It's So Cold Out... Thank God for Hot Flashes!

Or not.

Having one ovary was pretty much pretty perfect for me.  Sadly, when it came time to check out what was wrong again the doc didn't give me much of a choice and the second one had to come out.  The first three months without "her" were okay, until the shot they gave me, my body decided not to "process" normally - shocker.  What followed was unwanted weight gain, mood swings worse than when I HAD ovaries and all that accompanies them.  

It was deduced that birth control pills were not the answer and he would never again give me the shot so HRT it is and a cream that's made at the pharmacy.  I started, in August, after all of the hormones finally wore off from the half-shot in June.  They prescribed .5ml two times a day and after three weeks I was back to beeyotch of the century, itchy skin and mood swings Satan would kick me out of hell for.  A phone call to doc and pharmacist suggest cutting it back to half of each dose and see if that helps.  10 days later - I'm still pretty pissed, itchy and praying for an ovary to miraculously grow in me.  Why not?  Everything else did.  Next phone call with the pharmacist - where I believe she understands what circumstances my family members must be living with...  she says to go off of it entirely for 10 days and then start up with the cream, ONE time a day - the half dose.  

Not entirely the same thing happened, but close.  So now I'm down to a half of a half dose.  Actually less... to about one eighth of what was prescribed...  and mostly - I'm freaking fantabulous.  

Except...  

For the hot flashes.  If I'm at home - then I don't really care if I get one and immediately strip off my pants to find relief, or tear off my shirt and find a tank top to wear for the remainder of the day.  And usually I find I only have them once I've settled in for the night - so that's good, right?  Well, mostly.  I handle it just fine when we're watching TV or I'm cooking.  But once I go to bed - I get a bit pissed.  It's covers on.  Covers off.  Covers on. Covers off.  Once I fall asleep I'm good to go for the night.  But usually, within about 10  minutes of waking up in the morning... I get a good one.  What one must understand is that as I'm angrily tossing covers or removing legs from under the covers because I can't toss covers (due to dogs laying all over the place) is that The Poor Dad is having to live with this.  The guy deserves a standing ovation because he NEVER says a thing or tries to pull covers back up.  He just patiently waits for me to pull them back up.  The thing about mine are - they don't last long.  So there's that.  So far.

BUT - when they happen at work, or while we're out at a restaurant, well... that just plain sucks.  This week - I got a first one while at work towards the end of the day and I happened to be wearing a skirt and tights.  I took off my shoes to see if that would help and it did not.  Shit.  I sat there trying to think through how I could just take off my tights until it passed because it was seeming to take some time to "go the fu** away".  The more I told it to, the longer it lasted and the hotter I got.   

I recently read that in hotter weather, they get worse... and I'm not about to let it affect my Cabo vacation - so off to buy a product I was told about last fall that I didn't need... until now.  Black Cohosh.  Several gals my age-ish recommended it though I was doing pretty well at that point up until about 3 weeks ago.  So I think it's time to give it a shot.  It's gotten old pretty fast and I just am not a very patient person.

In the meantime, if you come to the front door and I don't answer right away, it's merely because I'm trying to spare you from seeing me in my underwear!