News Flash: Hot Flash!

I have somewhat calmed down about the water retention/swelling issue and the fact that chemo is largely interrupting my life. But the third round of chemo came with a new side effect. Shutting down my period? No. That was supposed to happen a long time ago, but my female organs seem to want to keep working. However, they aren’t in sync, because I am officially having hot flashes. Supposedly, chemo shuts down your ovaries and pushes you into a ‘temporary’ early menopause. But right now I seem to be getting both sides of the coin. Friday night, I woke up every hour on the hour and had to pee and almost as soon as I awoke a hot flash started. Now I won’t complain too much, as I think these HFs are on the easy side of what I’ve heard they could be. I don’t feel like I am being pushed into a furnace or anything. It starts out as heat that radiates from the center of of my body to my head and legs and gets warm enough for me to break out into small sweat and just as I get all hot…it melts away and my temperature is back to normal. So a lot of throwing off the covers, fanning myself, then snuggling back under the blankets. And during the day, a bit of shedding of whatever I can for a moment and then putting it back on. This weekend was the first time I’ve had so many ‘definite’ hot flashes so consistently, and I am worried about next week at work. I don’t wear my wig around my apartment, but with the colder weather I have been sitting around in a beanie because my head was cold. And that most definitely comes off during a flash. But at work….I can’t really snatch off my wig and I am going to have to pre-plan any layering I do. Sigh, I guess this isn’t the biggest worry to come up with all of this, but it is the latest. The rest of Chemo Rd Three is okay. I am much more tired. Not sleepy- just zero energy. Not looking fwd to a full work week, but hopefully I’ll suck it up and just go home when I am “done.” One more round to go!