Period blog August 2016
Look away folks! Look away! That’s a warning for any family and friends that read my blog because they want to be nice and support me. I let you off from reading this type as I’m pretty much describing my menstrual cycle and flow type and routine. You’ve all been warned!
On to you oddballs that I love I present my August period blog. Some of you will have noticed that this is very late as my cycle this month was a complete mess. My last period was a bit odd as well so I’m wondering if my coming off my medication and frequent illnesses over the last month may have messed me up a bit more than I thought. I’m going to try and type this up by day so please excuse any tense mix ups.
I’ll start on the Monday which is 16 days after my period was due to start. I feel very bloated and a little crampy today but not bad enough to take any pain killers as of yet. I had a tiny bit of the browny discharge but no signs of red as of yet. I put a liner on though just in case. I’ll try and state which pad and where I got it as well if I remember throughout this post. The two liners I’ve worn over the last two days were a blue Essence of Eve and my Lazy Creek Boutique liner that I won in a giveaway and haven’t reviewed just yet but will do in a separate post.
I will be mentioning a few pads that I haven’t reviewed yet but will do all pad reviews separately. Anyways that’s my Monday. I’m hoping that it doesn’t start until lunch tomorrow as I have a shift in the morning and can’t afford to be crampy, also going out with visiting family on Wednesday so really hoping to avoid cramps for this one. Unlikely though due to it being so late.
And it hit, it’s Tuesday and I had a short shift today at work so it could have been worse. There was a little bit of pink on the toilet paper this morning so I knew to wear at least a liner so I put on another Essence of Eve to set off. I had to go to the bathroom around 9.30 as I felt very crampy and shaky and knew I had to poop and I swapped the pad for a moderate just in case. The cramps didn’t stop and I took 2 paracetamol around 10ish and felt awful for the next hour as It was a very busy clinic so I couldn’t stop to sit quiet. Thankfully the cramps eased off a bit by 11.30/12.00 and I could finish up my shift. I came home and had definitely started but not enough that I needed to change my pad so I left my sheep print Honeymoon Reusables pad on for the afternoon.
I took some Ibuprofen at 2.30 with a McDonalds Happy Meal as I couldn’t be bothered to make something. Thankfully not as crampy this afternoon as I was this morning, just typical that the pain hit when I was on shift instead of a day off. Still cuddling a hot water bottle though which sucks as the heat wave finally reached us on the Isle of Man and it is no day to be cuddling boiling water. A bit later in the day I swapped over to my Precious Stars pad that is my first ever pad purchase. 
Still very light but felt the need to be clean. It’s been a very odd start to the period as usually I’m in pain all day and pretty useless to do anything that involves moving. My cramps vanished this afternoon and I’ve had a massive craving for all things sweet. I have eaten more doughnuts and cookies then I feel comfortable admitting. I’ve had a nice shower. I tried and failed to insert a menstrual cup (better luck next time) and put on my lovely Beauty and the Beast Crimson Moon pad to keep me going overnight.
I’m happy to be off work today but I did wake up at 5am with horrible stomach cramps and I swapped my pad over to a clean Precious Stars overnight pad as I’d become pretty heavy as expected. I took my paracetamol and tried to get a few more hours, my hot water bottle was a great help. I also used some Tiger Balm on my back as the cramps went all the way around and theres only so far my hot water bottle can reach. Tiger balm is a bit like Deep Heat and is really good for joint pain. It took the edge off a bit. 
Once I was fully up I managed to eat some breakfast (just a bowl of cereal) and get ready for my day. I couldn’t relax as I was taking my family out to see the Laxey Wheel so I had a busy day ahead. I took more tablets before I left to keep things at bay and I swapped over to a TCS Eco moderate pad (the Daryl one!) which fit really nicely in my comfy Scrundies with the Unicorns. The comfiest knickers I’ve ever worn in my life! More need to be bought! I also love the fact that I paired up zombie killers with pretty unicorns, made me feel happy and bad ass at the same time!
I didn’t have a lot of pain but I did have a few twinges showing that if I’d not taken something I would have been worse off. I even made it through to lunchtime without needing to take anything else. I took some ibuprofen with my lunch though as I couldn’t take any more of the others just yet and my stomach was starting to feel a bit tender at this point.
Also swapped over to one of my Essence of Eve heavy pads which are amazing and hold a lot. I changed over to a fresh pad for the evening as I was pretty heavy today and wanted to be comfortable for the evening meal so I popped on my other TCS Eco pad, the Harry Potter print one. Today was a pretty heavy day for me and so I’m going to have a nice early night tonight and so I’ve put a Brigid’s Flame pad on for the night and have settled down with a nice hot chocolate and am watching an episode of QI.
Another bit of cramping this morning but I had to get up early for work anyway so at least it didn’t ruin another lie in. I was heavy again overnight and whilst I didn’t bleed through the pad, there was a little leaking down the wings onto my pyjamas, but the pad did really well. I had a quick shower before putting on my final TCS Eco pad for the morning.
I took some paracetamol with my breakfast to hold the cramps at bay for work. The tablets worked whilst I was at work and I had no issues what so ever, I swapped over to a Crimson Moon (Daryl) pad and had no leaks at all. I haven’t had much of an appetite today so whether that’s due to my cycle or not who knows but I really haven’t been hungry. After my shift I swapped over into my Pad Thai pad that is really comfy but my knickers were a bit loose so I felt a bit at risk of leaks. Thankfully I managed to get through walking the dogs and having some dinner and watching a bit of the Olympics without any issues. We won the triathlon though which was awesome! Time for an early night again I think as feel a bit drained today, so on with my Leak Freak pad and curled up with a nice cuppa and watching Huck Finn. What an exciting life I lead.
Friday, a day that was cramp and pain killer free. I’m really happy to report that I felt fine today, energy levels were a bit low but I think that’s because it’s been a heavy start and I’ve not had a very big appetite. Still not been very hungry today, craving sugary things which isn’t very healthy. I also had a bit of an upset stomach overnight so I think that has something to do with lack of energy today.
Things have slowed down a bit and I changed into my moderate Crimson Moon pad for work and it held all day, it’s probably a bit bad that I wore it straight from around 11am through to 8pm but i wasn’t very heavy at all today so didn’t really need to change. Besides my wolfy pads are very comfy so why swap? I have put on my second Brigid’s Flame pad for the night as they are very floppy and comfortable and I’m off tomorrow so don’t want a bulky pad keeping me up.
I was very light overnight and just had some spotting and again no cramps at all today! I have felt pretty queasy so I took some of my anti-nausea tablets which taste disgusting but seem to have helped a bit. In the morning I swapped over to my Star Trek Crimson Moon pad and had a few ‘bursts’ of heavier bleeding and had to change over to my amazon bought pad in the afternoon.
I’m not heavy today, in fact fairly light just with heavy spotting every now and then. Strange day as even though I haven’t done anything I still feel drained. Pretty normal for me at this point in my cycle though.
For the night I have popped on a regular Mummy Coull pad as I’m not expecting to be heavy at all tonight.
I was right, not heavy at all, in fact I’m fairly light today. Swapped over to my Me Chai Designs pad which is one of my favourites and also tried out my new Daryl scrundies and I’ve had a nice comfy day. Still not much of an appetite so I’ve forced myself to go for a drive and wake myself up which gave me a bit of an appetite and I managed some dinner. Massive chocolate cravings today though, but not bars of chocolate more choc chip cookies and I did really want a Snickers bar earlier! II felt a bit ill after the two big cookies that I had to eat and so I sat down with a cup of tea and a few episodes of the Gilmour Girls.
Popped on my Leaping Pads pad, which unfortunately I discovered that the size just doesn’t suit me which made me feel sad. I will have to destash it soon unfortunately. I wore it for around an hour and swapped over to a Pretty Period liner pad that I bought from amazon and felt comfy enough to go to sleep in that.
This morning I swapped over to another Pretty Period pad for my long shift at work as I was down to just spotting this morning. I do feel quite achy today but not in a crampy way, more of a pulled muscle type way. It’s weird because I haven’t done anything over the weekend so I think it must be the hormones settling maybe? I’ve had a lot of energy today which has made a difference, although I did feel quite dizzy and queasy when I was sat on a different ward during my shift, food seemed to help for a while though. Made it through the shift on a high and had a really good day considering it was a long day at work but now I’m home I feel really nauseous and a little spacey. Hate this feeling. On the plus side the spotting seems to have stopped and so I have had a shower and not put another liner on. It’s a risk but I feel like that area needs to be free for a little bit. Not in a gross way, I’m just running out of space in my wet bag for used pads, almost wash day I think. Early night tonight and hopefully I’ll feel better by the morning.
That’s officially another cycle over, now all that’s left is to do the washing. If you’re interested I soak all my used pads overnight in cold water and a half scoop of Flash, then put them in the machine on a 30 degree wash. If anything comes out stained after that, I have an Ecover stain remover to try out. I was feeling a lot better today so it must have just been my body settling down again. At least that’s my hope. A full picture of all the pads I wore this month is below, 24 total:
And a picture of all pads that arrived this month and are now washed and ready to go:
Thanks for reading through this, if you aren’t grossed out by it then feel free to ask me any questions and I’ll try and answer them in my next period blog. For those that are grossed out, I did try and warn you at the beginning of the post so you have nobody to blame but yourselves. If you do have any questions or comments, then I look forward to reading them!
Until next time!
Charlotte x
Charlie's Words of Wisdom 