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Merry Christmas

21st December 2011 by Leave a Comment

Ok so it’s Christmas! What about those crazy presents that _someone_ thinks
I would like?!


Maybe I can re-gift them? But oh, the horror, what about if I give those
hideous padded hangers to the girl next door, and she gives them to the guy
who washes her car, and he gives them to his auntie, who is my patient and
she……. gives them back to me?!!!

&@)/$&@!

So accordingly I do not re-gift, just in case.

But I AM guilty of buying something for myself, which I liked, and still
like, and then have had to move it to a friend I temporarily forgot! There
are quite a few friends who are the accidental recipients of my chosen
self-gifts. When you live alone you sometimes find yourself buying things ”
for my birthday” or ” for Christmas” on the basis that those Mr Men
I married would have spent at least _some_ of _my _money on a gift for me.

But alas I have had to declare 2012 a ‘shoe-free’ year. So I only have 13
days to go! But if I buy even one more _single_ shoe I will be ‘divorced’ by
my beautiful assistant. She recently moved me ( and all my clothes and
‘stuff’) into a different bedroom in my house and vowed and declared that I
was not allowed to bring any more of _anything_ into the house. So
especially shoes are out of the question. Well, for 2012 at least.

Where does this compulsion come from? Many, many women have the same
feelings and will admit it to me behind closed doors. But what causes it? I
am not sure I want to be cured of this disease. I love my shoes. They make
me feel properly dressed. Maybe because of all those years when I had one
pair of shoes for school. Brown, too big ( so I could grow into them) and
now I have these curly toes from grabbing the insides as hard as I could so
I could run and play etc.

But I digress.

We should never re-gift. Give things to charity so someone who really needs
them can have them. But if you are passing by and see padded hangers in my
room…. Pass right by and know they are not for you. Well, not this year!!

Be well, love everyone around you, even when it’s difficult.

Happy Christmas everyone!

Love Maura

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Everything Changes! So How Do We Cope With Constant External Change?

21st December 2011 by Leave a Comment

Everything changes. Only change itself is permanent. Humans crave security
but it can only be found within ourselves. The world is constantly changing
around us. “You cannot step into the same river twice” we have heard, as the
river moves, and so does life.

How do we cope with constant external change? Clearly people do. Think of
army personnel regularly moved from place to place with their
families,changing workplaces, changing schools. Yet the world is not full of
ex-army sociopaths. So how do they do it?

Pause to think of young people volunteering around the world in different
places. Some never return permanently. Some cannot wait to get home and
settle down. Neither is perfect but each one finds their own way.

Change was never a problem for me. I happily moved house over and over, ever
new towns or cities, new friends and new opportunities to explore. I did not
have my parents around me, though I always knew they were there (in Ireland,
of course). Maybe that is the clue. There was always a path back if I needed
it. What if there is no path back? Where do you find the stability to stand
up and move forward?

The single constant that is present in our lives, however foolhardy, or
footloose, we may have been is the power of friends and family. If we have
someone to talk to who will accept us as we are, that gives great strength
and courage. Mostly we have dysfunctional families. The more I hear of my
friends’ family issues, the more I realise there is no such thing as the
perfect family, happy and supportive whatever happens.

Your crisis will occur on the same day your mother’s house is broken into.
Or your job will disappear from under you just when you didn’t see it coming
and your brother’s wife goes into labour. It is not always possible to find
an ear to listen when you exactly need it. Sometimes you have to wait for
sympathy until the other crisis has passed.

Life is like a storm. It passes. Asking to remain the same throughout all
circumstances is unrealistic. The people, the timing and the lessons emerge
in their own good time, not necessarily when you think you need them. If
you can just weather the changes that are brought about by time and place,
hanging on to what is most important to you, you can go along with most
changes.

In my case the constant was my two boys, whom I have always adored and let
them know that nothing, ever, would make me not love them. Of course they
have caused me grief from time to time, even often, as they were growing up.
But there was never a time when I wanted to hand them back. Thanks to the
good lord they have not been in circumstances where I have had to give up
care of them to others, and my heart goes out to those mothers whose
children have such severe disabilities that they cannot be cared for at
home.

How would we cope with that? Trust that you are, right now,exactly on the
very spot you were supposed to be in this lifetime. You and the Universal
Energy, God, the Divine, Nature, Allah or whatever you believe in, have
chosen this moment. So trust it is going to be OK. Go with the changes. Be
strong like water, not like a volcano. Let life take you where you are meant
to go and be glad.

Love always wins.
Maura

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What Are You Buying For Christmas?

7th December 2011 by Leave a Comment

OK, so we older, well-mannered Aussies have heard all about how the younger generation have no manners, can’t read, don’t know how to talk to their families, elders, or indeed anyone who does not know the ‘lingo’. All they do all day is use their gadgets, X Box, iPhone, Computer game, Nintendo etc etc.

We know how frustrating it is to get your point across even to one’s own generation sometimes if they are on another mind set. So what are the consequences of allowing our children and even our young adults to get away without knowing the rudiments of good conversation?

There are people that we all call bores who keep on and on about their pet subject even though all the body language indicates their companions have tuned out.  It is a social agony to be stuck with someone who ‘spouts’ all the time without the merest interest in anyone else, or even sharing the talk-time around. You would think they had been an invited speaker!

The other pet peeve I have is someone who so dominates the subject under discussion that even when someone comments or interjects they reply. And reply to the next one too. And the next one. Sorry, but this is a group discussion and not everyone wants to talk to you all night, not unless you are Stephen Fry in disguise!

But back to our young people. Kids of all ages have always shared a sort of slang that their comrades know as a semi-secret language, but it was never a threat to community safety and socialisation until recently. I recall the pirate radio stations we used to listen to when my parents allowed us to get close to the radio. And close we had to be, as they were brought up on Bing Crosby and we wanted to listen to the Beatles! Dad insisted the volume be kept down to where he could not hear it and we only had one radio, never mind one in the bedroom, or, God Forbid, a TV in the bedroom!

In case you think my concerns are trivial, consider this…. There is a whole generation of children who do not know how to use cutlery since all of their meals have been fast food, eaten by hand! Now it seems there may be a whole generation that have no idea how to manage a group discussion with decency, manners and allowing everyone a fair chance to state their position.  There are already communication problems between one social group and another; see any industrial relations dispute as an example. What if there is such a gap that one group cannot adequately understand the point of view of the other?

There are frightening possibilities when we realise that it is the young people of today that will be the middle-aged of tomorrow, and looking after the elderly in their nursing homes in the future. That will be me, being looked after by an X-box freak I cant talk to.  Is that what we want?

I am just hoping that enough general education, enough university places, enough mixing of age groups will occur so that we can bridge the gap. But it starts today, with the presents you buy them for Christmas when they are aged 6-12.  If they are electronic presents, make sure they are not allowed at the family dinner table. You DO have a family dinner table, don’t you??

Be well

Maura

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When Did You Stop Trusting Your Intuition?

30th November 2011 by 1 Comment

Did you ever wonder what happens with all the invisible radio and other waves that are flying about you every day? Think of how many cars have keyless entry, how many house alarms systems exist, how many wireless-connected shops and homes there are…. Wow! And we can ‘feel’ none of it.

However, we have always existed in an energy universe. The technical geeks have not created the energy, just harnessed it by using methods they have discovered. So how come we haven’t developed the innate ability to ‘use’ the energies that surround us? We have! We have forgotten how, that’s all.

We discussed this at my Mind-Body Medicine High Tea on the Gold Coast recently which, some of my patients who attended tell me was energising and inspiring. You see, the energy universe has always been there. Radio signals did not come into being just when we discovered them. They existed before, but we didn’t know. Similarly, magnetic resonance, as a science, is very new but magnetism has always been there.

Generations ago humans were able to be much more trusting of their intuition, and made decisions based on facts as well as the internal feelings about things, because they were not told in school, or at home, to ignore those intuitions. The development of the scientific era meant that all of a sudden mankind (and womankind) were encouraged to view intuition as superstition or too ‘woo-woo’ if decisions did not conform to the provable facts. Deductions were ‘rational’ and therefore acceptable but modern man has tuned off his internal antennae and much of what we once could feel now passes us by.

When I lecture on mid life issues I take a whole segment of time to open my listeners up to the whole energy universe idea and try to show that we can, and should, use the talents we have or can develop so as to improve our natural abilities. Sometimes I am criticised for introducing such thoughts, probably because they tread on people’s religious toes.

But I don’t mean to cross over into any form of religious belief. The natural world is exactly as it was created for us to explore, understand and use as God or the Creator intended. Whatever your core beliefs, you probably don’t disapprove of radio, so why disapprove of using the energy power of our minds to produce a good result?

I am a Reiki Master from the Usui system of Reiki and the best thing about Reiki is the ability to utilise skills across any boundaries, whether social, physical or religious. The energy is still part of the natural world, available to all, not just a select elite. I don’t use my Reiki anything like as often as I should, being so busy all the time. But I just had a lovely person ask for me to send them some Reiki energy at a distance and I suddenly thought of how radio-like it is, and yet we are not aware of it around us.

Many of my followers read my blogs and I hear that the menopause-related topics are not the only ones to stir up discussion! So much so that I plan to spend more time talking about all of the areas of mid life at “Hormones, Health & Healing” my 2 day event in May, because at this age, we have gathered enough experience to be able to extend our knowledge base and experience different things in a considered way. We can also enjoy things more, and maybe if we learn to use the energy universe, we can enrich our lives and those around us even more.

Blessings!

Maura

PS  If you attended my High Tea on Sunday I would love to hear your thoughts, please click on the icon in the top right of this blog and leave me a comment.

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Would You Like to Join Me for High Tea?

8th November 2011 by Leave a Comment

If you have been to one of my longer seminars, you will know that I am very involved with mind-body medicine concepts, and I try to give an introduction to the subject while you are there. So much of the hormone world is affected by our personality, reactions, and emotions that it would be silly to omit using the mind power as well as working with the chemistry of the body.

Some people think they would like to explore more of the subject of mind-body medicine and for just a few of you I am thinking of putting together a table at a local restaurant (on the Gold Coast) to discuss further developments in this area. For the duration of either lunch or afternoon tea we could sit around in a small group and I can tell you some of the more amazing things emerging in this field.

If you would be interested in joining me at this table, it will cost you about $45 including a $5 donation to the Jane McGrath Breast Cancer Foundation.   The date will not be fixed until I see whether you might be interested, so please email me at info@drmauramcgill.com and I will decide how many I can fit in!

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What A great Time We Had in Mackay!

8th November 2011 by Leave a Comment
What a great time we had in Mackay! Took me back, I can tell you!
I saw many of you as a patient there and I just need to make sure that all of you go to have your tests done asap so that I can get back to you. Many of course had them done in time for the consultation, so this doesn’t apply to you! So far, I have the test results for only half of the people I saw so am anxiously awaiting the rest of the tests to come through.
There are three ways you can get in touch with me for a further consultation:
1. By coming to the Gold Coast and seeing me at my clinic. The telephone no is 5575 2444 and the girls on the desk will be happy to help you. The cost of a normal 15 minute consultation at the clinic is $65, and is partly-rebateable by Medicare.
2. By giving me your Skype address and making a booking with the clinic for a Skype consultation. You will need to be available exactly at the time specified as I am one of the very few doctors in the world that runs on time!! The cost of a Skype consultation is $95, and it is non-rebateable by Medicare, but it might save you air fares or other travel expenses.
3. By calling the clinic for a telephone consultation, ONLY if you do not have Skype, and ONLY as a pre-booked time for telephone consultation. The cost is the same as a Skype consultation and is non-rebateable by Medicare.
In each case, I will only agree to a Skype or telephone consultation if I have seen you personally within the past 12 months.
This, as you might guess, is because with several of you I picked up things by looking at you and talking personally to you that I might not have seen or heard with the distance of phone or Skype.  This is for your protection. But as travel and getting away from work to come to the Gold Coast is often difficult or prohibitively expensive, I am happy to accommodate you by Skype or phone.
In no circumstances do I consult by email, or I would be inundated!!! However, if you  wish to send me information by email PRIOR to a Skype or telephone booked consultation, I will be happy to receive it.
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Time Waits For No Man…Or Woman!

28th October 2011 by Leave a Comment

What happens when a beautiful woman reaches 50? Or 60? God forbid she should wake up one day and find she is 70! We make jokes about growing old disgracefully but we overlook what happens to someone who, for their whole lives, have been thought of and spoken of as ‘beautiful’.

It is a big shock to have to re-invent yourself at menopause. The idea that everyone goes through it so you should be able to ‘get over it!’  is unfair to those who have been beautiful all their lives. I speak at my seminars about true beauty coming from the soul, etc but we all know that even if we don’t live it day to day. We praise our pretty children and quite obviously NOT praise the more ‘homely’, as they say in the US.  Unless we know they have other attributes that can honestly be praised instead.

And that creates a monster problem, both for the pretty one and the clever one, which latter girl is condemned to exercise her brain her whole life but can never really meet the standard of the beautiful one. Know anyone like that?

But time fixes all that. Wits last, looks don’t. Now there are women everywhere who have been told they are beautiful, have entered beauty contests, some from an early age, and it is about to be taken from them by those twin perils, time and gravity.

Unless you, and it may so easily be you, take time out to deal with the crisis of looming middle then old age. How to manage it? Firstly take stock.

No one has everything. What do you have? We all know too well what we don’t have, so no use going there all the time. They say happiness consists of: something to do, someone to love, and something to look forward to. A lot of women think someone to love means a husband/partner/lover but friends and children can also fulfill this role.

There is no shortage of ‘something to do’ in this world but if your days are idle, then find someone to help at least. My life is way too busy right now so if I sound a tad unsympathetic to those with idle hours, I assure you it’s just envy.

Where I’m really going with this is to a place where all women, even the pretty ones, can find that age is a bonus, a treat, an unexpected gift. No one is going to expect you to carry all the shopping if you have company. No one is going to insist you wear a bikini ( on the grounds of public safety, I have always avoided them; don’t want a riot of protest). No one is going to expect you to be an adept at computers, the fact that you can email or text seems to satisfy most people.

So there are whole areas of life we don’t have to deal with if we really don’t want to. I dropped a packet in the supermarket the other day. Picking things up off the floor is one of the remaining challenges from my back operation. I simply looked helplessly at a passing customer half my age and she very kindly sprang into action to help the ‘old dear’ as I smiled my thanks. See? That was easy. She doesn’t need to knowI am capable of instant life and death decisions in the clinic, along as I am content to let her feel useful for a moment!

Words become ever more important as we get older and deal with life changes, like menopause, but there are many others.  Words should be spoken with more care since we are past the age of blurting out whatever crosses our diminishing minds! Forgiving an older woman for an unintended slur is hard. Best not to go there in the first place. Besides, a silence is often the best retort when things are hot, conversationally, that is.

Freedom to be who you want to be only comes after you have given the young years to your parents by way of educational effort, then the middle years you give to your children as a parent, the rest are for…. You!

If you have had the blessing of true beauty when younger, then for Heaven’s sake don’t give up now on dressing well, good make-up and losing weight. Which, by the way, is the same for us all, whether good looking or otherwise.

No more dowdy clothes, no more crappy shoes, no more cinched waists and keep those hemlines down! Sad sight at the same supermarket… The woman had obviously been given great legs and thin ankles when younger (so jealous) but forgot that as her stomach grew bigger the hemline stood out a long way from her legs and the skirt was so short I was scared she would have to bend to pick something from low down in which case she might as well not have been wearing a skirt at all!  Old knees are not pretty, no matter who you are.

The best advice I ever had, which has seen me through events both tragic and wonderful, is to smile. A smile costs nothing and can mean everything. It softens the heart, uplifts the spirits and turns a sad face into a radiant one.

When there is no money, no love and no hope, then is when you need a smile.  It changes lives, yours most of all.

Be well

Maura

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Hormones For Life

5th October 2011 by Leave a Comment

While making a video blog recently, which you may have seen, one question has bothered me and I suspect it bothers a lot of women.

Many, many women on long term HRT are reluctant to come off in case the dreaded hot flushes come back to make their lives miserable. That can be managed so that they can come off standard HRT easily. I am so used to finding that fear of coming off standard HRT that I have never considered the opposite until now. It begs the question: if I once start on any form of hormone therapy, will I have to take it for life?

The answer of course is: No. Taking hormone treatment is partly dictated by symptoms, and partly by principles of preventive medicine. But no one has to take hormones forever. Oestrogen is taken primarily to combat hot flushes and for a period restricted to 5 years post menopause. From time to time you should try coming down in dosage, to see if you can wean off the oestrogen. Progesterone can be taken for much longer, and there is anecdotal and scientific evidence to suggest that really much older women can benefit from it for moods, bones and alertness.

But even then hormones are not expected to be forever. Take them while the symptoms persist, and every now and then test to see whether you are coming out the other side of menopause. That’s another reason for repeated testing of your levels every so often.

If you are my patient, don’t be afraid to remind me to give you a break from oestrogen now and then! But if you are managing your hormones on your own, take a break every 12-18 months to see whether you still need the oestrogen. This is different from the other 2 types of breaks: the break from Day 25 of the month to the 1st of the next month, and the limit of 5 years total of oestrogen after you hit menopause. Here I’m talking about a break to test whether you still need the oestrogen at all.

So there is no fear of dependency on hormones if they are well managed.

Regards

Maura

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What is a Polyp?

13th September 2011 by Leave a Comment

Someone was talking to me the other day about polyps and what they are and what to do about them. Polyps are small growths that can develop in the bowel, the cervix, the uterus and a host of other places that come from a common embryonic origin. They can be innocent but there is a percentage (I’m guessing about 10%) that can be malignant. The problem is we don’t know which polyps fall into the ten per cent! So they mostly have to be removed for testing.

Some people get them a lot and some people never get them at all. They are not safe to leave behind in case they are one of the ‘nasties’ so you will often find them removed by gynaecologists, and at colonoscopy etc. I used to see a huge number when I did Pap smears as the cervix is a favourite place to develop a polyp, also the urethra, which is the opening into the bladder. Mostly the urethral and cervical polyps are quite innocent. But until they are sent to pathology, how can you tell?! If you are told that you have a polyp, then maybe you should ask a specialist whether it needs to be removed. While you are asleep during a colonoscopy they will remove them anyway.

In a shop the other day I saw a notice, to which I have referred to before, but it’s pertinent here. “A long time ago God put an X on this very spot for you to be here today”. You are where you are supposed to be, at any time and space, so worrying is useless. Just take reasonable precautions and stop fretting about your polyps! The Universe knows what to do, you just have to take the path that has opened in front of you.

Be well and happy

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How Far Should We Go to Have Respect for Life?

30th August 2011 by Leave a Comment

I have just finished my dinner and settled down with my trusty iPad when, across the screen ran the tiniest ant I’ve ever seen! I’ve seen ‘em big, bigger and biggest but never as tiny as this little critter!

The first instinct was to brush him/her away but in the next nano-second I remember to have respect for any living thing, a la Buddhism. So my hand did not descend as rapidly or as strongly as it once would have. But how far do you take this respect for life?

Moths, ants, cockroaches abound. So, do we have to tolerate those invaders equally? The Buddhists, God bless them for their patience, would insist that so-called pests be allowed their right to life. Not only Buddhists of course. I was in Africa and in Lambarene in the Congo (can’t recall what it is called now) there is the hospital set up by Dr Albert Schweizer who set great store by the respect for life principle. Only problem was his compound was overrun by mosquitoes and cockroaches, to the great dismay and frustration of those who went there to learn from him.

Everywhere there were cases of malaria, treated by quinine but pesticides were not allowed. His followers were not required to be vegans so the right to life gave way to kill-for-food principles.

Modern medicine, and even farming, has had to introduce ways to kill off bacteria, fungi, insects that have been found to be responsible for fatal diseases, not to mention the problem of Hendra virus and the poor flying foxes.

Maybe we only rely on the right to life if the animal in question is cute?? Flying foxes, cats, dogs, hamsters, birds, all seem, along with other animals, to ring our sympathy bells. Would we feel the same sympathy for the Salmonella bacterium responsible for typhoid, or for the influenza virus that kills so many vulnerable people across the world?

It was easy to feel sympathy for my tiny ant as he/she presents no threat to me, is not a source of food and there are no small children here to be poisoned, if that was even possible! I have had cats and dogs treated as members of my family whose right to life was never questioned. But do I feel the same about a cockroach that might prowl my kitchen at night? Or a dog that brutally wounded my child?

There is no right answer. Food, pests, and public dangers like mouse plagues, all have to be killed as humanely as possible. Respect demands that much, surely? So my little ant goes free. Good luck to him. His life expectancy is so short anyway. Caterpillars are regarded as nasty, but

“what the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master calls …. a butterfly”.

Would we squash a caterpillar yet be entranced by the butterfly?

Let’s hope we are given the respect of living our own lives out as we wish, not squashed as a pest. But who knows whose ants are we??

Be well

Maura

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