susan---sigh...I guess I just come from another world. There are so many amazing plants from all parts of the world growing in so many different environments. While I appreciate advice from time to time, I've often found the "best" advice is to do a little "geography homework". That is, I find out where the plant (or the parent plant) is found in nature, if it IS found in nature. Then I try to replicate those conditions as closely as possible. That way I don't have to ask as many "basic" questions and besides, if nobody's answering "basic" questions anyways, then I'm going to have to do my own research to get an answer. Well, that, and my garden is one gigantic "science project", or experiment if you will. It's less painful to lose a plant when you are happily "experimenting", knowing full well the "experiment" MIGHT fail. It's also way more rewarding when the "experiment" actually succeeds :-). Okay, except the neighbors are probably getting tired of me squeaking in excitement when a plant blooms, or re-emerges after a harsh winter, or sets seed, or does something I hoped it would. I'm giving the squeak-toy dog next door a run for the money in the noisy department lately. You probably would have been horrified at my butt-wiggling happydance when I discovered my Calla lily had settled to the bottom of my pond, survived the winter AND re-emerged in spite of repeated depredations by the Raccoon From Hell. If not horrified, amused :-)

If I'm not mistaken, many women are now being diagnosed with cancer in old age. If every discovered non-benign cell is called Cancer, and all are treated, we can't answer a lot of questions: Are these all life-threatening cancers? Are all fast-growing? Would the person's immune system eliminate some of them? Would the person die of natural causes before the cancer caused serious damage? How much damage is done by the false positives and treatments for the 'positives'? What happened to all the women who did NOT have a cancer discovered (or treated) 'before mammography'? It's an unscientific leap to assume they all died before their time of undiscovered atypical cells in their breasts. I understand the desire to 'get it' before it becomes life limiting, but we don't know which we are seeing or what the outcome would be if it were unseen. Just because we can LOOK! LOOK! shouldn't mean we always need to CUT! CUT! I'm reminded of the adage of not consulting a surgeon if you don't want surgery. It's what they DO! Re: Pap testing. What is the rationale for this test for a woman who is not sexually active or who has only one longtime (trustworthy) partner?

Because so many people confuse signs of aging with signs of menopause, it's impossible to answer this question with an unqualified yes or no. Yes the hot flashes go away or decrease to a level to where you don't really notice them much. The insomnia pretty much disappears. The "fog" disappears. You may find yourself more assertive and a little less willing to suffer fools patiently. The aches and pains that go along with an aging body won't go away though. The wrinkles and grey hair aren't going to go away. The above is true if you don't use exogenous hormone preparations. If you do use those you will not be post menopausal in a biochemical sense. Instead you will remain perimenopausal for as long as you take these drugs and hold back your body's natural transition to post menopause. I had my last period in Nov. of 1994. I still have a few mild hot flashes every day but I seldom even notice them now. I sleep reasonably well, have no memory or cognitive problems, and can honestly say that I've never felt better in my life. I take no drugs or otc supplements of any kind.

I had uterus and ovaries removed via robotic surgery in 2011. Even while I was healing and was tired, I felt better after the surgery than I had for a long time. My number one suggestion is to check out hystersisters dot com. It is a terrific site for support during the process! They will tell you things you doctor won't think to mention. And they "get it" when the people around you may not. In no particular order: You only have one chance to heal correctly. DO NOT overdo. This is really, really hard if you had robotic surgery, because you can't see and maybe can't feel all that has transpired. I liked the belly band. Check out the youtube videos about how to get out of bed. Walk as much as you comfortably can post-op. With a lot of advance planning, you can set up things so you don't have to lift anything too heavy - unless you have small children. It's still very easy to forget and lift what you shouldn't. Emotions: expect to have at least one meltdown. None of the reasons for having this surgery are light-hearted fun. It doesn't matter whether you're worry about have surgery, or having a riot of emotions about no longer being able to have children, or dealing with people who are trivializing what you are going through (It's amazing how many absolute jerks there are in the world!) or wondering about sexual responsiveness afterwards or about instant menopause. Intense emotions go with the territory. (Humorous confession: None of the normal stuff was an issue for me. Friend was taking me to hospital; blind husband can't drive. DH thought it was important to be at hospital during surgery but not during admission. I wanted him there for admission. For some strange reason couldn't use reasonable words to explain it, so I had an all-out, crying, screaming hissy-fit! I can begin to tell you how abnormal that is for me! Weird. He went to the hospital with me even though he never understood why it mattered so much to me or why I went totally nuts!)