring herself makeup-free, mostly because she had too hard of a time finding brands that didn't irritate her eyes and skin, but it was also too hard to find makeup that sat well on maturing skin. I'm learning now that it's not just "fine lines" she was talking about - perimenopausal hormone ch

After 10 years on them, my hip surgeon took me off my continuous low dose birth control six weeks before surgery this past December, and I never went back on them after that. So, I'm approaching the six month mark without The Pill. Prior to being sent over to orthopedics for my hip, I was sent to a pelvic floor therapist, who put me on Benefiber for my digestive and high cholesterol issues. I took Benefiber for a few months, until I realized there were cheaper, easier ways to

I took my walker into the kitchen last night to take my bedtime meds, and got halfway back to my bedroom before realizing my walker was still parked in the kitchen 😅😅 Guess I'm feeling better! That one muscle is still prone to tightening up, but frequent, gentle stretching and Robaxin loosen it up again pretty quickly. And, I'm off the Oxy! Down to just my usual pre-surgery pain combo, hooray!! Thankfully, at-home PT exercises are going well, because we're in the middle of

TW: weight loss, weight gain, dieting, food addiction, exercise & injury, weight loss medication, medical trauma & grief processing. Disclaimer - this blog is un-monetized, and I have not been paid to feature any of the products I have linked here. I just really like them and actually use them myself. This whole blogging my life experience thing is making me very introspective, which means I'm making connections as to why x and y happened the way they did... And I realized ov

If there's a word for 2025, it'd be "hygiene." All of a sudden, thanks to people talking about it openly on the internet, women especially are learning what no one bothered to teach us before. Which means we're beating the hormonal stank in ways our mothers and grandmothers didn't. But, one thing that all the hygiene influencers I've seen have in common is hair removal - they all shave their body hair. I stopped removing my body hair altogether after my last spine surgery. Th

tl;dr - no. That's me, just a few days ago. 43 years old and just past my half-birthday. No makeup, no filters or alterations of any kind, physical or digital. Selfie camera on my iPhone SE 2020. Mix of natural and LED light. Not saying I'm "beautiful," but my hair is awfully dark for being virgin, and my lines are awfully fine still. Say it with me, ladies - I DON'T OWE ANYONE "PRETTY"! "Pretty" is not my function as a human woman on this planet. I have a personal philosophy

I took my last birth control pill today for the next six weeks. Wish me luck 😬😬 I’m not even off the damn pill yet, and yesterday, I get a HUGE, nearly marble-sized lump deep under my skin on the right side of my chin. It’s been awhile, cystic acne. This is after getting diagnosed with roseacea for the first time in my life a few weeks back. I have the kind where the cartilage in your nose hardens over time. Good grief. Now, you may or may not remember back in the days befo