Hot Mama

Temperature is serious business when you have a spinal cord injury.  I like to joke about it, haha, I don't sweat anymore, but in reality it can be very serious and it doesn't take extreme temperatures to make a problem.  

Here's an example:

Our electricity went out the other day, in the hottest part of the late afternoon/early evening.  It was 102F outside, but with air conditioning we'd kept the inside of the house in the low 70s.  The power was out for less than two hours, and during that time the internal house temperature crept up to around 77F.  When the power came back on, it took the thermostat another three hours or so to cool the house back down to around 74F.  Not too bad, really.  But for me, it almost was; during the time the a/c was out and the period needed to cool the house back down, my internal temperature went from my normal 96.5F to 99.5, and we had to use cold wash cloths on my skin to help cool me back down.  

If a couple of hours in temps in the high 70s can do that to me, imagine what could happen outside in the real heat, or on 30 minute car rides where it takes 15 minutes to get the vehicle cooled down, or in crowded buildings where the a/c can't keep up with the quantity of people coming and going.  My body's natural responses to temperature change don't work; I not only don't sweat appropriately, my blood vessels don't dilate to allow my body to cool off.  The temperature signals either aren't reaching my brain, or the responses from my brain aren't reaching the rest of my body.  It's something I have to constantly be watchful for, and the same will be true when it turns colder, and the risk of hypothermia replaces the risk of heat stroke.  I found that out in the cool of early spring, when I realized that my brain, being accustomed to not getting the right sensation signals from my feet and lower legs, essentially ignored them as I got colder while sitting outside, so they got less and less blood circulation and became deeply chilled and sluggish.  They would take hours to warm back up after I came inside, so I learned to be careful to keep them warm when I was out and not to stay out too long.  The last thing I need to add to my problems is frostbitten toes!