The cardboard applicator! Noooo! And the damn patch instructions. Good thing for friends who can explain things CLEARLY. Why is everything so hard, Ally? Why are the things that are actually clear so hard for people to understand, and the complicated stuff is oversimplified? At least your voice is as clear as a bell. xoxo
Honestly, I stood there looking at the directions and the “Figures” and then staring at the patch and re-reading and having flashbacks to my first period and those directions!!! It would have been funny if I wasn’t feeling stressed out and vulnerable. What would we do without the women in our lives?!?! But it is funny in retrospect and we did have a good laugh and her results were benign!! So yay. And thank you and love you!!
I'm so glad the HRT helped you. I went through a period of the every-other-night sleeping, too. Maddening. I'm well past it, but sleep is still hard. Anxiety. I am trying to keep keep a slight distance. In enough to know what action I can take, out enough not to go insane. I don't understand either how his people are ok with all of this. I saw a couple of clips Aaron Rupar posted from his latest speech, and I'm still floored. That's your guy? Him? You got me excited, though, about Margaret's alternate story. You said it wasn't about that, but I do think that's a story worth telling... Thank you, always, for telling the stories that have the potential to wake people up. Love you dearly. (Also! Have you seen Riot Women on Britbox? This song! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FrnMl3UGfw)
..I loved reading this incredible recounting of your life..! 💫The truth, the troubles, the logic, the outcomes of all your efforts made me feel so proud of the smart and determined women we can be when given good input, bolstered with smart friends, and left to our own devices. I’m 76 now.. we figured things out too back then, but it felt like we didn’t have the success and outcomes we should have.. rock it to the end you amazing woman.. I look forward to reading and traveling these days to come with you!💪🧗🏻♀️..🤌💐🥂
Oh my gosh your comments just made my night!! Thank you so much, Marty! We are all getting through it some way or another and we’re getting through it together, that’s the important thing for sure. Thank you so much for being here ❤️🩹❤️❤️🔥
Insanely sad and infuriating. I'm sorry for you, for all of us, for those who don't even know they are pitiable. It may be a chickenshit defense mechanism (at this point in my life I'm trying to stay sane and level and focused on what I can do to love better), but I have largely stopped watching or reading the news. I can't bathe in the toxic sadness, which I could do 24/7 if I chose to. I used to be a news junkie and now I'm more at peace and, I think, living more purposively and lovingly.
I still believe in love and I wouldn't trade my position for $1B or any amount of money to live in the hell of Trump's life. His heart is an insatiable black hole of contorted grievances and spite, while I (and I hope increasingly you) am sleeping better at night.
Anyway, thank you for your work, and it really is work I'm incapable of doing. Much respect.
I take my breaks, believe me. I must or I also feel so much despair. I think for me it feels better to pay attention so I know what is happening. I think it’s a thing from childhood. Partly hyper vigilance but partly what I needed in order to make plans and keep myself safe where I could. Anyway, I respect whatever people need to do in these times, as long as they’re trying to tilt the world toward kindness, and I know you are. Thanks for being here, Robert.
I get that and I used to use the acquisition of knowledge as a form of defense against a home life that was largely devoid of personal attention. It kept me focused, sane and a good student for my formative years, and a condescending know-it-all for most of my adult life. I don't prescribe my path for ANYONE; it's my own journey. My relinquishing the need to know, know, know more, more, more was an essential part of me learning to be more present to myself and to those I love. And I have had the luxury and privilege of being an educated white man in a world centered around my demographic. Seeing how my adult daughters have had to survive and move through the world has been quite an education for me. They are millennia ahead of me in intuitive wisdom, strength and kindness. I'm grateful that I've lived long enough to appreciate them more fully. Anyway, kudos to you and all women. Thanks again.
GIRL! 🙋♀️ also last of my friends to get my period, also about to pick up my estrogen patch and progesterone pills. 😂 This was as enjoyable to read as it was perfectly timed. 🫶🏻 Thank you for writing it.
Thank you, Ally, for giving me some "laugh out loud" moments over a woman's "state of life". Of course I'm a good 65 years beyond the onset of "the curse", but I could just imagine experiencing an application of the application. Of course it would be better if it was made of cardboard rather than the plastic inserts as then you'd have a chance of it eventually disolving. My period started with a smear rather than a gush so I wasn't quite sure if something was really going on. When my mom noticed, on laundry day, she bought me a box of bulky pads. The big choice was holding them in with safety pins or those "harness" things. The worst was when I tried the new and improved rubber bell-looking thing. You just folded it up and shoved it up there. Only problem was getting it out. First it formed a suction, making hard to remove (that was scary). So, obviously, if it was folded to go in, it needed to be folded to come out. By the time I got it out, it looked like a massacre. Of course when it came to "the change" I wasn't really that aware of the peri-menapausal phase (which takes a long time). At the time, I was working in the Biotech Dept. of a Community College. Evidently, my boss's wife was going through it also and was experiencing mood swings. He asked me how long they would go on, one or two weeks? I just laughed and said try one or two years (if you're lucky). He was a scientist, for God's sake! and he didn't have a clue. This is how little effort society has put into education for women's health. I'm glad you're finding some relief with your hormones. Women doctors are a wonderful thing. I enjoyed your writing very much. Things seem pretty bleak right now, but hang in there. You are not alone.
The cardboard applicator! Noooo! And the damn patch instructions. Good thing for friends who can explain things CLEARLY. Why is everything so hard, Ally? Why are the things that are actually clear so hard for people to understand, and the complicated stuff is oversimplified? At least your voice is as clear as a bell. xoxo
Honestly, I stood there looking at the directions and the “Figures” and then staring at the patch and re-reading and having flashbacks to my first period and those directions!!! It would have been funny if I wasn’t feeling stressed out and vulnerable. What would we do without the women in our lives?!?! But it is funny in retrospect and we did have a good laugh and her results were benign!! So yay. And thank you and love you!!
I'm so glad the HRT helped you. I went through a period of the every-other-night sleeping, too. Maddening. I'm well past it, but sleep is still hard. Anxiety. I am trying to keep keep a slight distance. In enough to know what action I can take, out enough not to go insane. I don't understand either how his people are ok with all of this. I saw a couple of clips Aaron Rupar posted from his latest speech, and I'm still floored. That's your guy? Him? You got me excited, though, about Margaret's alternate story. You said it wasn't about that, but I do think that's a story worth telling... Thank you, always, for telling the stories that have the potential to wake people up. Love you dearly. (Also! Have you seen Riot Women on Britbox? This song! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FrnMl3UGfw)
..I loved reading this incredible recounting of your life..! 💫The truth, the troubles, the logic, the outcomes of all your efforts made me feel so proud of the smart and determined women we can be when given good input, bolstered with smart friends, and left to our own devices. I’m 76 now.. we figured things out too back then, but it felt like we didn’t have the success and outcomes we should have.. rock it to the end you amazing woman.. I look forward to reading and traveling these days to come with you!💪🧗🏻♀️..🤌💐🥂
Oh my gosh your comments just made my night!! Thank you so much, Marty! We are all getting through it some way or another and we’re getting through it together, that’s the important thing for sure. Thank you so much for being here ❤️🩹❤️❤️🔥
Insanely sad and infuriating. I'm sorry for you, for all of us, for those who don't even know they are pitiable. It may be a chickenshit defense mechanism (at this point in my life I'm trying to stay sane and level and focused on what I can do to love better), but I have largely stopped watching or reading the news. I can't bathe in the toxic sadness, which I could do 24/7 if I chose to. I used to be a news junkie and now I'm more at peace and, I think, living more purposively and lovingly.
I still believe in love and I wouldn't trade my position for $1B or any amount of money to live in the hell of Trump's life. His heart is an insatiable black hole of contorted grievances and spite, while I (and I hope increasingly you) am sleeping better at night.
Anyway, thank you for your work, and it really is work I'm incapable of doing. Much respect.
Peace.
I take my breaks, believe me. I must or I also feel so much despair. I think for me it feels better to pay attention so I know what is happening. I think it’s a thing from childhood. Partly hyper vigilance but partly what I needed in order to make plans and keep myself safe where I could. Anyway, I respect whatever people need to do in these times, as long as they’re trying to tilt the world toward kindness, and I know you are. Thanks for being here, Robert.
I get that and I used to use the acquisition of knowledge as a form of defense against a home life that was largely devoid of personal attention. It kept me focused, sane and a good student for my formative years, and a condescending know-it-all for most of my adult life. I don't prescribe my path for ANYONE; it's my own journey. My relinquishing the need to know, know, know more, more, more was an essential part of me learning to be more present to myself and to those I love. And I have had the luxury and privilege of being an educated white man in a world centered around my demographic. Seeing how my adult daughters have had to survive and move through the world has been quite an education for me. They are millennia ahead of me in intuitive wisdom, strength and kindness. I'm grateful that I've lived long enough to appreciate them more fully. Anyway, kudos to you and all women. Thanks again.
GIRL! 🙋♀️ also last of my friends to get my period, also about to pick up my estrogen patch and progesterone pills. 😂 This was as enjoyable to read as it was perfectly timed. 🫶🏻 Thank you for writing it.
Ha! So glad you enjoyed, Janeen, and as a newbie to this patch situation, I am amazed that I am already feeling a difference😳
Thank you, Ally, for giving me some "laugh out loud" moments over a woman's "state of life". Of course I'm a good 65 years beyond the onset of "the curse", but I could just imagine experiencing an application of the application. Of course it would be better if it was made of cardboard rather than the plastic inserts as then you'd have a chance of it eventually disolving. My period started with a smear rather than a gush so I wasn't quite sure if something was really going on. When my mom noticed, on laundry day, she bought me a box of bulky pads. The big choice was holding them in with safety pins or those "harness" things. The worst was when I tried the new and improved rubber bell-looking thing. You just folded it up and shoved it up there. Only problem was getting it out. First it formed a suction, making hard to remove (that was scary). So, obviously, if it was folded to go in, it needed to be folded to come out. By the time I got it out, it looked like a massacre. Of course when it came to "the change" I wasn't really that aware of the peri-menapausal phase (which takes a long time). At the time, I was working in the Biotech Dept. of a Community College. Evidently, my boss's wife was going through it also and was experiencing mood swings. He asked me how long they would go on, one or two weeks? I just laughed and said try one or two years (if you're lucky). He was a scientist, for God's sake! and he didn't have a clue. This is how little effort society has put into education for women's health. I'm glad you're finding some relief with your hormones. Women doctors are a wonderful thing. I enjoyed your writing very much. Things seem pretty bleak right now, but hang in there. You are not alone.
This nails it perfectly….like 1000 percent (using orange insane math) correct!!!!!