Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot

One of the latest non-motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease I have been experiencing are hot flashes. They start with my face or neck and spread downward. Thankfully, they only last a minute or two, so I don't end up drenched in sweat like some other Parkies I know. When I am with friends and take my jacket off, then put it back on again, then take it off, and put it on again (sometimes within twenty minutes and when the temperature is actually cold), I use my sense of humor and just say, "Guess I'm still a Hot Mama!"

YumaBev as a Hot Mama

I have them multiple times during the day, but I always having one as soon as I lie down to go to sleep. It doesn't matter whether I am taking a nap or going to sleep for the night. Within two minutes of becoming prone, the heat starts.

These night time hot flashes are irritating. I kick off the covers, then become chilled, so I pull the covers back up, then I get hot again, then chilled and finally go to sleep. If I get up in the night to go to the bathroom, as soon as I lie down again, another one happens. Hot, cold, hot, cold. It's a wonder I get any sleep at all (and I feel sorry for my Wonderful Husband who sleeps next to me.)

The autonomic nervous system (ANS) regulates the functions of our internal organs and controls such things as heart rate, digestion, breathing, salivation, urination, blood pressure, sexual arousal and perspiration. Parkinson's and lack of dopamine affects our ANS and is probably what screws up our internal temperature gauges.

Females have similar hot flashes during menopause, but I went through that several years ago. In my research for this story, I had one gentleman tell me he was going through "MAN-opause," and another fellow wondered why he never gets hot flashes when he's outside shoveling snow and could use the extra warmth?

What can be done about it? Not much, apparently, so I just adapt and try to laugh about it.