Is it hot in here or is it just me?
Of course, it's just me. Hot flashes are supposedly a normal side effect of menopause. Mine are quite extremely hot because I had a hyster-oopherectomy 18 months ago, so rather than gradually transitioning through menopause, I was kind of plunged into it. It's like the difference between sticking your toe in the water, then going in up to your ankles, knees etc., versus leaping full speed off a diving board. (And in this case the water is boiling.)
They come on suddenly, starting in the neck/chest area, but instantly spread over my entire body. It's like wearing a winter coat in a sauna, except worse, because ultimately you can ditch the coat. My face breaks out in sweat... sometimes actually trickling down from my forehead. It's fucking embarassing, to be in such obvious discomfort, red-faced and sweating like a pig, for all the world to see. And it's every half hour or so that I get attacked by these things, so I'm constantly taking my sweater off, putting it back on, and taking it off again.
It wouldn't be so bad if I knew when they were coming, like a period, then I could plan for them. But these things are 24/7, so it's All-Day-All-Night intermittent attacks of blistering heat, and in addition to the other discomfiture, I'm plagued by sleepus interruptus, in-fucking-somnia.
I went to the doctor about a year ago to complain, like all middle-aged women do, and he gave me a script for sleeping pills, like all doctors do when confronted with complaining middle-aged women. Sleeping pills? I want my ovaries back.
Friday, June 16, 2006
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