Wednesday was a Billings day–a new doctor for me and a haircut. The new doctor kept me waiting in a freezing cold exam room for 25 minutes–and of course I wasn’t exactly dressed warmly! He entered the room apologizing profusely and he was all forgiven after writing a prescription for a low dose hormone patch. Guy readers–if you don’t want to read the rest of this, skip on down. I started menopause at 54 years of age and about a year after that I started using a hormone patch to control the hot flashes and insomnia. My previous physician thought I should stop the hormone patches by the time I turned 60 but I didn’t. Last December at the age of 62, I stopped the patches on my own. The hot flashes weren’t so bad but I begin to once again have insomnia–go to bed, fall asleep, wake up five minutes later and be awake for two to three hours–awful. When the insomnia first started early this year, I would have 2-3 bad nights and then several good nights. Lately, every night was bad and no sleep makes for a crabby me. I have an old prescription for sleeping pills but I hate using them as they can quickly become habit forming. I would only give in and take a sleeping pill after I had had several nights of little sleep. And it seemed as if the hot flashes were ramping up once again–waking up at night all sweaty is disgusting!
This physician saw no reason why I couldn’t use the hormone patches once again. He gave me many good reasons why it would be OK and so I am sleeping! The very first night I slept eight solid hours and the same the next night. I am a happy camper.
OK guys–you can start reading now. 🙂 What’s wrong with the Cowboy–only once in our almost 24 years of marriage has my dear husband taken a vehicle to a repair shop. We did take our newer, under warranty truck to the shop but that’s different. The Cowboy’s pride and joy–the 1997 Ford F350 is sick–it won’t go into overdrive. The Cowboy ordered one part and installed it but that didn’t fix the issue. Thursday morning we took the truck to Livingston to a transmission shop. I’m thinking the Cowboy has had enough “fixing” with all the repairs he’s had to do on the motorhome and that’s entirely OK–someone else can work on the truck!
We’ve had rain/snow and very chilly temps–the snow didn’t accumulate except up on the mountains.
You know it’s fall when the crows begin to gather and you see lots of bald eagles–we’ve seen about six on our way to town at various times in the last two weeks.
We bought that spruce tree at Costco when it was about two feet tall–it’s grown beautifully–being under the lawn sprinkler system doesn’t hurt!
Our neighbor is supporting lots of deer! And a little restoration–we continue to shake our heads over this motorhome and it’s missing pieces. No generator, no stereo system, no remote controls, no sink and stove covers and the refrigerator was missing several parts–a door handle, the vegetable/fruit bins, and the drip tray under the cooling fins. We finally located a door handle on eBay–it was actually a pair so now we have matching door handles. The drip tray and veggie bins have been impossible to find so today, the Cowboy created a drip tray out of copper–won’t rust. The refrigerator is original to this 2001 motorhome but someone had installed a new Amish cooling unit so hopefully the refrigerator will last a while! 
Today was a beautiful sunny but windy and very chilly day!
Restoration Cowboy Style 
I feel for you. I took Premarin when I first got my hotflashes and a foul mood at 50 yesrs old and kept on them until 2013 when I turned 77 years old and had breast cancer. Luckily I only had a lumpectomy with radiation afterwards. I stopped taking the pills and of course the hot flashes came back with a vengeance the moods were not as bad though at least I thought so, hubby might have thought differently 😉 that lasted for 2 years and I finally complained about it to the doctor at which time I came away with a new prescription for Premarin! GOLD 😁. I plan to never stop them again. I only use the lowest dose every other day and if cancer comes back, so be it. I’ll deal with that but in the meantime my life is good. 🤗
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Thank you Vera–it’s good to know someone else feels the same way I do! I plan on wearing these patches for a long time!
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I’m no mechanic but I do understand how an engine works but when it comes to automatic transmissions I am totally lost. Figure the power goes in one end and a bunch of elves or maybe gremlins do some magic and out the other end comes a different kind of power. Sounds like one of the gremlins has some side effects of his Shing-Rix shot.
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My mechanic can fix anything–most of the time–but I really do think he is stressed from all the motorhome repairs and couldn’t handle one more thing!
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Janna, just wanted to let you know that my husband uses a compressor to blow the water out the coach system instead of using antifreeze. It is usually a quick job.
Great job on the refrigerator drip tray.
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Shiela–we did too with the Country Coach and any other RV we’ve owned but the manual states very emphatically, “don’t try to blow out the AquaHot system.” There are low spots in the system and if water remain behind after blowing out the lines, it could freeze breaking the heating coil–then you have to buy the whole AquaHot system–YIKES!
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Hey, Janna. So glad you are sleeping again! Huge~! My naturopathic doctor at Mayo clinic has me taking melatonin 1-3 mg at bedtime. This has been my salvation! Whatever works, eh?
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I thought about melatonin but I feel so much better when on the patches–my bones don’t hurt, I sleep and those awful hot flashes are gone.
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A new mattress also helped us to sleep better, tempur-pedic is pretty nice.
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All the mattresses in the Arizona house are new and I tried them all :)–didn’t help.
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I too, used to sleep great, then menopause, I sleep, 20 minutes, then wide awake! You can’t operate without sleep! But lately, said quietly, it’s better!
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I thought I was going to be able to go without the patches until the sleep thing cropped up again Geri–like you said, you can’t operate without sleep!
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Whew!! Thanks for the insight into the menopause matter. I never realized it could last so long and be so miserable.
And good luck with the tranny.
Don in Okla.
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My mother is 81 years old Don and still has hot flashes!
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Night sweats are the worst. Thanks goodness I don’t have trouble sleeping with them. Glad you finally got some help so you can get to sleep again. Love the snow with the gold leaves. So pretty…in your photos:) Great job, Michael, with the copper tray!!
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Thanks Pam–I was very pleased with those photos and yes, Michael did a great job with the drip tray!
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Yay for a full night’s sleep. I’ve been fortunate to avoid menopause symptoms so far, but know from friends they can be miserable 😦 Love the snow and bright colored trees. Glad Michael took the truck to the shop with all the hassle of the motorhome repairs he’s been working through. That copper tray is amazing (of course)!
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I thought the new drip tray was mighty snazzy too! I have friends who experienced no menopausal symptoms–I wasn’t that lucky!
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I’m with you on the patch! I was put on hormones at age 50 after my hysterectomy. I continued for ten years with only one change, dropping the testosterone that was in my first Rx. Well, my doctor put me on the patch at age 70 to fight my chronic UTI with the side benefit of getting rid of the hot flashes. For the first time in 6+ years, I was able to stop taking low dose antibiotics (tried several other times and within two weeks, the bladder infection would return). So happy!!
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That’s amazing Donna–good for that doctor’s willingness to try something different and very glad it worked!
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Love the snow pictures!!!! Lots ‘O deer!!! n crows!! Interesting about the patch.. have to let a friend know!!! Take Care!!!
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I too like the snow–in the photos! Seems those patches help women with lots of issues!
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I have a Norcold fridge in my 1988 Winnebago..Still working swell, am I a lucky guy or what?
I have been able to find spare shelf and door things in my local R.V. shop. They let me go through all the old units in their scrap pile..(Free!)…
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Oh, no, David–you should not have bragged about your working Norcold! 🙂 🙂 Evidently there were only a few of these wide Dometic New Dimensions refrigerators built–thus the difficulty in finding parts. For a while we thought the Cowboy was going to have to manufacturer door handles but eBay came through!
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I knew when I wrote that I was taking a chance…What the heck?..30 years..
I had bad luck with a new Dometic A/C. So I can be nothing but happy with a cold freezer and a cool fridge….Rock-on Norcold!
Since I reached a certain age…10 yrs more than you.I am only able to sleep 2 hrs at a time..Do you think there may be a male menopause?…
Any guys out there with the same issue?
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So far the Cowboy sleeps quite well–wakes up too early but he at least gets a good 6-7 hours of sleep and he’s ten years older than me. Some of our friends complain of not sleeping–I think it must be fairly common in our age bracket???
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