Is it hot in here, or is it just me?

When in September the heart palpitations and hot flashes set in, I of course wondered if I weren't in for an early "change." And at 42, it was not unreasonable to expect menopause to be 8 or 9 years off and hot flashes to begin years earlier. My nursing class was orienting to a hospital for clinicals when I about melted in a series of hot flashes, and no one else felt too warm. I asked. It was then that I realized something was going on.

Another problem I noticed having was with fine motor coordination. Once, I was giving a PPD test, which is an injection placed delicately between layers of skin on the inner forearm. My patient was a rather nervous lady with schizophrenia, so I was trying to distract her from her distress at being poked with a needle while simultaneously sliding it in. Well. My hands shook so that the needle popped right back out of the skin and I had to do it twice. Poor lady. The same problem happened any time I had to flush an IV, replace a bandage, or anything requiring close work. The patient and sometimes the instructor would be looking, too, so it seemed even more of a problem. (Add sweat droplets rolling off the end of my nose to complete the picture)

I don't know how many times I said, "I don't know why my hands are shaking, because I don't feel nervous!" Once, a watchful spouse asked me if I were nervous as I irrigated and packed her husband's decubitus ulcer. I felt so embarrassed, because I really was not nervous; I had been dealing with wounds and bed patients in one way or another for over a decade.

During that time I also had to start my first IV. I was dreading it, but for some reason it went in slick as anything, thank goodness.