March hasn't been good to me. It has been incredibly hot. I'm born and bred in Singapore so the heat isn't new to me. However, this time around, it's slightly different. For the past few weeks, I have been experiencing daily hot flash. Hot flash plus hot weather - you can imagine how volatile I have been. Grr.
The National Environment Agency (NEA) has predicted the temperature over the next fortnight will hit a high of 36 deg C on some days with other daily highs of 33 to 34 deg C. I wish NEA could predict which day will hit 36 deg C so I'll go hide in the public library. It's usually shivering in there.
If I continue to get hot flashes the next 2 weeks, I believe I will be roasted alive.
I'm thinking the same thing you're thinking. I must be experiencing perimenopausal symptoms. I've not yet hit menopause because you know that thingy... well they're still making regular appearances. I'm not enjoying aging at all. It's utter crap.
The hot flashes must have damaged my brain because I voluntarily went to my GP to get an injection. Since last year, my GP has been nagging me to get the Zoster Vaccine.
But I am terrified of needles and other than the mandatory vaccines and blood tests/IV drips, I rarely allow myself to be poked with a needle. So I kept putting it off and putting it off. Thank goodness, the hot flash zapped my brain and I found myself holding queue no. 2 at the GP's waiting room one morning. The elderly woman ahead of me went in for a very long time. When she finally emerged, I saw she had plasters all over her arm. She probably had like 3 injections, minimum. My legs immediately went weak. Very quickly, I was called in. The GP assured me she would use the tiniest needle known to mankind. Also, seeing how scared I was (tears were already streaming down my face and I had curled up like a fetus), she sprayed my arm with something to numb it. Thanks to these measures, I physically barely felt the injection although mentally, I was on the brink of madness. After I left the examination room, I felt a wave of nausea. Honestly, I was just psychologically making myself ill. The nausea went away very quickly.
The injection site on my arm did ache a little for a couple of days but other than that, I did not experience any other symptoms.
My GP recommends zoster vaccine for anyone 50 years and above who has contracted chicken pox. However, there are some people who may not be able to get this vaccine. E.g. those with HIV infection, allergy to gelatin or neomycin, those on medication which weaken your immune system, pregnant women and those with active tuberculosis.
I'm just glad it's over for me (it's a single dose) and hopefully, this jab will prevent me from getting shingles ever.
I don't know if it was a combination of the heat and hot flash but March was a little dark for me. I went from sadness to tiredness to lonesomeness to hopelessness and all sorts of other ness.
Hello darkness, my old friend,
I've come to talk with you again
Fortunately there's always yam ice cream
Despite the threat of soaring temperature, I feel I'm starting to pull myself out of the ditch. I've been sewing test bags and kicking around some other ideas.
By the way, in case you haven't already, please sign up for my newsletter here. At most I send one newsletter a week and sometimes I conduct secret sales. Try it and you can always unsubscribe if you hate it.
5 comments:
Oooo, what flavor of ice cream is that? I love the color!
I'm not a fan of needles, but I'd get the Shingles vaccine if I was old enough. My dad had shingles and it was crazy.
I get a needle every 2 weeks - for years I injected myself but after misfiring 2 pens in the air ($800 each!!) I got the drug company to send me a nurse :) One of my nurses had a misfire as well - it happens - but when it happened to her, it was on her (company) dime - when I did it myself, I was SOL with the injection until the next one was due :D Nope, needles don't bother me, but they definitely make some people nervous - they're a necessary evil!
Sorry about all your 'nesses for March - I hope things are looking - and feeling - brighter. I've only ever had one hot flash, and that was in my early 40's (I'm 54 now). Dammit if I didn't run upstairs to our bathroom and strip off - thank God I was at home, or people left, right and center would have been poking their eyes out with a fork! I think I'm finally headed into menopause - I hope so, anyways - 54 is too old to put up with that crap, especially since we're empty nesters!
I subscribe to your blog through my reader - is the newsletter an email version of a post, or is it something different?
I just subscribed! It has indeed been very, very hot this past week, and I'm grateful for the freezing LTs in school haha.
Talking about needles, I think at some point (in the past year) I was actually secretly enjoying being poked by needles ._." When the GP doesn't seem to know what's wrong with me, I'd suggest "How about you just do a blood test?"
Christel, I know fear of needles is needle phobia but I don't know if there's a name for what you have - enjoyment from being poked by needles. Perhaps you need a better GP? Speaking of blood tests, I fear blood test more than a vaccination. It seems to take a lot longer.
Hmmm, maybe it isn't exactly enjoying being poked by needles. I probably thought blood tests might be more "useful"/conclusive than a visit to the GP, and I happened to overcome my phobia of needles.
Ps. I used to have a phobia for needles, but I overcomed it after an episode with dengue, when I had to take a blood test almost every other day for a week.
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