I'm at the age in life where the hot flashes are normal....they're something I am living with, although I don't really greet them with a smile. Unless you've experienced this physical phenomenon, you may not understand just HOW HOT they can be. But trust me...it's like molten lava is running through your body. I remember one time at Home Depot, my family found me in the refrigerator section, with my head stuck in the one freezer the store had set up and running. Another time, they had an "intervention" for me...I was called to the living room where they sat in winter gloves, coats and hats....begging me to turn the A/C up because they were so cold. I looked at them like they were crazy....I was perfectly comfortable.
However, when Casie, my 22 year old daughter, told me over the phone that had began having these a few months ago, I wasn't concerned at first. I just figured she was getting overheated while exercising or doing something physical. But a couple of weeks ago, when she and I were in Texas, I actually saw her have a true hot flash....just like her menopausal mama. Now...she and I have alot in common. We love reading, we love old movies, musicals, Cary Grant and Gene Kelly, we love Sonic, we love dogs, and well...the list could go on and on. But hot flashes? We really don't need to have this in common. I mean...if you see a 45+ woman walking with a personal mister and cooling fan pointed at her face, you don't even blink. But if you see a young, cute college girl doing the same thing, you do a double take.
I told her to go get some bloodwork done when she got back to campus, and lo and behold...several days later we have an official diagnosis now. She has Graves Disease, unfortunately inherited by me. I was diagnosed at 27, and I thought THAT was young. She's just 22. Alot has changed in the medical world since my diagnosis, and as we learned today about her options for treatment and she made her choice, I was thankful she had other routes to go than what I had 20 years ago.
As we sat in the waiting room today, she began to have one of these "ever so fun episodes", and all we could find after frantically digging through both of our purses, was one legal sized envelope with which we devised a fan and frantically began trying to cool her down. We began to laugh and joke about how many middle aged moms and college aged daughters have hot flashes together.
As we laughed and joked in the waiting room, I realized I was glad to share this moment with her. NOT the hot flash moment itself, but the moment of spontaneous laughter we shared as we were dealing with it.
We picked up her meds tonight, and we are hoping that they work quickly.
Today I am grateful for:
1. Medical improvements.
2. The ability to laugh when things aren't going as you planned.
3. Portable fans and personal misters...and Sonic ice...and freezers....and snow cones....and cold showers....well, you get the idea.
