When I was little, I would suffer from terrible stomachaches in school. They were so bad that I would have to go to the nurse’s office at times and even be sent home. It turns out I was lactose intolerant—that coupled with having high anxiety did not mix very well.
Hives are medically known as urticaria. They are the sudden appearance of itchy bumps on the skin. Most hives occur on the face, neck, arms and legs and range from small bumps to larger ones. They also come in groups, known as plaques. While they cause itching, sometimes urticaria can also burn or sting.
Stomach ulcers or “peptic ulcers” are truly terrible. They are sores that form in the lining of the stomach or in the first part of your small intestine. These sores can be quite painful, and when left untreated, they can become worse. According to WebMD, if peptic ulcers keep coming back, you may have an increased risk of developing serious complications, such as bleeding or even a hole in the wall of your stomach or small intestine.
I envy the women who are lucky enough to experience a pain-free menstrual cycle each month and essentially go about their daily lives with little to no interruption as their monthly moon waxes and wanes.
My experience has been quite the opposite for as long as I can remember.
For as long as I can remember, my menstrual cycle has been a source of pain, fatigue, and emotionality. While I consider this monthly process of the body to be a sacred one, the disruption that it causes due to the pain and fatigue that I experience during this time is at the point of needing to plan events and trips around my cycle, and sometimes needing to cancel events when it arrives. Needless to say, for the majority of my life, I have overall not ‘enjoyed’ my menstrual cycle, and it is something that I have come to dread and feel powerless to the effects of.
I remember those days when I still lived at home, spoiled by a mom and a gran who love nothing more than feeding and caring for the family.
If I had just a hint of a sniffle, I would be plied with home remedies, most of them involving honey. Basic honey water for something mild, or the famous arad milk for more serious colds.
Called “arad milk” because of the very visible inclusion of arad (also known as haldi or turmeric) in the ingredients, this strange-looking, often-changing concoction was a staple of my childhood sick days.