Tuesday, January 6, 2009

I suffer near frostbite in my apartment in a cold snap




The houseshoes are what I am wearing to bed now that a cold draft came in my bedroom window in this cold snap and frostbit my toes. I had the temperature turned up to 80 but I have always suffered from extreme sensitivity to cold. I only wore socks to bed and this was not enough. My toes hurt for two days but after I wore these houseshoes to bed my toes have finally started coming back to some semblence of normalcy.
No wonder Pierre paid a call knowing I was going to go through a crisis when the weather turned cold. He and Doc both are well acquainted with my peculiarities. When I was ill I would wear househoes to bed as well as a snood over my face hiding everything but my nose to cope with the ferocious air conditioning people install in Arizona to deal with the 110 degree summer heat. You will encounter temperatures below what you would keep your apartment in the winter on a regular basis. There was one cafe I tried never to frequent in the summer, as I would start to suffer frost bite to my bare toes before the meal was even over.
I had not winterized my window and a draft came in at the bottom of the blind in this cold snap. My side turned to the window got zapped which caused me to wonder if I could even feel my toes and was perhaps suffering a fatal stroke. I can never get used to my reactions to cold, so it is no wonder other people find it impossible.
I don't even think about how I might survive life in a really cold place. I would have severe bursitis in my shoulder every winter when I was living in Utah caused from the cold. My chest would be covered with sore spots where the cold would hit through my open coat. If I went out and got my feet cold, they would not warm up all night. It was alarming. My sister Ann said the only person she ever encountered who was so reactive to drafts and cold was someone who had something wrong with his thyroid. I do have Hashimotos and have had to take thyroid medicine for an underactive thyroid for years. I stopped trying to solve the puzzle. I just try to protect myself.
But my family has found my ailment a source of comic relief at times when I seemed to be surviving and they dared to laugh. They would say things like, "Mom, don't come out in the front room wearing your sleeping outfit, please! My company will think you are daft." This was years ago, and I have gotten even more extreme in my old age. I am coping so perhaps you can get a smile out of my being so allergic to drafts, too.

3 comments:

Pamela said...

Wow! How cold was it? Being cold is no joke. Many elderly people do freeze in their beds. Stay warm and safe!

sober white women said...

We have been having some cold weather here as well. I wear socks to bed all the time! LOL
Kelli

annk said...

I do laugh at Gerry in her 'cold' apartment in Phoenix...what was the temp 45o or better? I walked out the door to go swimming -21 in Panguitch. I consider myself MAD. I do know that people's blood seems to match the area they live, so if it is unually cold they feel it. We were all swimming at Lake Powell and Gerry wore black long pants, black long sleeve shirt that had a hood, and lay weltering in the sun, we thought. She was happy!


Herrad

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