Holidays...Holy Days

It's been a while since I posted. In the time since, I've been out to Oregon for a few weeks and have continued to deal with the menopausal symptoms that seemed about to make me lose my mind. It's a little better now. Educating one's self can really be a good thing. Helpful. I discovered that lack of sleep or broken sleep can exacerbate the symptoms of menopause (really? I'd never have guessed.). And yet, menopause in and of itself causes that broken sleep (night sweats, feeling like you've swallowed the sun and it's now lodged between your ears and breastbone). I figured that if broken sleep makes it worse, and menopause is causing broken sleep...well, isn't that the epitome of a vicious cycle? Yup. 'Tis. So I decided to put on my thinking cap and figure out a way to keep the night sweats and hot flashes to a minimum during the night time.

I tried several things.

1. Leave the bedroom window open a few inches--even if it's hovering somewhere between icy and freeze-dry outside. (Frostbite isn't pretty. Especially in some areas.)
2. Sleep naked, or nearly so. (See above.)
3. Find an organic-fabric and -filled pillow that doesn't transfer heat. (No such animal exists. If it does, it's like finding bigfoot. I think it's a myth.)
4. Take sleeping medication. (Still waking up all night...just waking up drunk. Sort of better but not really.)
5. Drink alcohol. (I've been told it lowers body heat. Not sure about that but it did nothing to improve sleep. Added problem of hugging the porcelain god next morning. Not fun.)
6. Cry. (It's supposed to increase endorphins. Whoever said that... lied. Unless endorphins are little tiny animals that make your eyes red and swollen and give you the hiccups.)

Then, employing the part of my brain that has been hiding in a dark, frightened little huddle in the back corner of my skull, I thought, "Why not tackle this from a more direct angle? Find a way to keep your head cool at night."

I had a pillow that was really different. I'd bought it years ago but never used it for whatever reason. It was a regular pillow in that it looked normal. But it was actually an alternative down stuffed, zippered cover with a firm, smaller memory foam pillow inside it. I took the small pillow out and sliced it down one long edge. Then I stuck a king-sized pillow case down inside the pocket I'd made by cutting it open, then brought the remainder of the pillow case out and tucked it around the outside of it. (Imagine creating a little lined pocket inside the little memory foam pillow.) I took out one 8x8" frozen gel pack (the kind you use to keep your food cold in a cooler) that was a half inch thick, as well as two 3" x 4" gel packs and stuffed them inside the pocket in the little pillow. I put that stuffed little pillow into the larger, standard sized zippered outer pillow and zipped 'er closed. Pillow case on. Laid down on it. A wee bit firm but...blissfully...amazingly cool. Not cold. Not at all. There's too much foam and alternate down between my head and the ice for that. 

Good news. GREAT news. That first night, not one hot flash. Woke up once to go to the bathroom but that was it. And in the past 3 weeks I've been using it, I have totally stopped waking up with hot flashes and sweats! And now that I'm getting better sleep, I'm having almost zero hot flashes during the day. What a blissful relief! And with the remission of hot flashes has come a somewhat lesser problem with emotional swings. 

But now, it's the holidays. And I'm far, far away from my kids, grandkids, sisters and brother, and mom and dad. I don't remember the last Christmas I spent with them. Probably 2006. Yeah. That's it. Sad. I have never spent Christmas with the grand babies. Isn't that pathetic? I think it is.

Holidays. Holy Days. I think those two are sort of one and the same. It's tough to separate them in my mind. 

I guess I'm a little like Scarlett O'Hara. I'll think about it all...tomorrow.