Listening

I have one word for you – MENOPAUSE!

Men, you don't know how lucky you are. Cherish the fact that your hormonal system doesn't fly into absolute disarray whenever it feels like it.

Mind you, on the other hand, you've got problems of your own, having two brains and all, trying to decide which one to listen to. At least it only happens to us at certain periods in our life.

And of course when menopause hits.

Here's the thing. I thought mine was over. Apparently it's not. Hot flashes like you wouldn't believe. Didn't I already do this a hundred million times? Handy in winter, though, I must say. Who needs a heater on when every two minutes you're tearing all your clothes off. Doesn't happen out of the blue, either, it's always when something stressful happens.

Like trying to play a piece faster than I can on the piano, which I just did. It's a lot of fun, setting the metronome too fast and trying to keep up. Wakes up parts of your musical brain that don't know they exist.

But man oh man, does it bring on the hot flashes. Whooee. It's like a slapstick comedy. On again off again, on again off again.

Right. Very funny. I'm rolling in the aisles.

Here's an interesting tidbit. The heart has its own generator that isn't controlled by the brain. That's why people's hearts keep beating for a while when their heads are cut off. Clever heart. No, I haven't got off the subject of menopause yet. Keep reading.

This generator resides in the upper right quadrant and creates electricity which runs the heart, makes it pump. It runs on chemicals in the blood. Ions and iron and god knows what. It obviously can handle quite a bit of variation but it's got a basic requirement level to function normally.



When arrhythmia happens, these curious sparks start occurring all over the place in the heart, like mini generators. So the heart starts pumping wildly. When you hit menopause, arrhythmia is a very common result. Which means? A certain combination of hormones might conceivably be one of the generator's requirements to function normally.

You think? It's food for thought, anyway.

Should have studied medicine. I'd have been a regular medical Einstein.

Since I didn't and I'm obviously not, I'm going back to the piano. See if I can generate some more heat.

Before I go though, there's just a niggly little thought worming its way into my consciousness. Right, little wormy thing, what are you trying to say?

Welllll – all this witty medical deduction is very clever and no doubt deserves a Pullitzer prize for science and humor, but what if your heart is telling you something else? What if some part of you has been crying out in distress for quite some time now and you haven't known how to listen? Will you listen now? Please?

I stop in my tracks.