My youngest son, Will, was diagnosed when he was 3. It is exactly like described...that it's not that it's so cold outside, but the relative difference between his body and what he touches or the atmosphere. We figured it out one day on a cool morning in October. We went out the front door barefoot and walked through the grass to the back yard to get the last of the tomatoes. The air temperature was probably about 60 and rising, but the grass was wet with cold dew. By the time we got to the back of the quarter acre, his toes were bright white, and he was screaming in pain as if he'd been walking on glass.

Another time we were in Indianapolis in winter and it was 5 degrees out with snow on the ground. We stopped the car on the way to the airport so the kids could roll in the snow one last time. He was bundled up, and I had put some mittens on his hands. In the time it took for his brothers to run up the hill and back, he'd never left the side of the car, but was screaming in pain again because his fingers were burning. Pulled the mittens off--bright white fingers.

The doc said that it can be secondary to another condition, and if it's not, it's more an inconvenience than anything. If it is secondary to another condition, you've got more problems than Reynaud's.

Curiously, my son has never been one to wear shoes (you can be sensitive to heat, too, and I think he is). Couldn't keep his shoes on for more than an hour when he was little, he hates socks, goes everywhere in slides or barefoot. He seems to have very few episodes at all anymore, but I think he knows how to avoid it, or, he's outgrown it some. He hasn't had a serious episode in probably 5-6 years--it's been so long that he can't remember them. Some of the milder episodes had him coming to ask me if "this was it". (He's 14.)

A niece has it, too, and she feels like she gets a fast heartbeat when she has an episode.

I'm sure you'll learn how to compensate. I hope it becomes a non-issue for you.

Karen