Post Cancer, Perimenopause & Knitting!!

January 2014 was the end of my 5 years of hormone therapy due to breast cancer. It put me in menopause because the cancer I had was estergen driven. I knew that there was a chance that I would come out of menopause & resume what life was before I was on the hormone therapy but I was hoping & also praying that I would stay in. I was not looking forward to the emotional & physical side effects if I would come out.  Well last summer I started coming out of menopause & my body decide that since I missed perimeopause that I would go though that! 

I found a list of 35 symptoms of perimenopause on line. I was so thankful that I wan not going crazy. I did have all the symptoms but the ones I do have I have listed below:

• Hot flashes, hot flushes, night sweats and/or cold flashes, clammy feeling
• Irregular heart beat
• Irritability
• Mood swings, sudden tears
• Trouble sleeping through the night (with or without night sweats)
• Irregular periods; shorter, lighter periods; heavier periods, flooding; phantom periods, shorter cycles, longer cycles
• Crashing fatigue
• Anxiety, feeling ill at ease
• Feelings of dread, apprehension, doom
• Difficulty concentrating, disorientation, mental confusion
• Incontinence, especially upon sneezing, laughing; urge incontinence
• Aching, sore joints, muscles and tendons
• Increased tension in muscles
• Headache change: increase or decrease
• Depression
• Increase in allergies
• Weight gain
• Dizziness, vertigo, light-headedness, episodes of loss of balance

So what does knitting have to do with all this. Well let me tell you; knitting & spinning has given me an outlet to focus on. I am thankful that the love of knitting which was given to me at a young age & spinning because I can work on something until my anxieties go away. I found that I also have a great spouse & friends that accept me as I am whether I am angry, sad, filled with anxiety, sweating like crazy for no apparent reason or whatever place I am at that particular time!! 

Anyway if you are going through, have gone through or will go through this..... GIVE YOURSELF A HUG, A GOOD FRIEND & SOME KNITTING!!!

What is too much??

I leant how to knit when I was 13 when I was in Finland visiting my Aunt. I learnt how to make socks with using a pattern. I thought that was cool. Over the years I started making myself sweaters. I had a small stash of yarn which I enjoyed but never had real plans for. 

Since I learnt to spin yarn in 2006 the love of yarn has grown substantially!! Alpaca, Llama, wool, cashmere, silk, cotton..... I can go on & on & on. It is a love affair that has just grown. I look at my stash now & wonder if I have too much. There's yarn I bought because the company was going out of business & I just loved their yarn. I bought some that I was going to do a project but either forgot what I was going to do & have frogged the idea because I have now desire to do that project now. I bought some yarn because I JUST COULD NOT LEAVE WITHOUT IT!! Others called my name!! Then there is yarn that I bought for my Dear Sister In Law that itches at the thought of wool &  know she can wear this specific stash!! Then there is the yarn I spun... what can I say!! 

What shall I do.... I do not know but it is a problem I will keep & work on!! Something I will enjoy to figure out what to knit next, what to weave next, what do I want to do with this yarn today!?!?

I did not even get into the weaving yarn I have, that is another day!! Have a happy day!