Hi All!! I go to a rheumatologist next week.....I have been hurting real bad all over but mostly in my hands. I can not close my right hand without screaming....it hurts so bad...When I wake up, it's like I can't hardly walk and I can't hold my toothbrush. Last night I got feed up with it and took half a pain pill. (Vicodin).... My regular doctor go all mad when I kept complaining about pain. I also have Hepatitis C. Just found that out last year....I had back surgery a year ago in January, almost 2 years now....and I was complaining about my belly being bloated then....well, now it looks like I am PG...A older lady friend at work came up to me one day and said *you looked PG*.....I said, *I know*.... :-(....I went from weighing like 120-125 to 140-145.....It's really not the weight, it's how my belly is.....I also have had an under active thyroid for years.....now, it is all messed up, too...I have had to change my meds 4 times.....this last time, instead of coming back in 2 months, they say 6 weeks.....Sooooo, have I bored you all yet?? LOL....I could live with all of this if only MY HANDS worked....LOL....Now I almost can't wait to see the rheumatologist. Oh, I forgot the best part...LOL...How I found out about the fibro, was I had went to my normal GP doctor and him and I got into a little disagreement. I was complaining about hurting and he was say crap like *look at your file, look how big it is, and there is nothing wrong with me...Yada Yada, Yada....* Well about 2 weeks later I came across my bill and he wrote on it Fibromylagia. I didn't even know what the heck that was.....LOL... How can I get up in the morning without my 3-4 cups of coffee?? I need that....LOL Thanks for listening.....:-) Good Luck to you Lawmar!! LucyGoose:-)

First of all, 135/80 IS a bad reading! 100/80 is more like it for your age.... 90/60 is not very low either... :o) when I was a long distance runner, mine was 70/50(resting pulse 45). :o) So, you definitely have high blood pressure, and that's no joke! I am not a doctor, so I can't say what's causing that... in my family, we start out low and go very high... right now I am at 90/70... so I am creeping up. irritable bowel MAY be caused by perimenopause, OR it could be caused by gallstones, which gave me IBS, OR another link is fibromyalgia. I don't think that acidopholus will help with ulcers. It's a great thing to have in you, and you need good buggies in your intestinal tract, but I don't think it has much to do with an ulcer. I am not a doctor, don't even play one. :o) BUT, I would pressure your doc on this, you might have several things going on here... it's POSSIBLE that it's related to perimenopause, it's also possible it's related to a lot of other things. I understand your reasoning though, and treating the underlying symptoms SHOULD be the goal. :o) Maybe your doc needs to figure out WHAT the cause is.

Hi linnea, It's a little disconcerting to hear that your gyne doc didn't have much to say to you. She should have told you that when our progesterone starts getting low, our uterine linings keep building up, which leads to more bleeding. Sometimes they give women progesterone pills to help. That's how my periods started going when I was in my late 40's. I refused the progesterone, and my bleeding got out of control. I ended up losing alot of blood and needing a D&C, and was put on hormones for awhile, to keep from bleeding again. It seems like your doc might want to do an endometrial biopsy or a transvaginal ultrasound, so she can understand why you're bleeding. Lots of women just put up with this bleeding during perimenopause. In some women, it just works itself out. For me, I think I would have bled to death. The biopsy of my lining showed that I had cells growing in a weird fashion.....which caused my bleeding. Plus, sometimes, the lining can actually get so thin that it bleeds constantly... But the cause of the bleeding needs to be determined. Are you getting tired easily from the blood loss? If not, I'd say give it a few more months, but don't overlook it too long. Once your hemoglobin gets low, it takes awhile to build it back up. Is there another gyne you could see?? Did she say anything at all about your heavy bleeding?

I turned 58 in October. I didn't start skipping periods until last spring. I haven't had one since August, so I'm hoping I won't have any more! We're in the 'older' range for menopause, but my freind's sister had periods until she turned 60!