Body Temperature

[Deanne]

Do you feel cold very often? Several years ago, I noticed that my normal body temperature when I use a thermometer is 97.something. I feel cold easier than most people seem to, but I can't handle heat as well anymore either. I need to keep the thermostat at about 70 in the winter - that's with wearing a sweatshirt in the house and barefoot is out of the question - I need to wearh warm fuzzy slippers or shoes to keep my feet warm, winter or summer.

But at 80 degrees, I feel overheated..

I need to wear lightweight gloves all day at work (I'm on a computer all day and type with goves on). I only take them off to eat and when I leave my cube. It's a fairly good diet plan since I need to take them off to eat, but annoying, too!

Is this fairly common?

[Willis]

Before I went on D it got really bad...so bad I was shivering in bed with my side of the electric blanket on high and my wife--no covers and complaining about how hot it was. We are always fighting over the thermostat settings.

Since I've been on D it has improved a little bit and I only have the electric blanket on 6 now. 

BTW, my PD clinic nurse said that's normal for ESRD patients and they keep the clinic at about 78-80 degrees. I had commented once about how comfortable it was compared to most doctor's offices. She complained that she's hot all the time but she "does it for the patients." Now ain't that nice! 

 

[willowtreewren]

Carl could not get warm AT ALL before he started dialysis. He was wearing a jacket even in the summer. It got better after he started dialysis (well not when he was actually having a treatment!).

Willis, your clinic sounds like a gem! Warms my heart! 

Aleta

[paris]

My temp over the past few years is always at 97.6.   Since this disease started, I have been chilled.  I assumed low hemoglobin was the cause.  There are throws on every piece of furniture, an extra blanket on my side of the bed, and hoodies are my best friend.    It helps to know others feel the same way.

[MooseMom]

I don't have a problem with the cold, and I live in Chicago!  But I have grown to really dislike the heat.  I was raised in TX, so I know heat.  But I've lived away from there for almost 30 years, plus I'm thirty years older, so maybe that has something to do with it.

[Cordelia]

Yes, its very common. Pre dialysis same problem with me, electric blanket cranked and couldn't get the least bit warm if I tried. Hubby and I would have arguments about the electric blanket too.

Now, mainly what's cold the quickest is my extremities. Mainly my feet. Sometimes my hands. I have neuropathy in my feet so that does not help. My feet are freezing even on a hot blistering summer day   

[jbeany]

That's one more kidney function that falls to ESRD - the kidneys help regulate hormones that in turn help regulate body temp.  If I hit 99 on the thermometer, it meant I was feverish.  Funny, that hasn't changed with the transplant, either, but I'm not as easily chilled anymore. 

[ESRD Survivor]

My body temp runs high all the time.  I don't get cold too often, only during treatment time.  I range from 99 to 100 on any given day and they can't figure it out.  I've done blood cultures that come back negative, so they just chalk it to me being me.

[malaka]

I have been cold since about Stage 3 or 4.  I blamed it on blood thinner, but now I see its just a side effect of the disease itself.  Wife and I have switched roles on who is warm and who is cold.  She's in a t shirt, I'm wearing a jacket in the house.

[Deanne]

Thanks! Somehow it makes me feel a lot better that this is "normal."

[jbeany]

Thanks! Somehow it makes me feel a lot better that this is "normal."

Isn't that the truth!  I feel better knowing something is not some random, weird symptom that no one else has and the doc is going to think is in my head.  I had that with side effects from Procrit - I was miserable the day after I took it every time - and the doc kept saying "No one else has these problems."  I asked on here, and I wasn't the only one. 

[thegrammalady]

most esrd patients run a reto grade temp. mine fluctuates between 96 and 97. if  i'm 98 or above i'm running a fever. try explaining that to a sceptical triage nurse. if i hit 100 the dr wants me in the hospital. anything above 98 and i feel crappy. before dialysis started i was always cold. cold from the inside out. it didn't matter how warm or cold the room was. i usually wear a jacket or hoodie. i also don't tolerate heat very well.

[mcclane]

i'm usually between 36.5 and 36.8.

When PD was failing, I was shivering like crazy.  It felt cold all the time, even if it was a balmy 15 outside.  People were wearing shorts and tshirts while I was wearing a fleece jacket and a parka.

Since doing 'almost daily' hemo, that shivering has pretty much disappeared.  Now, even if it is less than 10 outside, i'm more than comfortable in a t shirt.  in fact, i sweat and overheat easily now.

[Desert Dancer]

My feet were always two blocks of ice even when it was 115 degrees outside. I always liked to stick them under Andy's butt to warm them up; I jokingly told him I was going to make him put that in our wedding vows: that he'd always be my footwarmer! Since I've started dialysis it doesn't seem to be as much of a problem anymore.

A typical conversation here... Andy: "It's not cold!" Me: "I didn't say IT was cold, I said 'I' was cold!"

[billmoria]

VERY COMMON. I am always cold 247 x 366! I am freezing while on dialysis worse in summer (a/c) than in winter.
I am less tolerante of heat and cold - water temps that I can endure are in a very small band.

What makes it worse is that my partner is always hot - I dream of a second bathroom in our small flat. I settled for a on the wall heater that only heats me.

[Ken Shelmerdine]

I think it's the dialysis process itself that makes you cold during and directly after it. The machine keeps your blood at normal body temperature  but as soon as it enters the venous line there is no means of heat control so in the time that it passes through the line it is losing temperature slightly so that as your blood returns  over the D period it tends to chill you from the inside out.

When I first get hooked up the clinic feels very hot and stuffy. After about 1 and a half hours it feels pleasant and just about right yet the wall thermometer has not changed. Fast forward to 3 hours and I'm calling for a blanket. Still no temperature change. By the time I've finished D, the temperature still hasn't changed and yet I am freezing and usually quite cold. Full on goes the car heater on my way home and the a heated wheat bag round my shoulders for an hour after I get home before I gradually start to warm up again.

[CebuShan]

My normal temp used to run at 99. Since ESRD, I usually run about 97 some days even 96! During the summer I spend a lot of time outside because I can't stand the A/C. If we go out for dinner, we usually pick a place with patio dining otherwise I have to go outside halfway through to warm up! I use 4 throws at D. I used to cramp so bad that the only thing that helped was turning my blood temp down. Winter I always took a throw with me to church, now I take one in summer too. Always thought it was just me!

[malaka]

Talked with my nephro about this yesterday. Myhemoglobin is in the 11's, so I'm not anemic enough for EPO.  He is checking my thryoid, however, since I've been taking synthroid for years.  Cold feeling may be the result of low thyroid function.  I hadn't thought about that.  Easier to adjust thyroid meds than to start on EPO.