About two years ago, I was doing my usual cleaning routine on a Saturday afternoon. I was mopping the tiled floor of my apartment (which had been a couple of days overdue). While listening to upbeat music and drinking a strong shot of Cuban coffee to get my cleaning mode going, I began to sweep and mop. While bending forward to pick something up from the floor and getting back up to a normal position, I felt the sensation of a warm flush on my face. “ Hmmm, this is certainly awkward” , I talked aloud (happens quite often).
I went to the bathroom to look at myself in the mirror to “ see” the feeling that I had just experienced. I thought maybe it was a lack of oxygen flowing to my brain. If that was the case, I would have felt dizzy and seen all different types of weird black and white shapes form in my temporarily impaired vision until I would have regained my composure and equilibrium within seconds. That was that, back to cleaning, listening to “ I don’t care About My Reputation” by Joan Jett.
But a warm sensation? Something was not right. I stopped what I was doing and went directly to the bathroom to look at myself in the mirror and check out my new discovery. My cheeks were red!
My first thoughts were, “ Oh, I got a tan while I went for a quick power walk this morning!” Nah, I would have seen it when I washed my face from the sweat of walking outdoors. Then my next thought was, “ Oh no! I inherited mom’s rosacea!”
But after that, my rosacea didn’t come back for a while nor did that feeling of warmth around my neck and face. Although I did remember sometimes waking up in a sweat but thought that it was the result of the nightmare’s that I sometimes have. These incidences came and went from time and time but I kept on living my life without a clue as to what was to unfold with my state of health.
Life went on and sometimes I would feel that warm, flush feeling again but thought it was rosacea creeping up on me. My mother had told me that she had rosacea. Hmmm. Maybe life was repeating itself and mom was thinking the same thing. She only told me that her menses were getting lighter and she would skip one or two but never really discussed it and I didn’t ask.
I had also noticed that whenever I would drink red wine, my face would blush. I thought that this was probably due to: a) an allergic reaction to the wine (but then again it didn’t happen all the time), or b) the tannins in the wine causing my ‘blush’, or c) the wine was causing my rosacea to flare up. Every time that I drank red wine I would wonder if I would blush but felt lucky when I didn’t. It was kind of embarrassing to be out drinking in public and suddenly have red cheeks and someone would notice.
Just the other day, my kids came over for dinner and all of a sudden I felt warm. Not the usual, “ It feels warm in here” but a warm feeling from within. Sort of like a feeling of profuse sweat but from “ within” , a flush feeling that came about from my neck to my face. Ooof!
Well, my kids said, “ No, ma’” , but I was starting to feel suspicious of what was to be the beginning of Pre-Mature Menopause. I didn’t feel like discussing the issue to my kids so I continued about my business and serve dinner.
The other day, my friend came to pick me up to go check out the new condo that she rented. I was telling her about my condition and she said, “Sounds like menopause to me. And if you drink alcohol, it makes it even worse.” I knew I shouldn’t have had that Cosmopolitan!” No more alcohol for me I guess. Good! I could do without it.
