Dissecting the Hot Flash

So the hot flashes have started. At first, they happened late at night, so I've been waking up and tossing all the blankets on my husband, only to scramble to grab them back when it ended. But those have been hard to figure out. I'm barely awake and mostly just trying to get through it so I can go back to sleep.

Yesterday, it hit in the middle of the day, in the middle of the mall; a much better opportunity to figure out how they work, and to be completely flabbergasted as to why I was suddenly sweating in the middle of Macy's!

Here is what I've been able to figure out so far:

1. They start with an uncomfortable, hot feeling in the chest
2. Then the whole body gets unbelievably hot...legs, arms, chest, back, neck, head
3. That is, everything EXCEPT my hands. Now I noticed this because I thought that would be the benefit of hot flashes, my perpetually cold hands could warm up! No such luck...
4. On further consideration, the cold hands are actually a relief on my neck!
5. Driving in the middle of a cold day with all the windows down and flapping to cool myself feels unbelievably ridiculous. Can anything be more stereotypically MENOPAUSE? Geez!
6. It only lasts about 15-20 minutes. And when it's over, I'm really cold from driving around with all the windows down!