ENERGY: chilling or boiling

Many years ago, I was diagnosed with MS. A huge problem is when It is either too HOT or too cold. Heat is more of a challenge.
I also have other medical diagnosis and challenges which I will tell you about so you can have a better understanding of me and how weather or not effects me.

COLD!
When it is too cold, I have ice burgs from my butt to the tip of my toes. I hope I'm not hit by the Titanic. And I hope that I'm not cut in half and half of me buried because someone thinks that half of me is dead. This is what I call "the thermostat in the basement is broken".

2/14/2014
The only thing I can do about this as far as I know, is to bundle up with warm clothing, blankets on my lap, and thick socks or thick socks times two pair. I actually am cold enough that if I didn't know better I'd think my butt, legs, and feet had died. Well, if I wanted a cold drink all I'd have to do is stick my leg into a huge glass of my favorite beverage and I'd have ice legs cooling my drink in no time. My legs and feet have been so cold they there are times when they turned blue. During the winter the cold as well as poor circulation help create this chilling ice cube situation.

Arthur or Arthur Itis or arthuritis depending on my name to use at the time, is also another beyond annoying issue because when it's cold my joints are very stiff and extremely unhappy. What joints depends on what time, day, and month you are interested in knowing about. I know, it's strange I should write this, and no I'm still awake and aware of what I'm writing. Arthur at least in my case and situation seems to enjoy roaming around periodically causing stiffness and pain in different places and at the whim of arthur. One day my hips can be screaming and the next day my knees can be yelling 'get away for every day so I can have peace and not be bothered with you, arthur." And so it goes, arthur roams and I chase. My medication helps which I take oraly for the chasing arthur game we play minute by minute. Most of the time my hands are extremely stiff every morning, yet with slow deliberate movement, I get the lubrication going and eventually have motion. Typing is a good way for me to keep moving as well as petting my animal friends and my service dog, Bella. Taking care of my house plants also helps me have incentive to move and keep arthur at bay.

Fibromyalgia bothers me sometimes although I'm not certain if hot or cold have any effect of this annoyance. End of this addition for 2/14/2014 which I placed here because I didn't realize how and what I placed below this section about cold. Hang in there, I'll figure out what I'm doing eventually. Meanwhile, please race over to another item during this commercial break...we will return shortly. Who is we, none other then me and my challenges and medical issues.

I'm cold enough, time to warm up. Actually, with the summer here I should stay in the first three paragraphs. No, actually in the middle because too much cold or too much hot is too much. Well, I'll take the steps to move on because I want you to understand my challenges when it is too hot. Here goes!

HOT!
When it is too hot, I usually crash. Crash means no energy, listlessly struggling to just stay conscious. Aside from breathing, which at times is a major workout, I sit. And, I sit. No movement, just sit. I'm even too wiped out to think, so, I just sit. By now you're most likely thinking "boring!". Nope, not for me. I'm beyond exhausted, thinking is over kill, and just living is the most exercise I will get under these over overwhelmingly hostile conditions. Just my blood circulating through my body is creating more heat and this is causing me to become more lifeless.

I have to stop typing this because today is one of those days when I'm not able to type without great difficulty.

10/28/2011
It is much cooler now, so I'm back to doing more writing. My battle with cold is about to begin again. however the trade off is having more energy. sometimes I am drained of most of my energy but, this doesn't happen as often during the winter months.

My basement (lower body) is cold to the touch now and will be colder as winter turns down the temperature.

I am starting to go through my portfolio and look at some of the writing I did earlier this year.
There are items I will probably rewrite and items I will leave as they are because I want to keep some of my early writing attempts. This way I can see any differences and improvements. I'm glad I have the energy, the thought processes, and the enthusiasm to go through my writing now.

My upstairs is noticing the cold but not as much as the basement. Typing is a chilly experience because my fingers are feeling the temperature. That's ok with me because i am at least able to do more now, yippie!

I'm very glad summer no longer has me drained, over heated, and my brain boiling to the point it is mush. I still will most likely have mush; just a different kind and consistency of mush.

2/14/2014
If you are interested in my medical challenges keep reading. You could read something else in my portfolio, however, you'd miss all the fun of knowing about why I am who I am and why I do what I do.

I have limited vision, otherwise called being legally blind. This means that for me I must scroll regularly in order to see what is on the computer monitor. The type is 200 times bigger or about an inch high by my guestimate. during winter my eyes tend to be more dry. I use Restasses to help with dry eye and another condition where something near my eye ball gets swollen and causes the sensation of something pressing on my eye at the top where the ball meets the bone. I know of no other way to explain this at the moment.

TMJ causes problems with jaw pain and chewing. It is annoying to have to basically live on pudding and jello when the TMJ flairs up for hours or days at a time.

I injured my right wrist when I was working as a piano tuner/technician. This can be a very painful part of me to contend with especially when I have to transfer. Sometimes my wrist collapses and I wind up on my elbow. If it is bad enough I use my elbow when transferring from my power wheelchair to bed for example.

Muscle and nerve spasms twitches, or tingling are a nuisance and sometimes extremely painful. This is getting to be a pain! Oh that's right, this is normal, oh well. Fortunately I have an indwelling pain pump to take care of a lot of the pain problems. My pain management doctor gave me oral medication for what is referred to as "break through pain".

I had cataract surgery years ago. This turned out to be a blessing because blue is more blue to me and I have clearer vision. The challenge is the lights. when I'm out at night or when inside and lighting is needed usually no matter the source, I have distorted hazy somethings around the light source similar to the halo effect when my cataract was causing troubles.

Recently I was successfully fitted with top of the line hearing aids which is a miracle of and from God. Division of rehabilitation services only allowed me to try tow hearing aids and then closed the door on allowing me to get fitted with anything else. I found a source which has a special program so I was able to acquire the proper hearing aids without their help.

Oh, I almost didn't remember, I have a problem with latex. I blister and the blister pops when I'm exposed to latex. This is a major problem because catheters are made out of latex except the silicone catheters and these are so stiff that they beat my bladder to death with in an hour or two. It is so painful that the catheter has to go asap.

When my power wheelchair breaks, I have to use a manual wheelchair. This takes a lot of energy and time to get from point A to point B, so only when necessary do I go manual and it is for a short period of time, as much as possible.

When my hospital bed breaks, I have no choice except to sleep in my power chair. Sleeping goes like this:
I sleep sitting up, or on my left side. There is no other possible way for me to sleep. If my shoulders are so painful I can not sleep on my left side, I sit and sleep. On my stomach is impossible because of my supro pubic catheter surgery site. This is a hole just above my pubic bone where the urinary catheter is inserted. It is much better for me to have this rather than explode or die of serious infections. I have a major disconnect between my brain and my bladder. The message does not get from one to the other. Therefore my bladder has no idea it is full and my brain can't tell my bladder to empty.

There's more, so I shall return eventually.





NOTE:
work in progress.