Health overview - mothernature nightmares!

So recently, I've had a whirlwind of a week. Recently I had really bad period pains, and I had to find another source of pain relief other than pain killers. I try most of the time to avoid painkillers because I definitely don't want my body to become immune against them. Therefore I was working and they kicked in so bad, I struggled to eat my food when sitting down as the cramps were in my very low abdominal section, and I had to find something that would kick in straight away!

So where can you go wrong with heat? It's honestly one of the best things I've used to calm down the cramps. I brought a heat pack containing two heat packs in one for just 99p! I got these from a shop B&M which is UK based, however you can buy them from any supermarket store I'm sure of. These heat packs had to be placed on top of your t-shirts and not on the skin because the greatest thing was, these packs heated on their own when unsealed, and they didn't need a microwave or to be pressed against the stomach. So I applied one to my t-shirt which was quite light and wore a coat over it. I noticed after 15-20 minutes the pad stuck very well and heated well. It's average temperature to reach was 56 degrees, the highest was 64. It also lasted 12 hours, obviously the heat pad if not kept ideally warm will cool down and go quite solid. If you're lying in bed and you can keep the covers over you, you can manage to keep one heat pack going for 6-7 hours easily above 30 degrees. 

 














As soon as they got hot, the cramps were easily calmed down. It also helped that I took two really strong ibuprofen. I sipped plenty of water to stay hydrated and kept on my feet. Gently rubbing the lower abdominal really helped. 

Another alternative to the heat packs are a simple hot water bottle. If possible when you have them really bad, get into bed or on the sofa and definitely apply heat to the section where it's hurting the most and take ibuprofen every 4 hours, one should be fine with heat applied, if no heat take 4. Green tea is also fantastic to relief stress from the cramps and anything hot liquid wise that you can drink is suitable.

If you struggle to deal with period pains to the point where you struggle to get out of bed, even after applying heat or taking pain killers, definitely contact your GP. I started the contraceptive pill mainly because of mine and they definitely eased the heaviness of the period itself and the pains. 

Yet we can't stop mother nature! Hang in there, take it easy & relax!