Menorrhagia

Once a month, for 2 days I am indisposed. Since my 34th birthday, I've been suffering from really bad cramps, irritability, PMS and extremely heavy bleeding. The pain is so bad that I take anti - inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) every 4-6 hours just so I can function normally. 2 days a month I dread going anywhere and I just want to curl up in bed and sleep. The reason why I dread going out is because of the extremely heavy flow. I need to change my extra heavy protection every hour or so. The bleeding comes with large blood clots.
Normally my menstrual cycle lasts up to 10 days, out of the 10 days, 5 would consist of heavy bleeding. Yes, I am anaemic because of that. I am tired all the time, I get shortness of breath if I feel too stressed out, headaches, and I sometimes get a twitch in my right leg.
My gynae tells me that there are a few treatment I could take if its disrupting my life. But he advises me that if its not too bad, to just bear with it. This is because all treatment include hormone therapy or surgery and is not advisable if I wanted to try for another baby.

Ever since I started eating olives everyday - about 20 olives a day, I've noticed that my menstrual cycle is shorter. Its now heavy bleeding for 2 days, then for the 3rd day I can use light protection, and then brace myself for one more day of heavy flow before it stops completely. But the pain is still constant.
Yesterday was the 4th day that I forgot about, and when I was picking up Lucas from creche I started bleeding. Even after all these years I still feel alarmed with the heavy flow. I managed to get home without anyone noticing that I'd bled out, but this is what I mean when I say it totally disrupts your life.

Menorrhagia is an abnormally heavy and prolonged menstrual period at regular intervals. Causes may be due to abnormal blood clotting, disruption of normal hormonal regulation of periods or disorders of the endometrial lining of the uterus. Depending upon the cause, it may be associated with abnormally painful periods (dysmenorrhea).
Me, I have both menorrhagia and dysmenorrhea. Menorrhagia has an impact on many women's lives, not just mine. One in 20 women aged 30-49 years consults her GP each year with menorrhagia. Menorrhagia may be a sign of an underlying disorder such as endometriosis or hormone imbalance.
I reckon my condition is more of a hormone imbalance and I am trying to include more salads (for vitamin K), broccoli and olives into my diet. I have also been advised to take bak foong pills everyday to regularise my hormones but since I can't get them here, I can only try when I go home in October. Anyway, the bak foong pills will not work overnight. I need to take it everyday (yuck...!) for a few months at least before I can see results.
I felt a need to blog about this because I know a lot of women out there are suffering in silence. Its not only painful, its embarrassing (my husband tells Lucas that his mama wears diapers as well...because we need extra heavy padding) and it is disruptive. Tampons no longer work for me - the maximum time it last is 15 minutes before a change is needed. In a way I am glad I no longer work, as I used to worry about having to go every hour, especially if I was in a meeting.
My gynae tells me it will all go away if I get pregnant again, but then it will come back after I stop breastfeeding. The only sure way to get rid of it is a hysterectomy or I could wait for menopause to set in.
This is a bit silly but I keep thinking I won't survive 30 days in a remote island as a survivor candidate in this condition :) Not that I would want to but I'd like to have that option at least, wouldn't you?