Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Hot Water



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(Julia singing into loofah microphone):
"Gonna stay in the tub till the soap disappears,
 gonna stay till I'm wrinkled clear up to my ears, 
it may be two weeks or it may be two years, 
gonna stay in the bathtub till the soap disappears." 
         - lyrics found here. 

Tonight I was soaking in the bathtub with that song running through my head. It was on a Olsen twins cassette tape that the kids loved when they were little.

I used to soak for what seemed like hours when I was younger, and as the water cooled, I'd perfected a highly complex maneuver with my right toes to turn the hot water tap on and warm up the tub. I liked my bath water temperature just short of boiling. 

The days of steaming hot baths are gone with the arrival of autoimmune disease, and I am not completely certain why. I have noticed that my body's comfort range seems to have narrowed considerably in the past five years or so. Temps that once would have seemed relaxing - such as those found in a bubbling hot tub or a steamy sauna - now create a sensation of weakness and mild nausea. I know that other Sjoggies have voiced concern over these same symptoms. 

Our bodies work very hard to maintain a normal body temperature. This diagram found here explains the complex biologic response to an increase in temperature:  


So, I'm thinking that my discomfort in hot environments is explained by a glitch somewhere in the map above. 

Anyone have any guesses where the glitch occurs? Perhaps I just need to increase the cool drinks involved in the voluntary response area.  

Hmmm. Cool drinks..........slush, anyone? 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I don't have that reaction...yet. However, for years now, my skin gets extremely irritated from heat, or cold. I don't mean like just a little 'itchy', I've described it to doctors as feeling like I have red ants crawling under my skin, and my skin's on fire to boot. It's bad. Seems to have let up though since my first full term pregnancy, but I was on prednisone for the entirety of it. So maybe that helped, but seems to be starting to come back again since my last pregnancy. Still not as bad as it use to be. Well, sorry I'm not very much help to you with your "hot water" problem, I will pray about it though. God Bless. Lamm

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