I'm happy to report that the much-ballyhooed hormone treatment seems to be working. Since it's only been 11 days, I might be tempted to say it was all in my mind, but I put it to the acid test today and, I'll be damned if it didn't pass with flying colors. Here's what happened - not necessarily in any order. Just because.

I began to notice a few days ago that I wasn't leaving a trail of blood and tears wherever I went (it's important to note here that I am speaking of the blood and tears of OTHERS, not my own.) Could this possibly be a result of the HRT, I wondered. I was hopeful, but not entirely convinced. Not yet, anyway. 

Then, another revelation. It seemed to me that I had a heightened clarity of  thinking. No, couldn't be. Surely that must be my imagination. Still, another tick in the "possibly some improvement" column. I argued with myself that Dr. MissPriss had told me I should notice some improvement within a month or so. Since it hasn't even been a full half-month yet, I thought surely I must be mistaken. Or overly optimistic. After all, I am that "glass-half-full" kinda girl. 

Then I went a whole seven hours without - listen up, this is important - without a single hot flash. Not a full-blown one, anyway. Okay, fine, maybe a little heating under the collar and a bit on my forehead. But, even that disappeared quickly. Very quickly. And then, when the damnable hot-flash did present itself, it was a decidedly milder version of my previous descending-into-the-third-level-of-hell, pressure cooker, steam-rolling, spewing-like-a-sprinkler sweat orgy. Well. Well, well, well.

Two more days went by without the typical sweat-box experience of previous days - no, make that years, because it actually has been years. Long, agonizing, sweltering, mind-altering, will-somebody-just-shoot-me YEARS. Okay, fine, whatever. It still seems like years - at least 10 or 20. Maybe it was actually one year, preceded by about two years of intermittent we're-coming-to-get-you symptoms. Yeah, yeah, if you're going to get all picky with me, that's what it was. One year of hell, preceded by two years of heck with flashes of hell. 

So, you can imagine my delight today when I had no choice but to scurry around like a maid on speed getting clothes washed, a bunch of crap gathered up for the CPA and a whole plethora of other bothersome chores done in preparation for my upcoming visit to see my sister for a week (YAY YAY YAY - FINALLY!!!!) The part you have to "get" here is this: Pre-hormone treatment, all of that scurrying about and hurrying and huffing and puffing around would have produced an innumerable amount of hellish hot flashes. Not only that, but the aftermath of all that activity would have been a thoroughly sweat-drenched, hair-flattened, gnarly looking version of me. 

I know you all know what's coming, but don't steal my thunder here, okay? Let me revel in it, for Pete's sake. Yes, that's right - DING, DING, DING!!!! All of that activity today for hours on end and not a single hot-flash in sight. I would say WOO-HOO, but that barely seems an adequate celebration for such a monumentous occasion, wouldn't you agree? 

All I can say is THANK GOD FOR THE MIRACLE OF MODERN MEDICINE! Oh, and all those soapbox speeches I made way back when about how dangerous HRT is and how I would never even consider it, yadda, yadda? Yeah, not really feeling it anymore. In reality, I'm feeling more like I've been let out of prison than anything else. 

Why, I'll even go so far as to say that I haven't felt this "NOT CRAZY" in ... well, let's just say ... in a while. I don't want to get all carried away and start letting anyone else off the hook or anything, if you get my drift.  But, yep, I'm feeling pretty good. (And I'm wondering why I didn't do this sooner!)