Five for Friday

1) Seventeen days. One thousand unique page views. 50 comments. A surprisingly solid audience in Russia. These are some of the surprises I have encountered in the last couple of weeks since I started blogging. My readers like (or at least visit) the posts I cringe over more often than the ones I publish with ease. The more it makes me cringe - the higher the page views. There is something to learn from that maybe?

2) You like awful drawings and memes that I make in Paint and Photo.Shop. I support your like of them. I will keep making them if you keep liking them. I was motivated (at first) to illustrate autocorrect blunders I experienced in a facebook group. It kept going from there. Here's a look at the early days though:

The time someone mistakenly recommended a cod liver oil pack (instead of a castor oil pack) for cysts...I'm assuming this was a TTA strategy?

Or the time someone was describing a really fertile person's insensitive comments as a 'snack in the face' (instead of a smack in the face)...

Or the time someone was recommending Power Mint Tea (instead of Peppermint Tea) for the alleviation of PMS symptoms. I love this one so much.

Or the original autocorrect blunder - when someone recommended taking some Mole Trim for cycle related pain (instead of Motrin). In this instance, I didn't draw anything per se... I did what anyone would do (umm...right?) - I went online and found a nicely trimmed mole and asked if this one was a good NSAID substitute! :)

3) I have found a bit of power mint empowerment to adding my voice to the chorus of fertility struggles. All of a sudden I feel like I have a right to be a part of the discussion. I have a right to not approach things with positivity all the time when they SUCK. These things, when you realize them, change you a little. You itch and twitch a little less. Not much. But enough to notice. And you write more. More than you thought you had in you.

4) The past month has been filled with a lot of sleep disturbances. My adrenals are going haywire. Some of the people I have talked to online seem to think my post peak compounded progesterone might be feeding my adrenals as they try to convert it to cortisol. My liver functioning may be a part of the puzzle - and all symptoms point to that being a possibility too. Not sure what to think of all of that, since the high dose of post peak progesterone is the only thing that prevents me from descending into the depths of (what I like to affectionately call) Charlie Sheen PMS. Yeah, it's that ugly. In any event - I'm having a rough time managing the waking/sleeping schedule over here. Trying a few things to kickstart my adrenals back into behaving, so we'll see if that works. Got any liver cleansing tips?

5) Despite having the worst insomnia and subsequent sleep schedule I've ever had, my chart is looking like a flipping dream this month in comparison to the 18 months charted prior. WHAT IS UP WITH THAT?! I normally get a light bleed of about 1-2 days, followed by 3 solid weeks of constant mucus, then a split peak (or a double peak followed by a split peak). Yes, it's really fun to chart. Sometimes I get back-to-back-to-back-to-back peaks for over a week and then an instantaneous period with a non-existent luteal phase despite post-peak support. Yes, it's really fun to time meds with that particular cycle trait. And recently (the last three months), I've started getting premenstrual spotting for days on end. Every chart is longer and longer - over 40 days now, when they used to be 28 on the dot. So you can imagine how I have been surprised this cycle when I have seen a 5 day bleed that showed a crescendo/ decrescendo quality to it with medium bleeding involved! And you can understand why I was surprised when that was followed by a DRY day. And even more surprised when fertile mucus showed up on Day 7 - like there is some normal ovulation going to magically happen on its own this month. Oh body-of-mine, you so crazy...

Happy Friday. That's today, right? :)