You know, I'm beginning to think that the result of living a long life is NOT acquiring an increased amount of knowledge as I had hoped, but rather constant NEW symptoms of all sorts.
First it was my back (now "fixed"). Then it was my memory (NOT fixed, but currently slightly improved). Then there was my rotator cuff shoulder pain (in process, at the moment). And now, yet ANOTHER thing! . . . suddenly I've begun having hot flashes!! A few weeks ago it began happening at night. I was thinking that the pad on top of my bed might be memory foam that was getting too hot after a point. But I checked back and found that it's actually natural latex and not memory foam, so that couldn't be the reason I was getting overheated. Then yesterday for the first time, I started having hot flashes in the daytime! I asked the physical therapists if they had any idea why that would be (it happened just as I arrived there), but they didn't have a clue. Other than menopause, they had no idea what could be causing it.
Well, I'm not only too old for hot flashes to be a result of menopause, but the fact is I had a total hysterectomy -- both uterus AND ovaries removed -- back in 1989! . . . more than 24 years ago!! So why the heck is this happening!!!
I did a Google search (of course!) but found nothing that could explain it. There was one article saying some women were still having hot flashes as much as an amazing 9 YEARS after a hysterectomy. Gees! I guess if they were impressed by 9 years, 24 years would be an unlikely connection, to say the least!
And I never found anything that seemed to explain it. And I guess my doctor's nurse didn't either because after I gave her a call and left a message this morning she never did return my call. Instead, this afternoon Dr. T. said I should pick up a progesterone prescription and take that along with the estrogen I've been trying to stop taking for the last 24 years!
As I said, I've been trying over and over to stop taking the estrogen stuff, but every time I cut back too far, I start having menopause symptoms again so I gave up and have been on the stuff for the entire 24 years! But at this point, I AM finally down to 1 mg /day. Having been on that very low level of estrogen for more than a decade, I couldn't see how that could be related to these sudden new hot flashes. So obviously I'm very surprised at getting a progesterone prescription! Online it said that women who have a uterus are given EPT (estrogen-progesterone combination), while women who do not have a uterus take ET (estrogen only). And as I said, I have had no uterus OR ovaries for more than 24 years!
But what the heck. If Dr. T. thinks for whatever reason that it may help, I'll give it a shot. My yearly exam is coming up in a month, so if the progesterone turns out not to solve the problem by then, we can talk about it then.
And what the heck -- it's not like a hot flash actually hurts. It's just uncomfortable. So I guess even if the progesterone doesn't help, it won't be the end of the world. I'll just have to continue spending a lot of time taking a sweater off and putting it back on. Sigh.
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