I’m not a fan of winter and I hate cold, but it sure scraps pretty!

Credits: Life Captured: November by Pixelilly Designs and Ice, Ice Baby by Connie Prince

Journaling:

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I have a love-hate relationship with cold. Well, I guess it’s mostly hate. I love photographs in the snow and I love doing scrapbook pages of pretty snow or ice photos with sparkly kits. I just wish the pretty snow and ice weren’t so cold!

Raynaud's;

Raynaud’s Disease, also called Raynaud’s Syndrome, Raynaud’s Phenomena or just Raynaud’s by medical professionals, is a vascular condition where episodes or attacks, block circulation in the hands or feet. These episodes are commonly brought on by cold or stress and make the hands and/or feet very cold and sometimes discolored, white or blue, and sometimes with pain in the toes or fingers. Although Primary Raynaud’s is a standalone disease, the Raynaud’s Phenomena is common in concert with other diseases that affect the blood or nerves. The latter includes MS.

One of the positive notes I made about MS when I was diagnosed was that a common symptom was sensitivity to heat. I thought that would make me warmer as I’d always been sensitive to cold and miserable when I’m cold. Enter Raynaud’s piggybacked on the MS. Now I get colder and more miserable when it’s cold! I wear socks all the time and have good warm slippers in the house. When I’m in the shower is when my hands and feet feel the best in the winter or summer, when the air conditioning will sometimes cause an attack. On night’s when it’s especially irritating my feet, I sleep with a heating pad wrapped around them. Keeping warm and relieving stress as much as possible helps keep the attacks down. It’s harder to do in the winter, but fortunately, although I won’t experience the magnifying of heat with the MS, I am already well-versed at many ways to keep warm!