Cold....

[Jie]

Winter is coming and I feel a lot colder this winter than before. My body seems not to generate enough heat. The worst time is during sleep: too high room temperature makes me sweat, and a normal temperature would make me running nose when waking up. Any trick or medicines to handle the cold?

[Dianejt]

I also live in a cold climate (New England) & hate the cold. I make up "Hot Bags" that you heat in the microwave. They are simple to make even if you need to sew the pouch by hand & fill it with flax seed. They are very comforting  plus warms me up. It also helps with my arthritis pain.

[lizabee]

I was always so cold until I started dialysis, now I sweat most of the time!  LOL....hopefully that will help this winter and I will stay warm!  Good luck!

[tito]

Get a dog! My dog keeps me nice and warm.

Seriously, though, I was very cold all the time but dialysis and getting my hematocrit back to normal seem to have helped a lot.

[kitkatz]

Put a pair of socks on when you go to bed.

[Jelena]

Or you can fill up a 1L or 2L plastic bottle with hot water and put it under the covers when you go to bed.. mmmm.... that feels soooo good!

[kitkatz]

Or go buy one of the warming blankets for 25 dollars. Leave it where you sit the most. Turn it on and wrap it around you.

[Rerun]

Like Dianejt I have a bag I put in the microwave but mine is filled with white rice.  It stinks but it has a moist heat that feels so good.

[Stoday]

I keep my bedroom at 26 deg C (= 79 deg F). Still not quite warm enough.

[kristina]

Apart from feeling abnormally cold because of my Lupus-SLE-flare-up and ESRF, I once went through a long
time of having very cold extremities, which was a side-effect from the Antihypertensive medicine I was prescribed.
Eventually I was given a new prescription and this symptom of very cold extremities disappeared.
 
Nevertheless, I continued to feel generally cold, particularly since my end-stage-renal-failure.
I am pre-dialysis and have had experiences of feeling extremely cold and it helped me enormously
to have bedding-material made of brushed cotton (flannelettes), i.e. pillow-cases, sheets and covers.

Ordinary cotton sheets tend to feel cold but brushed cotton, which may be difficult to find,
has a warmer feel and keeps the body-temperature at a much more comfortable level.
I was unable to find duvet-covers and pillow cases, so I bought ordinary brushed cotton sheets and
was able to easily sew it together on the sewing machine.

I also bought some angora garments, for example a “kidney warmer”
which you pull up over your body to cover your kidney region and it acts like a very wide belt
which goes around your waist and keeps that area at an even temperature and stops the odd draft.
 
There are also other types of garments to keep the legs and upper body warm as well.
 
It took me a little while to find the right material and the right garments, but it has been well worth it.

I also have thermal gloves, which of course covers the wrist etc. and I always wear a warm hat
when I go out because this assists to keep the body warm as well.

I hope these few ideas may help,
 
Good luck from Kristina.

[Maker]

Like Dianejt I have a bag I put in the microwave but mine is filled with white rice.  It stinks but it has a moist heat that feels so good.

These "grain" bags are awesome    My mom just gave me one filled with corn from my Dad's bin (he's a farmer).  You can make them with rice or soybeans also.  Mom even made a little washable case for it.  Its going to be perfect when I get cold at dialysis, I will send the tech to microwave it for a couple minutes then stick it in my blanket!  Mom's making some for my friends here at dialysis too.

At home I get cold a lot, but an electric blanket on my bed and space heaters I can set next to me wherever I am helps a lot!!  And saves on heating bills 

[kitkatz]

I also buy the hand warmers skiers use and place it under the blanket with me at dialysis.

[RightSide]

I sleep in the nude.
That makes it easier for sweat to evaporate off my body and keep me cool, enabling me to turn up the heat in the bedroom without my sweating.

[okarol]

I sleep in the nude.
That makes it easier for sweat to evaporate off my body and keep me cool, enabling me to turn up the heat in the bedroom without my sweating.

Hahaha I was picturing you at nocturnal dialysis there for a moment. 

[Savemeimdtba]

lol!  I wonder what the dialysis clinic would do?

I was ALWAYS cold when my hemoglobin was low (even temperature wise, I hung around 95-96 degrees).. ever since that has come back into a normal range I've been of a reasonably normal temperature physically and medically. 

[Jean]

A heated water bed with flannel sheets and one blanket is just divine. Only problem is getting out of bed in the morning to face the cold air. We can turn our furnace down to 65 at night now. Wonder if they will give me one in the center, maybe I will have Kit findout for me. 

[willowtreewren]

Before my husband started dialysis the anemia had him wearing jackets even in the summer. Hopefully you will be able to get your Hgb regulated to help with the cold.

I love all the wonderful ideas here, though. Surely some will help you in the mean time! 

Aleta

[Malibu]

I like Tito's idea best!     Our dogs are too big to get in bed with us!  95 lbs, 88 lbs, and 67 lbs.

My husbands dialysis tech filled a glove with hot water and had him grasp it with his left (dialysis access in upper left arm) hand. (He took his death grip off the warmed return blood lines to grab the glove!)  It helped tremendously. I also just took out of the dryer 2 new Egyptian cottan blankets I purchased from JC Penny, hopefully they will keep him warm.  His temp has been 97.7 for a while now.   

These are great ideas.

[kitkatz]

A heated water bed with flannel sheets and one blanket is just divine. Only problem is getting out of bed in the morning to face the cold air. We can turn our furnace down to 65 at night now. Wonder if they will give me one in the center, maybe I will have Kit findout for me. 

 
Jeanie babe, I think it wold be no on the heated water bed. If you get them to get you one, I want one, too. You could bring a flannel sheet and blanket, though and be comfy.

[jennyc]

When i was on hospital haemo the nurses used to steal the theater blankets (day surgery was in the next ward down in the old unit). The theater blankets were in the heater box so we stayed really toasty. I don't think they do it now though.

I put the grain bags under my feet when they go cold and numb with PTH (haven't had to for a while). i don't really have a problem with the cold most of the time (unless hanging wet clothes in winter, ouch) its the heat i can't handle, esp now that we are heading into summer.

[Jean]

A no, huh Kit? Bummer. Well, I will ask anyways. ( see Jean going over the edge )

[Maker]

I forgot this one - put your clothes in the dryer for 5 minutes before you put them on = heaven on a cold day! 

I also detach my dryer hose from the wall and curve it up to the top of my dryer so it points out into the room and pumps the house full of warm moist heat when I'm drying a load.  I leave it like that all winter long.  You have to put a panty hose foot on the end though or the lint comes out too.  Looks goofy but feels great...and its free heat 

[st789]

Drink warm liquid.

[Razman]

  I cuddle up with my wife.  Great excuse to get close 

[Jie]

Many thanks to everyone for good tips. I will need to have some more lab next month to see what thing is out of balance. For the time being, I can try out some of suggestions here.