Feeling...

HOT HOT HOT!

The last time I wrote about my leuprolide acetate side effects, I said that I thought I might be having hot flashes. I am no longer wondering if this is the case. Yowza! Bring it on, winter! Seriously, it is mighty cold here today, and I am sitting around in my office wearing a t-shirt waiting for the next wave of self-generated heat to hit me.

What does a hot flash feel like? Well, for me, I'll just be sitting around minding my own business when all of a sudden a hot feeling prickles up from my chest to my face. It's like wearing a ton of layers in wintertime, heading inside but not taking any of them off, and then a few minutes later suddenly realizing how overheated you are. I start sweating all over and the only thing that feels like relief is pulling up my shirt to expose my belly and back to cool air. Of course, if I'm in a meeting or something, I can't exactly do this, but the good news is that the feeling passes in about a minute. Then I get really cold for a few moments, and then my body settles down again for a few hours. It's not like I'm sweating so profusely that I've ruined clothing, and so far nobody has looked at me strangely to ask what's going on. It's mostly just weird. Oh, and my headache continues, although it's more intermittent now.

In a strange way I'm actually kind of grateful that the hot flashes have gained intensity over the past few days, because somehow I managed to convince myself over New Year's that I had been doing the Lupron injections wrong and the entire cycle would be ruined and I would have to start all over and it would be dooooooooooom. (And no, I don't have any real reason for thinking I had done the injections wrong, it was more of a "Wait, was the needle supposed to go in at a 45 or 90 degree angle? And do I need to wait a full ten seconds before taking it out? I've poked a lot of holes in the top of the little vial at this point, does this mean there's air getting in there that will ruin the medication?") The answer appears to be that everything is fine, for now at least.

The question I'm now wondering is - can I stand these symptoms for another week? (And then replace them with different ones?) I was supposed to start Follistim on Jan. 6th but I may need to delay for a just a little bit longer. I'm worried about over-suppression because I've read a few horror stories but my RE will give me the final decision on Friday - he is the expert and we'll have a plan soon.