It's a [bloody] miracle!

I apologise for the pun in the title, but I just had to use it!

Warning: if you can't tell by the title, this post is about bloody details of my period, so if you don't want to know, then skip it. Can't say I didn't warn you.

Yesterday was the first day of my period. And there was no sign at all of my usual excruciating cramps.

For women without endo, this is probably no big deal, but for me it's a freaking miracle.

I can't remember the last time I've had a pretty much pain-free day one of my period. If it has happened to me before, it would have been many, many, years ago.  My last period started in a similar way, but "the dream" came crashing down 20 minutes later when I found myself writing in bed in pain and calling my parents and best friend to distract me while the drugs kicked in. They ended up taking quite a long time to kick in and only partially helped when they did (enough to make me able to stop doing labour-breathing and hobble to the kitchen and make a hot water bottle).

So this time I didn't take any chances, at the first sign of blood I doped myself up on Ponstan and Panadol (and Tranexamic acid - seriously, that stuff saves me so much money in feminine hygiene products and bleach!), and this time, the drugs actually worked! Nothing but a little rumble that came and went and was easily fixed by a heat pack (although I could definitely tell when I needed to take my next dose of drugs as they wore off). I went to work with the biggest smile on my face. My co-workers asked me what I was so happy about, and I explained that what was happening was basically a miracle. They said to me that they had never seen a woman on the first day of her period so happy before. One of my co-workers even gave me a high-five. (We may overshare in our office just a little bit...)

I still was pretty bloated and uncomfortable with the usual weird guts (hello stretchy tights and loose dresses!), but seriously, I just cannot believe that this month I didn't have to writhe around in pain (let's hope it doesn't hit today!) And I haven't had the crazy back spasms this month yet!!!!!

So I'm trying to figure out what it is that I'm doing that may have produced this miracle. Maybe it's just a complete fluke, but there are a few things that I've been doing differently this month. I've cut down on wheat a lot. Not completely, as I suck and have no self control, but I can count the number of times I have had wheat this month on one hand, and it's never been a huge amount (apart from when I had pancakes... that didn't end well). I also had a massage on Wednesday which probably helped. I've been doing fairly regular exercise, although not as much as I was doing in January and February (and it didn't seem to make a difference then). I've had pretty much no dairy at all, except for lactose free milk. So, I'm going to try and be consistent and keep doing the things I'm doing to see if next month I can avoid the uterus gremlins again. (Good luck to me avoiding wheat and dairy in France and Italy... hmmm.)

I know that technically, I used lots of drugs and so it was not really a "pain free" period, but the fact that the drugs actually pretty much got rid of the pain is a huge improvement. Usually the drugs just stop me from sobbing in pain.

PS I'm not saying that minimising wheat/dairy is working for me, or works for everyone, I'm just so incredibly happy that it seems to have made a difference for me that I'm going to keep going.