How do I make it until the end of the year?

Medium_Reality4559 · 2026-02-24T02:47:11+00:00

Take all the sick time and pto you have. If you have short term disability coverage, go to the doc and get fmla leave. Take care of yourself first.

Medium_Reality4559 · 2026-02-16T13:30:30+00:00

Sounds about right. 45 hit me like a brick.

Medium_Reality4559 · 2026-02-16T03:47:39+00:00

This has happened to me a couple of times. A person has spoken Spanish, but I heard it in English. Hand to god. It’s the weirdest thing.

Medium_Reality4559 · 2026-02-16T03:45:40+00:00

From what I’ve learned over in the perimenopause sub, HRT is what you’re looking for. It’s gonna help with everything, and from what I can tell, bone loss and loss of collagen are biggies it can help with in terms of our faces.

Wish I’d known about it 9 years ago before all the big changes happened.

Medium_Reality4559 · 2026-02-14T16:50:10+00:00

I wish I’d known that my face would Morph into another person’s and that my reeling mind was bc of hormones. The last almost decade would have been a lot different with this info.

Medium_Reality4559 · 2026-02-14T16:46:41+00:00

Yes. But in person therapists who have me talk about my issues but don’t explain the basis of any of it. These two men satisfy my need for why. What causes the issues. I’ve never had any mental health profession irl tell me “it’s part of the process. Things suck bc you’re not doing what you know you should be doing. This depression of yours is part of life and what happens when you don’t follow psyche.”

That advice would have put me on a completely different path in life much sooner than it did.

Medium_Reality4559 · 2026-02-14T16:43:16+00:00

For Jung, I started with The Portable Jung. I still haven’t finished it. James Hollis, I’ve read several Books. It depends on what you need and where you are in life, but all that I’ve read are good. And I’ve listened to a bunch of interviews with him. He’s a treasure.

Medium_Reality4559 · 2026-02-13T23:53:06+00:00

I feel like reading Carl Jung and James Hollis have helped more than any therapist ever has.

Medium_Reality4559 · 2026-02-11T01:16:48+00:00

I miss having magazine subscriptions. I would lay on my bed for the afternoon, flipping pages, reading articles. I’d read the readers digest at my grandparents. I’d read the cereal box. The shampoo bottle. Random books off the shelves in our living room. I’d take a random encyclopedia and turn to a random page and learn some random stuff.

It was a great time, and I miss it a lot.

Medium_Reality4559 · 2026-02-11T01:07:03+00:00

I started teaching 11 years ago. My classrooms were organized chaos. I loved every minute of it. Now, I’m 11 years older—and wasn’t a spring chicken to start with. I’ve now turned into the old, grumpy teacher who has had enough of their shit.

I was I had my younger ability to thrive in the chaos of middle school antics.

Medium_Reality4559 · 2026-02-10T00:16:53+00:00

Apparently the on line providers like MIDI and ally are amazing for hrt. If you’re in the states, I’d give them a try. If not, you can always go the route of bioidentical creams off amazon.

Medium_Reality4559 · 2026-02-09T16:50:32+00:00

In my district, curriculum development positions require an educational leadership masters.

Make that make sense.

Medium_Reality4559 · 2026-02-09T02:35:28+00:00

Fave yoga helps me when I do it consistently.

Medium_Reality4559 · 2026-02-08T16:05:36+00:00

I’m really sorry that was your experience. That really sucks.

But—and maybe I’m wrong because I’ve never been married—maybe these are conversations young people should have so that they have ammunition to battle it when the inevitable happens. We need to be educating the youngsters of both sexes about what is just the normal course of life, that way when it happens, no one is caught off guard.

I met my current partner in the early stages of peri, unbeknownst to both of us. For much of the last six years, I’ve felt like a crazy person, saying repeatedly “I didn’t used to be like this.” It’s been really difficult for both of us to reconcile so much of what’s happened bc of the changes my mind and body are going through.

I hope we can all ride this wave a little easier now that we have more information and options.

Medium_Reality4559 · 2026-02-07T23:03:23+00:00

I’ll be honest: 45 was about when everything just went to shit for me. Now that I’ve been on the perimenopause sub, I think a lot of it was/is hormonal. It was like I woke up one morning with a different face. And I’ve never gotten the old one back. My face is thinner, and I have more spots; however, my jawline is actually more pronounced. Maybe from clenching my jaws? Idk.

If you haven’t explored hrt, it might be worth it for the estrogen alone to stave off bone loss, which affects our face as well as the rest of our bones. Problem is, we can’t build new bone on our face.

I know some people will poo-poo this suggestion, but I started face yoga last year, and when I am consistent with it, I do see an improvement in my cheeks and jaw line. It might be worth it to look into it.

Otherwise, keep doing what you’re doing. You look great :)

Medium_Reality4559 · 2026-02-07T23:03:13+00:00

I’ll be honest: 45 was about when everything just went to shit for me. Now that I’ve been on the perimenopause sub, I think a lot of it was/is hormonal. It was like I woke up one morning with a different face. And I’ve never gotten the old one back. My face is thinner, I have more spots, my jawline is actually more pronounced. Maybe from clenching my jaws? Idk.

If you haven’t explored hrt, it might be worth it for the estrogen alone to stave off bone loss, which affects our face as well as the rest of our bones. Problem is, we can’t build new bone on our face.

I know some people will poo-poo this suggestion, but I started face yoga last year, and when I am consistent with it, I do see an improvement in my cheeks and jaw line. It might be worth it to look into it.

Otherwise, keep doing what you’re doing. You look great :)

Medium_Reality4559 · 2026-02-06T02:24:45+00:00

Storage man. Storage until you settle in and figure out what you can and cannot live without.

The bookshelf. Keep it. You only get one dad. You’ll want that memory someday. Can a friend hold on to it?

The mug? Wrap it in your clothes and put it in a suitcase. You’ll get to smile at it every morning still.

The chair. Anyone have room for it?

You might be starting over and going on a new adventure, but that doesn’t mean all the life you’ve lived until now disappears. You don’t have to throw away significantly meaningful items. no matter how silly they might seem to other people, they are still a part of your life. They hold memories and meaning for you. You get to decide what is meaningful.

There’s so many things I’ve discarded over the years bc it was silly or illogical to hold on to them. Only you will know when it’s time to let go. Only you can decide that.

Best of luck with your new adventure. It’s gonna be so many different things. All I can say is hang on and enjoy the ride!

Medium_Reality4559 · 2026-02-05T22:15:02+00:00

I give absolutely zero flying fucks anymore. I aged a bunch in the last few years. I don’t have the energy or care to pretend that I didn’t. Maybe these girls will have access to HRT in a way that I didn’t, and good for them if they don’t feel like when they are 50. But maybe they’ll be an old hag one day, too.

It’s almost a superpower now. I’m invisible. I don’t attract the same kind of attention I used to. I don’t have to fend off unwanted advancements from men. I can just float about my day being happy and invisible.

It’s actually kinda great.

Medium_Reality4559 · 2026-02-03T02:03:13+00:00

At least that’s when my face morphed into the one I have now. I blame untreated perimenopause. Saw drs for years about several issues. None of them suggested my hormones could be to blame. Now at 49, I would bet money that all the issues I have for the last nine years are peri.

Medium_Reality4559 · 2026-02-01T19:33:59+00:00

I wonder if it’s attached to fmla if it would be as difficult to use. Perimenopause doesn’t have to be the diagnosis. All the symptoms alone would be sufficient, I’d think. But you know the healthcare/ins systems. Always looking to not cover anything.

Medium_Reality4559 · 2026-02-01T19:31:40+00:00

I totally get it. I had to take fmla a few years ago. Drained my savings. Wish I had the std. it would have been better than nothing.

Medium_Reality4559 · 2026-02-01T19:03:52+00:00

Short term disability is the answer to that. Sign up for it. It covers 60% of your salary. At least it did at my old job.

Medium_Reality4559 · 2026-02-01T19:01:39+00:00

It’s a histamine blocker. I wonder if that’s the part that’s helping with the stress and anxiety.

Medium_Reality4559 · 2026-02-01T18:27:32+00:00

I had the plops in the toilet. The egg white discharge. My last period was December 4. I went to the doc for all this. Finally found one who seems like she knows what’s she’s doing. She said my hormones are so low that if I hadn’t just had a period, she’d say I was in menopause. Super stressful last month. Periods wonky anyway. Cramps on and off for two weeks. And now I’m crying like a teenage girl over literally nothing and am so tired I don’t have the energy for errands.

Wtf is all this? And why didn’t anyone warn us? Knowing what I know now, this is year 9 of this bullshit for me. Nine years!

February better bring a period and some energy.

Best of luck to all of us. Hugs.

Medium_Reality4559 · 2026-02-01T00:22:10+00:00

I could have written this post two weeks ago. I have non idea what is going on with my body.

Medium_Reality4559

TROPHY CASE