Symptoms on Shine

Be honest: Do you track your periods?

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You know that dreaded moment when you are sitting in your gynecologist's office? No, not stepping on the scale. Not stripping down to your socks and the ill-fitting gown, and not the shiver of the inevitably frigid speculum.

You know the moment I mean -- the one when the just-nice-enough nurse asks you to tell her the first day of your last period.

What's it take for you to call in sick?

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A wave of coughing, congestion, and discomfort has swept through my home. It came on quickly, as it usually does, during the weeks when I haven't had enough sleep and the kids at my son's preschool seem to be more sniffly than usual. It's inevitable every that every couple of months during the winter, we will go through an alarming number of tissues, cartons of orange juice, and hours spent sitting in a steamy bathroom.

I've gotten pretty good at handling cold symptoms, especially since I've been a parent, and have my basket of medicines and remedies on the ready. What I am not good about, quite honestly, is taking time off to really fight back against the germs and weariness.

I don't just write about periods. No, sometimes I write about PMS: How do you ease your premenstrual symptoms?

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I am at the point where a good rant is in order. It has been one of those weeks of soreness and cramps and bloated,...

Googling your symptoms: A DO or a DON’T?

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OK, I know you're probably going to think I'm going through a paranoid phase given yesterday's topic and now this, but I've recently become obsessed with Googling every ache and itch I (and Nick and