I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Mine was fantastic! I thought I’d update on a few things since I finished the oral Cipro and prednisone.

I am feeling better than I was when I started the antibiotics and prednisone. I’m coughing less and wheezing less thankfully. I do still have to frequently push my air out to force a deeper cough to try and loosen the rattle and wheeze. It doesn’t always work but I keep trying of course.

My bone density results showed that some areas have gotten worse and progressed to osteoporosis. Other areas showed a little improvement but still considered osteopenia. I have already taken the oral (once a week) Fosamax for the recommended 5 years to help with osteopenia and hope it didn’t progress to osteoporosis. There’s no real research that shows taking the Fosamax longer than the recommended 5 years does much. My doctor wants me to do the Reclast infusion once a year. For that I’ll go to the infusion clinic where I go to get my port flushed once a month. It only takes about 10-15 minutes to infuse. I’m waiting for insurance approval and for the infusion clinic to call me to schedule the infusion.

Next order of business…I had an appointment with my gynecologist on Friday to discuss perimenopause/menopause. I’ve been experiencing many of the perimenopause symptoms like…hot flashes or as I like to call them “hot seasons” because when I’m hot I’m really hot and it lasts forever, peeing more frequently, trouble sleeping, waking up early (I’ve become a morning person!), trouble with memory, hair loss/thinning and of course messed up periods (I had 3 periods in 7 weeks and now I haven’t had one for 4.5 weeks).

I bring up perimenopause/menopause because it is very common for women with CF to go through menopause at an earlier age than non CFers. I’m 43 and here I am!! There’s not a lot of talk about menopause and what to expect. Yes, everyone knows/talks about hot flashes, messed up periods and mental health changes but other than that you don’t really hear much.

I got my lab results back and they do show I’m in perimenopause. I have a follow up appointment at the beginning of January to discuss the next steps. We did talk a little bit about it at my last appointment. She did say that the typical treatment is to do a low dose birth control to help regulate your period to help the transition into menopause smoother. I said as long as taking birth control won’t “trick” my body into having a period when it shouldn’t be then I’m good with it.

I take this getting older thing with a smile because I didn’t think I was going to be around long enough to experience menopause. Most women complain about getting old…the grey hairs, the wrinkles, the reading glasses, menopause, etc BUT that’s not me! I’m LOVING getting older and being able to do all the things that I didn’t think I would get to go through. As you know, I love my birthday because it means I’m still alive to celebrate them. Many people don’t get the chance to grow old so make sure to be thankful to be alive.

I’ll update after I get the Reclast infusion and I make a decision on what we’re going to do for the perimenopause as far as what birth control, etc.

Until next time…