Hello wonderful Imaginary Internet Friends! Thank you for your lovely comments and kind thoughts while I’ve been MIA.
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You may recall that late last year I was feeling extremely meh. The bounce-back in that post lasted only a very short while, so I took myself to SuperHappyFunGP – who sent me for a load of blood tests.
In good news my thyroid levels are still A+ (thanks Eltroxin!), but I had quite the Vitamin D deficiency. I am totally not surprised at this – like most Australians I have had sun exposure = bad drilled into me for a long while** and currently much of my life is spent Extremely Indoors.
I’m now taking a Vitamin D supplement and doing my best to get outdoors every day and sensibly get sun on me.
SuperHappyFunGP did confirm that I am post-menopausal (no surprise)^^ and (surprise) flagged that I possibly have mild Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. We discussed general sleep and energy management.
I’m not quite unconvinced I have CFS. As an example – while on our absolutely magicalAF winter wonderland holiday we did tons of activity and I felt wonderful. But now I’ve been back for a month and reflected on how we spent that time – we also did lots of lazing about reading and generally chilling in between all that activity.
Now we’ve settled back into life, I find myself pretty tired generally and utterly exhausted after my two in-office days. February is not a great month, I don’t think the heat and extreme humidity is helping me. Thank TheUniverse for air-conditioning.
I’m a little more sold on this energy management idea. And even if I don’t have CFS – whatever helps, right?
And it might seem totally counter-intuitive, but I’m also trying to get out and about a little more because I’ve really sunk into an extreme rut. I definitely benefit when there is more variety and new experiences in my life – but at a slow and sensible pace!
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** though unfortunately this was not the messaging in my formative years where it was All Sun All The Time.
^^ He was planning HRT pending blood-tests, not required because of these results – I’m glad to not return to wild hormones!
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This is so interesting. I didn’t realise CF was still a thing. I know a lot of women in our age group feel completely wiped out, post menopause, post covid and at the tail end of careers where we’ve been perfectionists. Would be really interested to hear about your energy management strategies.
I think it’s mostly called ME nowdays, but yes – quite unexpected!
This experience does seem quite common for our cohort (and my goodness, that perfectionism!), I’m very envious of those old ladies who have boundless energy. How can I have some of that!?
Currently compiling energy post – mostly just planning, rest and lowering expectations!
Wishing you all the best through whatever you’re going through right now.