Is it hormonal????

Had a most interesting experience yesterday.

I was telling my physiotherapist about the difficulties that have been keeping me from sleeping of late, one of which is serious night sweats.  She naturally suggested menopausal causes.

Not having had any symptoms for several years, I assured her that I was well past that.

She was surprised that I was 'over' it because, as she put it, she's been suffering from hot flashes for well over fifteen years, having started experiencing them in her mid-forties.  And she said that her mother, who is in her 80s, is still having them.

Her point was, if a woman suffers with hot flashes in menopause, do those hot flashes ever truly end?

That led us into a discussion about the distinct difference between hot flashes and night sweats, because they are very different indeed.  And what I've been having are very definitely night sweats, not hot flashes.

We talked about the fact that our ovaries are shrivelled up to nothing by now (she is all of three months younger than I) so why wouldn't our bodies have properly settled down by now?  We did hit on the cyclical nature of these things though.

Anyway, having decided the problem wasn't menopausal, we opined that whatever is happening, it is a recent development and could be a response to the removal of Cesamet (ie withdrawal symptoms); could be a drug interaction (I started taking Codeine Contin before I finished taking Cesamet); or could be explained by any number of other possible factors.

I left her office and went about my business, stopping in to see a good friend before picking up my little chickadee to drive her home from work, and then I headed home.

That put me coming home at precisely the time of day that I used to commute from work when I was using the van service.

And suddenly, I realized that I was turning the heat down in the car.

But it didn't help.

I lowered the heat more.

It still didn't help.

Lower still.

Did I need to turn on the damned air conditioning?

In March?

Then I had a sudden flashback to what life used to be like for me when I did suffer from hot flashes.

And oh I recall how I those hot flashes would hit.

Every day, without fail.

Same time.

You could have set every clock in the nation by me.

I remember how uncomfortable it would be to sit on that van of fifteen passengers, sitting cheek to jowl, everyone bundled up for winter weather, burdened with their briefcases.

Eventually, I learned to take my coat off before settling in for the ride home, and I would always try to grab a window seat.

Because as the clock approached 4:00pm, I knew what was going to happen.

When it first started happening, I had thought it was just too hot on the van.

But no one else had sweat pouring off their brow.

At that time, it had been some ten years since I had suffered my first bout with hot flashes.

I figured my body was just taking a last kick at the can.

That was ten years ago.

After telling my physiotherapist that 'I didn't have those anymore,' I have to say that what I experienced on my drive home yesterday could certainly have been a hot flash.

And the time of day was bang on.

So now I have to revise my assessment.

Because what I had in my car yesterday was a hot flash.

And I think I have been having hot flashes, I just didn't recognize them as such.  And they don't happen  every day, but when they do occur, they are at the same time of day.

Around 4:00pm, I have a 'sweating buckets' episode.

And during the night, while I'm sleeping, I have night sweats.

Exactly the symptoms I suffered with menopause twenty years ago.

Exactly the symptoms I suffered again ten years ago (John used to call me a furnace because of the heat that emanated from me when I slept).

So I guess I am going through menopause again now.

And I would appear to be on a ten year cycle.

Either I'm on a ten-year cycle, or the Cesamet kick-started some wonky responses in my body.  (I'm not yet prepared to discount that last point as a possibility.)

Whatever the cause, it can stop any time now.  Both the hot flashes and the night sweats.

Last night, I took my sleeping aid again (I was, again, too far behind in the sleep deprivation department).

So, I only woke twice but both times I was sweating profusely.

I do, however, feel better rested this morning so I'm prepared to face the day.