Dearest, I was being sarcastic. Sorry if you took my post the wrong way. I never saw the program but my point was that if she wasn't getting to the nuts and bolts of some of these severe meno symptoms then she was doing a great disservice to many women. I was thinking of the thousands of women sitting at home experiencing internal shaking or heart palps and haven't found Power Surge or even have access to a computer.  Watching a show about "finding the woman inside" isn't going to be much help for someone who's wondering if they should go to the ER. I hope you understand what i'm trying to say here.

I'm so thankful that I found Power Surge......I wish everyone going through this horrific time could find their way here.

I agree.  These problems of internal shaking, weird dreams, disrupted sleep, anxiety etc cannot be eased away by just watching a TV program or reading a book.  Most resources won't address them anyway.  You have to be in communication with others who are experiencing the same thing and know that you are not alone in this.  To know that what seems very strange and unreal is a natural, common thing that happens to many women.  It is such a shame that people, even doctors and I'm sure a TV personality such as Oprah, treat the really scary symptoms of menopause as hush-hush topics.

  Thank you so much, Dearest, for providing us with Power Surge.

(Edited by HippieHeron at 12:18 pm on Feb. 14, 2002)

(Edited by HippieHeron at 6:25 pm on Feb. 18, 2002)

Dearest - PLEASE READ!

I haven't been on since I posted about the Oprah Show and just now saw your post.  First, I have to say that I like Oprah and I think she tries hard to help people.  And, she is only human like the rest of us.  But, I think you may have taken my post in the wrong way.  The reason that I was so excited about her upcoming show was because I had contacted her several times and asked her to let women out there know about your site.  She has such a following that I was hoping that she would get the word out there to all the women who are suffering and have nowhere to turn that there is this great site for women.  I was disappointed that she didn't mention Power-Surge, and with all the emails that she gets, she probably didn't even see mine.  Right after I watched the show, and it didn't even mention internal shaking, or Power-Surge I contacted her again. I even told her that she would have been able to relieve her tensions over the symptoms she was experiencing had she visited the site.  But Dearest, I am sorry if you took my post in the wrong way.  It wasn't to applaud her for doing the show.  It was because I had hoped with all my heart she was going to tell women about Power-Surge.  It is one of my crusades to let women know that this site is here.  I have contacted OB-GYN's to tell them about it.

MaggieMay - that happens to me too.  If I can sleep and wake naturally, without an alarm or phone waking me - then it doesn't seem to be as bad.  Right now I am suffering horribly.  The shaking has returned for the past two days and has been consistently non-stop.  No matter how much Xanax I take - it isn't touching it.  My legs feel like rubber and I am back to my old way of thinking that this must be because of something horrible going wrong.  This, along with the panic attacks that I have had since 1985, and the extreme pain of the rheumatoid arthritis (which I can't alleviate with pain meds cause they hurt my stomach), I sometimes wonder just how much a person can take.  :-(

Dearest, again, please understand why I posted what I did. I love you and your site.  If you ever take it down - it will be an enormous loss for women. I didn't think I was going to hear anything on Oprah's show that I didn't find on this site.  I thought the show was going to get the word out about you to millions.  I am so disappointed that it didn't. PS: I hope you are feeling better.

Sandi

Hi, I posted on the night sweats board, but I also have had chills and shaking. After reading alot of other womens symptoms, I guess my chills shakes & sweats fit right in there with good ol' menopausal inbalance. I have started on some natural hormones, and have use them now for two weekz. Estradiol & prometrium. I have also talked to Pete Hueseman, nice man by the way, and being as how I have my yearly exam coming up tomorrow, he advised me to get some more testing done on my hormones, so the doc & him can get it straight as to what I need to really be on and how often. Hopefully, I'll be fine tuned in a couple of months, and my anxiety levels will go down a lot. This whole thing really threw me. For 8 years I thought I had menopause under control. Oh well, as I can see I am not alone in my plight. Thanks for all your imput, it feels good to know there are others out there with similar problems.I think reading uplifting books by people like Dr. Wayne Dyer & Marianne Williamson, really help too. Well geez, I should write a book. This is way to long. Thanks if you read all this.

I'm a grad. student in speech path, and have been researching this precise problem for some years now.  There is no specific neuro/endocrino info on this problem, though it does exist.  I've suffered from it since my mid thirties, and I'm 47 now.  I think it is a benign, though alarming and uncomfortable condition, however, resulting from the severe hormonal changes (which also act as neurotransmitters throughout our brain and body) brought about by perimenopause and menopause.  You need to remember that the place of importance of women in every aspect, including their health, is new to the world, even in the US.  There is little time or incentive for providing for the investigative health concerns of women.  Male physicians cannot relate to female conditions, they don't experience them.  They can only quickly rely on homogenous solutions to the myriad problems they are presented with every day.  The health system our legislative system has allowed to flourish dictates our health status.  When women learn how to take their health concerns out of cyberspace and into the 3d world, they will have a better chance of solving them.   You can be sure that menopausal symptoms have been around for milleniums.  If they were life-threatening, we wouldn't be around to discuss them.  We notice them more, because we are living beyond 45 years of age to experience them.  So, there must be something in our life-system that allows us to survive, despite the unpleasant symptoms.  Men don't have this.  What are we going to do about it?  Nothing.  

Call me an optimist, but just the fact that we are here,on this message board, talking about it, means we are doing something!  We are comforting each other, as only women can, and sharing our experiences and information.  Menopause is a temporary, although sometimes unnerving, continuation of our life journey.  We must look at the positives and do all we can to make them outweigh the negatives!  

Hi Yankee....Long time no hear from....Been thinking about you off and on, wondering where the heck you were ....Missed you on these boards....Hope that you are doing ok....You are so right about looking at the positives and not the negatives...It helps us get through things that life throws at us alot easier....Take Care my friend....Sweetface

Hi Debra,Thank you for your very sweet post - it's nice to have been missed!  My life's been nutty - my car died on the highway 3 days before Xmas, and I was dealing with all of that, my mother (who is in a nursing home) had to be admitted to the hospital for a week for dehydration, last weekend my son's car, which was parked in front of the house, was smashed into (hit and run), and I'm just mentioning the MAJOR stuff!   LOL     As I said, it's been really nutty. I had been feeling great, up until last week.  I've gotten a normal period for the past two months, but just last week I started all of my "weird" symptoms.....mild sore throat, aches/pains everywhere (muscles and joints) and cramps, breast tenderness,  fluttering in chest, etc.  Now today I  have a little spotting  so I will see if it's the start of my period (which is due around the 15th).  I'm not usually early but then, in this stage, anything is possible!Hopefully, when things calm down a bit (ha!) I'll have a little more time to spend here with my friends at Power Surge.  Thanks again, Sweetface, and hope you're feeling okay too!  - Kim

Yankee....It's just good to have you back here.....It sounds like you've had alot on your plate lately, to say the least.....You poor thing still having periods and all..That's enough to drive anyone batty....I'm sorry to hear that things have kind of been in an uproar for you...Life sometimes just doesn't seem fair does it ?? Especially when things hit us from all directions....But somehow we finally get through it, and then we say "whew" ! Right ?....Well, I've been doing ok....I had an appendectomy on Feb 26th, but am fine now....Boy, that thing hit me all at once...Weird, I thought only kids got appendicitis....Not true....But am doing fine once again and back to where I left off....Hope to see you around more often Yankee, as you've really been missed, and I enjoy your posts....Take Care,Debraps....I know what you mean about the achey joints etc...I've been having my share also....In fact I've been using my heat/massager chair pad often lately....My joints just hurt !!!...You ought to purchase one Kim, they are cheap and they work good....At least it has for me....

Hi Everyone!

An epiphany, an awakening, a sigh of relief especially through the knowledge that generous and caring women have imparted to those of us walking the trembly landscape of menopause.

Like many of you, I ran to my doctor when the "internal vibration" first started. I'd just started jogging again, after a very long time, and the exercise felt great. I exercise regularly by I wanted to shed a few pounds and needed to ratchet up the fat-burners.

Well...my internist, a man of compassion and warmth, listened intently, read the information I'd found on the internet and printed about B12 deficiencies and "tingling," and noted that my blood tests indicated I was probably iron deficient. Since I hadn't had a period in 8 months, he felt that I needed to see a gastroenterologist to rule out gastric obstructions or bleeding. The endoscopy proved negative and now they want me to have a colonoscopy, even though the one I had 2 years ago left me, in the doc's words "clean as a whistle."

So, the iron deficiency anemia is being treated with iron supplements. I started to obsess about the "internal vibration" in my left which moved to my left side, my chest, my arm and was not painful. It is then that the journey of medical merry-go-rounds began. Second leg on the tour...the neurologist...I went to him because of my leg jangling, quaking, trembling, vibrating, electrical shock-like feelings with no associated pain. A compassionate soul, he listened intently to my numerous complaints, the sad state of my $ affairs because I'd lost my job and couldn't find another, raising a child alone, and so forth and so on....until nothing more I could say would offer him a clue. His answer "90% of internal vibrations are psychogenic and the only other thing I know of that could cause it is Parkinson's but I don't see any evidence of that."

There it was, out in the open, the words said by male medical practitioners "psychogenic." I told him that I knew my body and it reacts to stress differently. I have Trigeminal Neuralgia, an extremely painful facial pain disorder that is unusual before the age of 40. I was 35 when diagnosed with it and it appears to me, after reading here that Internal Shaking is not one of the more usual symptoms of menopause,  that I may be predisposed to "nerve" affectations.

Anyway, because of the TN he sent me for a Brain MRI to rule out Multiple Sclerosis, then he did an EMG to rule in Carpal Tunnel, and Evoked Potental Nerve Conduction Studies to rule out MS or other motor neuron disorders. Thankfully, all negative! So, back to the "internal vibration..." I went to all these doctors for that in the first place and no one was able to diagnose it, not even my ob/gyn who said he's heard of "tingling" but not "internal vibration."

I think my friends and family believe I am too worried about my health but now that I know other women share my shakiness, I'm calmer already.

I'd been exposed to a power surge under my home when one of the electrical cables blew and caused that portable phone I was talking on to disappear. So, it's ironic or pehaps prophetic to find that the name of this board is "power surge." I even began to think that it had set off the vibrations and searched for information about that.

My sister is a great doc - she diagnosed my TN when doctor after doctor dismissed my pain even though I couldn't speak, eat or read a story to my young son - and even she didn't know if this was a symptom of menopause. I've asked the question to all the doctors about it being a symptom of menopause and the men looked at me as if I were just another neurotic woman patient.

OK, so I validated them, I said "I'm just another neurotic woman patient but please help me..." The day my shaking started, I felt as if the vibrations from the TV or movie I went to were coming through the floor and the seats.

So, finding this site has made me feel 100% better! Thank you! Oh, and I take Neurontin for the Trigeminal Neuralgia and that is the medication of choice for patients with "tremors."

I cannot take HRT as my mom had breast cancer 32 years ago (she's fine!!) and there's a history of it in my family. The doc recommended phytoestrogens or soy products but my sister said the studies don't show much promise - more of a placebo effect. I will try it, anyway, because after developing an allergy to the initial TN medication I found capsaisin, which got me eating in 2 days and kept me pain-free for 10 years. Now, it's not enough, but the Neurontin really helps.

Thank you for listening. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for caring.

Bebe

Hi Bebe,What a time you've had!  It really amazes me at how little most Dr.s know about menepause. Thank God for the web site ! I thought I was going crazy! My Dr. had me on antidepressents and sedatives and I"ve never been depressed in my life( until starting perimenepause!) Anyway, the internal shaking is a very common symptom and most of us have experienced it. I find that sometimes it helps me if I eat something.( maybe it's all in my mind, but at least I feel better!)Glad you found power-surge!

Suzie

Hi Bebe.....At http://www.power-surge.com/revival1.htm it gives you the latest info on soy and its benefits and efficacy.  I think you should visit the site as you may find that soy could be helpful to you. I have been using Revival since August 2001 and feel so much better as many of the women on this site do.  Also there is a whole thread on Revival that will give you some insight  from women who are using soy for meno symptoms.

Blessings and be well.