Living alone with multiple large dogs can be a challenge when you’re felled by the flu or some mystery ailment. But as my fellow female Dogsters know, not even flu symptoms can compare to the physical pain that visits us women once a month.
At these times,doubled over with violent abdominal, back and/or leg pain (not to mention diarrhea), some of us may envy our adopted bitches their spayed status – surgically altered females don’t experience menstrual cramps. Lucky dogs!
If you’re not female and you don’t believe me on the pain point, read best-selling author Eckhart Tolle.On the topic of what he calls the “pain-body,” Tolle talks about how each of us carries around a load of hurtful baggage -and how women’s load is slightly heavier on account ofthe monthly pain we endure. He suggests that we take care not to let our physical hurt affect the way we treat others, which could result in irreparable emotional hurt. I think Ihave some idea ofwhat he’s talking about.
But I digress.
Wouldn’t you know, symptoms of menstrual cramping, especially pains that radiate, are made better by pressure and heat, and are made worse by motion. That means, when your monthly number is up, it’s ideal to snuggle deep into the bedcovers with your warm dogs by your side (and on your pillow, and at your feet).
The good news is that, when it’s that time of the month for female Dogsters, every dog becomes a therapy dog, whether or not they’re certified to visit hospitals and nursing homes. Here’s why:A dog’s average body temperature is 101 degrees Fahrenheit. So just by cuddling you when you’re feeling low, your period-therapy K9 actually does duty as a handy hot-water-bottle substitute.
Dogs who enjoy spooning you or lying on top of you are especially period-therapeutic, for their bodyheat combined with the pressure of their proximity can do wonders no hot water bottle can.
Since motion exacerbates symptoms, taking the dogs out for the nice, aerobic walk they deserve will only make you, the compromised walker,feel worse. On the plus side, I’ve found that regular, brisk walking actually helps shorten the duration of menstrual periods, and markedly so.
This morning, themain thing thatgot me through the first walk of the day was the lure of crawling back into bed with the dogs when it was all over. The other thing that got me through comes in a bottle. But it’s not what you think! (In actual fact, alcohol only makes menstrual matters worse; so does chocolate. Damn.)
It’s a homeopathic remedy called, appropriately enough, Menstrual Cramps by Hylands Homeopathy. And it really works.
Seriously, I’ve tried every cramp remedy in the book or on the store shelf, and none of themever worked as well as this.
Plus,Hylands works without contraindications or side effects, stimulating your body’s healing response to relieve symptoms naturally. These life-saving little white pills dissolve quickly and they don’t interfere with other medications.I only discovered them about a year ago;how different my life might be if I’d learned of them sooner.
But I digress again.
There’s even a Hylandsformula designed to relievethe infamous condition that precedes cramping: It’s called, aptly, PMS.
Both remedies come in small, square bottles that fit neatly into most pockets. It’s comforting and empowering to carry a small bottle labeled “MENSTRUAL CRAMPS.”Doing so actuallyhelps you visualize this powerful force, this huge painthatmakes so many of us miserable, captured and contained, tamed like agenie in atiny bottle. And that’s no small thing – it’s one giant step for womankind.
If it’s that time of the month for you too, I hope you feel better soon.
