Raynaud's Syndrome

[spazzdog]

I sleep under a down comforter year round. I wear flannel jammie bottoms. And I wear a fleece hat in the house.

spazz-brrrrrrr-dog

[Crankin]

My son, who raced as a Cat 3 cyclist in high school has Raynauds. Being warm in your core does not stop the symptoms in your hands and feet. Just being exposed cold causes it. Generally, gloves and covering up don't help. He developed this at about age 14.It just got worse and worse. He was miserable until he researched a surgery done to correct this, that is not performed here in the mecca of medicine (Boston). My husband took him to San Antonio to the only dr. that does this. They go in through your armpit with a laser and cut one of the nerves to stop the symptoms. The surgery was originally developed for people with excessive sweating. It worked within hours. The only side effect is that he sweats a lot in his core, if he gets really hot. He only had to be in Texas for 2 days and felt good enough to go to Austin the same night as the surgery to check out Lance's town!

[yellow]

Robyn-I'm glad they were able to find a solution. Sounds like his case was pretty extreme. Mine right now is just perplexing and annoying. I'm hopeful that it won't move beyond that. It's really a very strange feeling, especially in light of the fact that my hands don't feel cold (perhaps because I can't feel them??). I remember the day I damaged the digits...it was a great day of backcountry skiing in fresh snow, but it was probably close to 0 F. That's pretty cold for CA! (OK, I was at close to 10000' but that's still cold for midday!)

I know it's more than just being cold. While I used to be much more sensitive to cold, I've adapted over the years (living in a semi cold place and doing lots of activites in the cold) and really now am super sensitive to heat. Being overheated makes me very cranky; being a little cold is not a big deal. Since I figured out what to wear (duh! they don't teach you that on the sunny coast of CA, which is where I grew up), I can pretty much say that I haven't been miserably cold in a very, very long time (though miserably hot on a regular basis). I think that maybe the wind chill effect on the fingers, even through full gloves, could be triggering it, which is consistent with Robyn's experience with her son.