Moments from Menopause

I would be the insider... the hot flash, my own. I'm just lucky that way, thanks. If you've been fortunate enough to never have experienced a hot flash ( I hate you!), then this will be informative. If you have, well, welcome. You know what I'm going to say. Here's the medical book definition of a hot flash :  sudden feelings of warmth, which are usually most intense over the face, neck and chest. Your skin may redden, as if you're blushing. Hot flashes can also cause profuse sweating and may leave you chilled. Yeah, yeah. That's what it's supposed to feel like. Want the reality? Take your hand, put it in a 550 degree oven, leave it there for an hour or so and see what happens.  Really...this is how it feels, only on your entire body not just your hand. Some of my favorite descriptions of hot flashes that I've read are: someone put a frying pan on my face. And it was still filled with hot crisco your body deciding to spontaneously combust whil...

Hey all you menopause peeps...it's been a while since I last posted. Lots LOTS has happened in my life since we last met. More about that later, but one thing that hasn't changed is I'M STILL IN MENOPAUSE!!! Okay, it's a little better I have to admit, since I broke down and went on some estrogen drugs last year. It came to the point where I needed to be talked off a ledge between the continuous hot flashes, the upending mood shifts from crying to mania, the non-ending weight gain, and the lack of sleep. After a week in which I was on the Nutrisystem diet and managed to GAIN 6 pounds, I knew something had to give. So. I buckled down, saw my GP and started on low dose estrogen to try and combat some of the symptoms. The flashes stopped, the moods evened out, I still don't sleep ( and probably never will) but the weight kept coming, so much so that now I am officially 35 pounds over the weight limit my heart needs to be healthy at. This is the reason I've resu...