All change on HRT

Here's a task lined up for tomorrow that I won't be fulfilling:

And here's one lined up for four days ahead that I also won't be fulfilling:

Why won't I be taking my usual dose of HRT?

Well, I've run out of those Estradot patches. I'm down to the last patch in the last pack. Here it is:

Estradot is made by Novartis, and for a long time it was increasingly difficult to obtain a steady supply. By last October (with Brexit looming) the supply had dried up. Estradot simply wasn't available. The precise reason was not definitely known, but I suspect that Novartis wasn't making enough money from producing it, at least not for the UK market where the NHS would want to buy this and other HRT patches for its women patients at a really low wholesale price. Novartis might have looked carefully at the profit margin on that arrangement, and just said 'no more'.

So my pharmacy (Boots on Burgess Hill) had to go looking for a substitute that was available. They found me FemSeven. I gave it a two-week trial last October without problems, and asked my doctor to prescribe it instead. There isn't much difference between Estradot and FemSeven: it's the same hormone, and works in the same way, leaking into the skin - and thence into my bloodstream - from an adhesive patch applied with strict regularity. The Estradot patches last three or four days, and used to get changed on Saturdays and Tuesdays. (Those were the days I chose for myself when first using HRT back in March 2009) The larger FemSeven patches last seven days, and I have chosen Saturday as my 'new patch' day. The mention of 'right' or 'left' on the task screens refer to which side of me I stick the patch to - it can't go in the same spot every time. If you really want to know, I put them on my bottom.

So tomorrow - and on each subsequent Saturday - it's going be these:

And my tasks app will be showing this:

I think I have mentioned in a past post that in October I still had a stock of Estradot to use up. In fact I had enough on hand to take me through to tomorrow. But of course I can't actually use up that last patch, as I'd like to start using FemSeven on a Saturday, not a Tuesday. That last patch will be kept (along with its pack) as a momento. After all, I took Estradot for nearly eleven years, and it's a link with Other Days when my life was very different and very challenging. So much has happened in those eleven years!

Well, a new era begins. In parallel with Brexit, you could say. A Janus moment.

In case you're curious (probably not), I will explain that I use an Android phone app called Tasks To Do Pro to set up and control all the many things I need to do. Some arise daily, many others at longer intervals, and many are one-offs triggered by an event such as going on holiday.

Currently I've got 345 tasks set up on this app, 95 of them assigned to definite future dates - mostly repeat tasks that keep on recurring. I set up the others when required. These other no-specific-date tasks are all 'recycled', meaning that instead of ticking them off as 'done' after completion, I just cancel the due date, which returns them to the list of undated tasks ready to be set up again.

So with all these tasks set up and ready to go, apart from the date if they aren't repeating tasks, I'm not spending a lot of time fiddling with this app. I just refer to it and see what, at this very moment, still has to be dealt with. It works, just as this kind of app worked for me pre-2005, when I was still working and wanted portable tax investigation case-control, as well as reminders to take my pills.

Naturally - being me - I've invented a scheme for sorting my tasks by topic:

0 is the number prefix for tasks connected with Health and Personal Care
1 is for tasks connected with Money
2 is for Laptop, Phone and Audio
3 is for Photo
4 is for Home
5 is for Blogging and Other Personal Interests
6 is for Family, Friends and Neighbours
7 is for Car
8 is for Caravanning
9 is for Travelling Generally

You can see what's important in my life! This exactly reflects the scheme I have long used to sort my 1,200-odd documents and spreadsheets, and any saved emails, with. It makes any task (or document, or spreadsheet, or saved email) easy to find.

The app lets you choose the degree of priority for each task - colour-coded of course! It's a great app, and if you like organising your life to the Nth degree, then I heartily recommend it.

Am I way too organised? Do I have a life organised to death? Well, it has to be. I am forgetful, and strong personal organisation is a necessity.

I don't think my forgetfulness is a side-effect of taking HRT. I rather think I'd be worse if I didn't. And the HRT seems to be a wonderful general antidote to ageing, keeping the mind alert and the skin toned. Sadly, it isn't a cure for wrinkles - except in so far as it encourages fat accumulation, which rounds me off and smooths out scrawny bits in the face, neck and upper arms.

I'll swear that my HRT patches make me look noticeably younger than I would otherwise appear. So it's reassuring that my doctor tells me that my NHS record is specially marked, saying that I must stay on HRT indefinitely, whatever happens.