Hot Flashes
by beth
(canada)
You mean I may yet have a hot flash? I was hoping to be immune. I'm still having a period but haven't had one of the heated things, and I don't want to either. Think I will up my phytoestrogenic foods, maybe try the wise woman tea!
Thanks for sharing Terri!
Taking the heat
by Terri Reinhart
(Colorado)
After my hysterectomy, my doctor told me that I might have symptoms of menopause but then said, if I didn't have any hot flashes within the first couple of months, then I was done with that.
I think my body has a strange, warped sense of humor, and in the last few years since I was diagnosed with Parkinson's, it was developed this to an art form. At the follow-up visit with the surgeon, two months afterwards, I excitedly told her that I'd had no hot flashes at all! "Great!", she exclaimed and again let me know that I probably wouldn't have to worry about that at all.
The very next morning, before the alarm went off for my husband, and long before I was ready to get out of bed, at the time of night when a nice cool chilly feeling generally descends upon the earth, I was suddenly engulfed in a hot, wet, sticky fog. I remember gasping and throwing the blanket off me, lying there on the bed, panting. Oddly enough, my husband, who tends to always be too warm, was curled up in the blankets and didn't even seem to notice that I had given him an extra layer.
If that wasn't a hot flash, then something else was seriously wrong.
It was a hot flash.
With all the possiblities of treatments, there was one more thing that came to my mind. I have absolutely no idea how valid this is, but it came to mind anyway:
What is the purpose of heat in our body?
Okay...that led to:
What is the purpose of fevers?
As a mom, I'm familiar with fevers. Fevers help to destroy the nasty bacterial infections that would cause us to become ill with inflammatory diseases. Fevers help to clear our bodies of toxins. When my children had fevers, with our pediatrician's instructions, I would monitor them and let them be. After the fever, it would be interesting to see what happened. Often, if there was something they were stuck on before the illness, afterwards they were suddenly able to do it easily. How does this happen? Don't know.
I tried to find anything on the internet that might talk about this but so far, I haven't found a thing. I am, however, willing to experiment with myself.
I don't like these hot flashes anymore than I do the emotional ups and downs. The latter are complicated by my Parkinson's meds and the result is:
1. I get teary reading the back of the cereal box and during particularly moving commercials
and...
2. One minute, my husband is the most wonderful man in the world. The next minute, I'd gladly trade him for a cat. (hint: he didn't change)
However, I am willing to forego any medications or remedies, because I have a feeling that somehow, some way, this heat might be very important to me. There are diseases that are "cold" diseases and do not like heat. Cancer is one of them. I'm not saying that this would be a cancer preventative. I'm not that smart, believe me. What I am just thinking is, maybe there are benefits to these hot flashes that are similar to the benefits of a fever. Rid your body of some toxins and maybe free us up for something new.
Whatever happens, I've decided to take the heat.
