I didn't realise it had been quite so long since my last personal post! It feels like it's been forever!

So, hopefully by now you will have seen my exciting news - I'm now a columnist over at Endometriosis News. I did a quick post on it and have been adding the links every Monday to my newest columns, but, just in case you've missed it somehow (honestly, not sure how you could have because it's all I've been banging on about recently!), the columns are all linked in previous posts or you can click on the 'Endometriosis News Column' tab, under 'EMLWY & BEYOND', at the top of the page which will take you straight to my column.

I've really thrown myself in to all things writing recently, and you might have noticed that EMLWY has had a BIG makeover! I made it a .com a few months ago and felt like it was a good time to make everything look a little bit more grown up... Didn't quite realise how much work I'd made for myself behind the scenes though! It took me one whole day alone to get the 'Celebrities with Endometriosis' post looking how it should (by the way, it's had a massive update and has 9 new faces on it so head on over and have a look!)! But, it's almost all sorted now, just a few more bits and bobs to do. So, please have a little look around - there's some new drop down menu's and pages at the top, and lots of new links have been added to the 'Endometriosis Library' which is always a work in progress by itself! I'm really feeling proud of how everything is looking - you know, the type of proud where you have to keep looking at it all the while! It might not look much to anyone else but when I started writing EMLWY back in 2011 (Wow! It's almost 6 years old already!), I had no idea it would someday be like it is now.

Aside from all things internet...

If you follow me on Instagram, you would have probably seen that we went on holiday at the end of August. We went down to my parents caravan, as we do every year, but this year was so much fun. Hunter gets so excited about going on holiday now and we took him to a few new places and just had the loveliest time. Honestly, I used to get quite stressed out at the prospect of going away when he was tiny, but it's just the best now! I think we were all a little sad when it was over and done with!

We haven't done much else exciting recently really, but we did have our first date night out in about 4 years a few weeks ago! It was our first time leaving Hunter in the evening and we went out to see It at the cinema... We were back just after 9pm to eat pizza in bed but we had a good night!

If you read my last implant update then you will know I've not been having a great time with it. I wrote everything over there really, and I don't want to say too much at the moment because I'll be doing a 2 month update on it all in a few weeks but, yeah, I'm struggling with it all. I'm still on the same period I was at the end of that post - it's been over 3 weeks now and with only a 1 week break between that and my previous period, I'm pretty exhausted/frustrated with it all. I'm quite used to continuous periods (Hello! 7 month period!) - it's annoying but I'm hoping that this added pill that the doctor told me about will help to stop it. I'm just not sure at the moment when I should see the doctor because, although she left it totally up to me (we were both prepared for this not to work!), I know the implant needs some time to settle in. The worst part so far has definitely been the anxiety it's brought on though. I'm not sure why it has heightened it so much, and as someone who's only had what I would say is mild anxiety that's never been an issue before, it's hit me quite hard. I've been trying my best to distract myself away from it all so I'm just hoping that will also settle down soon. Pain wise, I just don't really know. I'd say I'm probably in as much pain still but it's probably more spread out rather than hitting me hard in one week and then tailing off and building back up to that week. But we'll see... I'll keep you all posted though.


I had to start taking some more tablets back in July to counteract the constant sore throats the Naproxen was giving me. I now take Lansoprazole first thing every morning before eating anything, and, touch wood, I've not had any sore throats since.

I had some good news back in August regarding my benefits... I've been awarded them as per usual and I'm still in the Support Group which means I don't have to attend anything work related!.... You wouldn't believe how relieved I was to read that letter - I'd been worrying about it since my assessment in July. I expect I'll be hearing from them come January again anyway if they are going to still be on my back like they were pre-tribunal!

I had a few weeks off of Slimming World at the end of August. I had gotten myself in to a bit of a rut of maintaining my weight every week, which isn't a bad thing really, but I'd lost all motivation. I decided to enjoy our time away and stop worrying so much over numbers on the scales. It worked wonders and, to be honest, I was looking forward to getting back on to it at the beginning of September. However, I fell in to the same rut again. Part of me thinks it's because I've got to a point with my weight where I can't shift any more - bar 2lbs, I'm at my lowest weight in forever! But I found it hard before when I was coming up to the final few pounds. I've also been struggling a bit because I was missing certain foods - some bad foods I was just craving because I wasn't allowed them so I'd end up scoffing loads if I got the chance, and some which aren't in any way bad for you, but aren't 'Slimming World friendly'. Because of all the tablets I'm on again now, well, I've gotten a bit blocked up (again)! It happened before so I was expecting it, but not being able to go to the toilet when you're trying to lose weight isn't going to help matters! While I was on holiday, I started eating muesli with dried fruit and nuts in for breakfast each day and I was going to the toilet once, even twice, three times a day! But, going back on plan, I had to go back to eating something different for breakfast because I was only allowed 30g of muesli for my Healthy B Choice which was only a few spoonfuls so it wasn't worth it at all! I realised my body was trying to tell me something so I've come off it again. Slimming World was great for losing weight, but I'd lost 22lbs, I'm still below my last target weight, and I've dropped a dress size, so why keep pushing myself when I don't need too? I want to be able to eat 'healthy' things again like avocado, dried fruit and nuts etc without worrying about syns all the time! Seriously though, some of the things you can't have on Slimming World are just odd - like smoothies for example. It's just fruit right? But no. You can't have it because it's not in fruit form! I had a little splurge for the first half of the past week, but I've been watching what I eat for a few days again now and I've started calorie counting. If I can still have free reign over what I eat and lose weight then that's ultimately the goal. But, as long as I'm not piling anything back on and maintaining my current weight, then I'm happy. Anyway, I'll keep you all updated.

I haven't really spoken about my fibromyalgia for a while now and that's because it's not really been bothering me at all. I still get days where I'm aching a little bit more than usual or a bit more tired than usual (take for example, the day after we went to the cinema - it wasn't exactly like I was out partying, but it sure felt that way the next day!) but it hasn't been completely knocking me out like it has done before. It's odd. I feel like it's in a total lull at the moment and I didn't think you got that with fibromyalgia - I thought fibro is pretty constant. It's just another reason why I don't think I have fibromyalgia at all. But, I see my rheumatologist in a few weeks so I'll be discussing it all with him then.

I've been worrying a little about that appointment because I know that last time he said that if my T score's had gotten worse this year then I would have to start on medication for osteoporosis (oh, just on a side note, I noticed that I didn't get my last set of T score's so I'll try and get them when I see him so I can let you all know what's exactly happening with it all). I was also a little concerned when I got a copy of the letter my endometriosis consultant sent to my doctor just to update them on what had been discussed at my consultation, and she had written in that about my 'mild osteoporosis' even though I thought I was still in the borderline section of the scale... So I want everything clarifying when I see my bone doctor!

Anyway, I think that's you all updated on what's been happening over the last few months!

They'll be a new column on Monday and I have a few more posts lined up for next week also... AND a little competition! So keep your eyes peeled folks!

S.