I grew up in a house where we didn't use many specialty medicines. Chris Rock's family relied on Robitussin for every illness; in our house, it was Nyquil and aspirin (or Tylenol as I got older). For anything that didn't respond to those two medications, I learned to ride it out. So you can imagine how much fun my menstrual cycles have been all these years. Tylenol helps a little but not much. Still, it never occurred to me to try anything different because I'd trained myself to "suck it up and drive on".
One day a few months' ago, I had menstrual cramps so bad that I could barely walk. I didn't have any Tylenol at home so I had to stop at the store. While I was on the medicine aisle, I made the uncharacteristic decision to purchase Pamprin instead of Tylenol. Oh, what relief! The pain went away so quickly. I tried it again this week when I started my period and it worked just as quickly, so it wasn't a fluke.
Why did I wait so long to try this? It's not like I didn't know that Pamprin existed. I guess I spent so many years gritting my teeth through the pain that I convinced myself it was supposed to hurt. Whenever I would be tempted to take a day off because of bad cramps, I would remind myself that millions of women all over the world were having the same pain and working anyway. Never again! This should go on my "Fit by 40" list. If there is something that is cheap and can make me feel better without hurting anyone, I'm going for it.
No comments:
Post a Comment