That's true.  Thank you for reminding me.  My doctor (I almost typed
"my vet") probably didn't mention the severe side effects because of
their rarity.

I definitely sweat today!  As a trial, I went hiking with a friend
and her 10yo kid.  It was 8 miles, but a very gradual climb (old
railroad bed).  Nothing to even make you breathe hard.  I figure that
if the meds were affecting my ability to regulate temperature
properly, I'd have noticed it out there -- quite toasty.

Oh, and I did remember to use sunscreen.  I have a tiny strip of pink
on either shoulder, probably where the Camelbak rubbed and wore off
the sunscreen, but otherwise no burns, and certainly nothing painful.
Yay!

Except Glucophage.  If you don't get severe diarrhea when you start it,
it isn't working right, and you need to get help.  ;-P

Pam S.

I wear a visor; that does allow the top of my head to get sunburned, but
feels cooler to me than having my head fully covered.  Saved my butt --
er, no, my face -- if you'll recall, last year when I foolishly did an
all-day hike in the Indian Peaks with no sunscreen.  My shoulders and
arms were a mess, but my face wasn't even rosy.

I'm glad DH came out to share weeding duties.  I had a suspicion that
the weeding would affect my screwed up wrist, and I was right about
that.  It's more sore than usual today.  Of course, I don't really
know if that's bad (furthering the injury) or good (building strength
in the wrist).  Sigh.

Oh man.  Yeah.  I really do like the dry heat out here better.  The
only thing I miss are warm summer nights.  You just don't get those
here; every evening it cools off enough to make long pants and maybe a
light jacket seem like a good idea.  I miss driving around the country
roads of VA with the convertible top down in the evening.  Or just
sitting out on the deck late at night.  Yes, you can do that here, but
it does get chilly.

I had false menopause due to a hysterectomy when I was almost 32.  It
was drawn out at first because they had me on estrogen replacement
therapy (ERT). When I finally was taken off of them, I went through
menopause hard and fast.  I love not having to go through periods,
worrying about getting pregnant, messing with birth control, and dealing
with the hormonal stress involved with being a sweet young thing.

Pam S. who was never sweet even when a young thing

Lucky you!
A Chinese herbal doctor usually presribed some herbs that have
to be boiled with water for hours until only a small amount is left for
drinking.
This method probably extracts the ingredients from the herb and concentrate
them. Plus it is customized for an individual's needs.
My mother went to a Chinese herbal doctor who 'cooked' the herbal med.
himself
for her to drink. That saved a lot of work.

Have you been inside a Chinese medicinal herbal shop? It has a distinct
aroma.
Some shops are better than others. I know there is one Chinese herbal shop
in
town that I would rather not go in. The one I frequent is fine and the shop
keepers
are very knowledgable and can offer advice and suggestions.
They have a Chinese herbal doctor in the shop twice a week for consultation.

Winnie

I came late to the discussion, so don't know Monique's original symptoms,
but let me make a few observations.

Symax is a preparation containing hyoscamine, which originally came from the
henbane plant. I don't know if the hyoscamine in the pill is a plant extract
or synthetic.  Often, as with digitalis or other potent plant-derived drugs,
the drug is now made synthetically so the precise concentration can be
known--digitalis tea was one of the few effective heart drugs known to
antiquity, but one plant's leaves might be inadequate and another strong
enough to kill the patient.

Hyoscamine is an example of an anticholinergic drug of the muscarinic
receptor antagonist family, about which Wikipedia has an OK writeup:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anticholinergic  The effect of interest here is
that they relax smooth muscle, which makes up the gastrointestinal tract.
They also decrease an assortment of secretions, including saliva and sweat.

If it works, keep doing it. In general, however, it's worth looking for
dietary adjustments. This could be anything from increasing or decreasing
fiber, or decreasing fat, or looking for food allergies.

I wouldn't dismiss a gastroentology consult so soon, because before any
serious testing, an expert history and physical can tell a great deal. There
are some basic tests worth doing, such as a complete blood count to give
indications of bleeding or infection, a comprehensive metabolic panel
("chem-24") to check liver and kidney function (among other things), and, if
there are indications of poor digestion, a fecal fat analysis. Definitely an
occult blood test on the stool. The history and physical may suggest other
blood tests.  It's certainly worth testing for Helicobacter pylori infection
if there's the slightest suspicion of an ulcer, because this curable
infection accounts for about 85% of ulcers.

Sooner or later, a gastroenterologist is going to want a look (i.e.,
endoscopy or colonoscopy), either directly through a tube or by some form of
imaging technique. Imaging ranges from upper and lower GI fluoroscopy with a
swallowed or inserted contrast media, to CT or MRI visualization, to a
rather creative new technique called capsule endoscopy.  In the latter, the
patient swallows a disposable color TV camera, and has antennas wrapped
around her torso.  It transmits a picture about twice a second, and is lower
risk and often lower cost than some direct imaging.  I'm speaking here,
however, more of the rules for evaluating obscure bleeding, not just
cramping.

Necessity is the mother of invention -- I wanted to make it just with
apple juice, but there wasn't enough.  Rather than just using water to
thin it, I used some cranberry juice.  (Okay, and water later on,
because I *still* needed a little more liquid.)  It didn't affect the
flavor at all, maybe because all the berries were already so tart.

This is only the second time I've made this type of smoothie; there's
a restaurant called Le Peep nearby that makes a great smoothie they
call Berrymost.  I've watched them make it so often that I realized I
could just make it for myself.

One thing -- I haven't really found a good way to get it all mixed up
well.  I buy the berries frozen in the supermarket, and especially the
strawberries are very hard to blend.  So this time I defrosted them a
little bit in the microwave -- just enough so that they weren't stuck
to each other anymore.

Anyway, here is my very vague recipe.  I know what I put in, but not
the amounts:

"some" apple juice (probably more than you think you'll need)

frozen berries (I used strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries,
about a handful each, but then I end up with 3 tall glasses)

"some" vanilla frozen yoghurt (of course you could use ice cream as
well)

Toss it all in the blender and blend it forever.  Poke around and find
that there are a bunch of berries still whole.  Blend some more.  Add
some apple juice if it seems like it's too thick to blend well.  Blend
some more, until you get tired of blending and just dump it in a
glass, mostly blended.

For fun, you can put some whipped cream on top.

It ends up kind of a hot pink / purple color and tastes great, if you
like tart flavors.

I really hope that works for you and Rusty!