Now THAT was a Hot Flash!

For more than a decade I’ve experienced the perimenopausal symptom of night sweats and I’ve also noticed that my body no longer regulates temperature as efficiently as it used.  I’ve even had a few of what I would call “mini hot-flashes”.  Then this past weekend I was awakened in the pre-dawn hours to a fiery heat that I at first thought was emanating from my bed.  Still not fully awake, I jumped out of bed hoping to escape the fire.  I made a whining, crying noise and then, worried that I’d wake up my sleeping husband, I ran into our bathroom but the fire stayed with me.  I jumped around the bathroom trying to escape the fire, fanning myself with my hands and still making the whining, crying noise.  Not finding any relief in the bathroom, I ran out, through our bedroom and into the hallway.  I was still fanning myself and still making the nonverbal noise, but there was no relief in the hallway, either.  Sometime during this little predawn jaunt, I fully woke up and realized that the fire was not in my bed, it was not following me, it was IN me!  Night sweats, temperature deregulation, mini hot-flashes – pshaw!  This was a real, honest-to-goodness hot flash!  Maybe I need to get a little yellow caution sign, not for my car, but to wear around my neck, that reads, “Caution – Hormones on board!”