Sometimes I feel like Goldilocks… this weather is too hot, this weather is too cold. Extreme temperatures really affect my Friedreich’s Ataxia (FA), but in very different ways.
When it's really hot outside, it is really hard to make it through the day with enough energy. The heat zaps what little reserve I have, and every single move seems to require so much. I get so fatigued so easily, because my body is working overtime to not only stay cool, but to cope with FA. My extremities get really lethargic and movement has to be a lot more deliberate, even though my movements look really sloppy. It’s exhausting. And believe me, I know heat: In the Texas hill country, we average over 100 days of 100+ degree temperatures in the summer.
Extreme cold is not my friend either. When its really cold, my muscles contract and are less willing to try to cooperate. My movements become more staccato and spaztic. My joints want to be flexed and rigid, which certainly doesn’t help when trying to walk around. All my body wants to do is curl up under a mountain of blankets and shiver. (another small winter weather annoyance – socks! They don’t make a lot of great no-slip socks in adult sizes, so I’m stuck with either tiny ankle height “yoga socks” that don’t really keep me warm, or massive slipper socks that you can’t wear under shoes! I miss the days of wearing tall warm baseball socks or goofy, cute socks… but I slip and fall too much in those, especially trying to navigate my toy-strewn obsticle course hardwood floored house.)
It’s just another blow that FA has inflicted. But I can rise above. It makes me apprecite those beautiful days where the temperatures camp out in the 60's, 70's and 80's even more! I guess I just need to move to Hawaii or somewhere where the weather is always perfect. Not to hot, not to cold. Think I could convince Kyle of that?!