Hi Laura,

My daughter has Primary Raynaud's Phenomenon. She has medical documentation of symptoms (Toes/feet and fingers/hands) when she was in 6th grade. Unfortunately, that visit was with a Physicians Assistant who said 'no, it's not Raynaud's when I voiced my concern about Raynaud's.

It was quite sometime later that she saw her Primary Care Physician and he confirmed what I suspected, Raynaud's. She has not, to date, used any medication for her Raynaud's. She is now 22 years old.

With Raynaud's you do need to be very careful as you will be more prone to frost bite. Stress can also trigger Raynaud's to flare-up.

got it too! I like to freak out people on summer days with it

It can a diagnosis all unto itself or accompany another diagnosis. It does not always show up on blood tests either.

My DH just says I have cold feet, warm heart. I kind of like that positive spin on my blotchy, bright cold hands & feet (and sometimes even my fanny )

My daughter and I were at the Butterfly Pavilion today and it is a tropical climate controlled area (very warm and humid).

My daughter pointed out her feet and hands which were red due to the warmth and humid nature of the environment. So apparently Raynaud's can affect you even in heat and humidity or no humidity as it happens to her in dry heat too.

In response to the earlier post about how raynaud's is vascular and ms isn't, that's sort of true, but sort of isn't since the vascular system along with everything else in the body is control by the nervous system. Ms effects the nervous system and as such the nervous system can effect the vascular system leading to things like vascular neuropathy, low blood pressure, high blood pressure, cardiac events, and it stands to reason yes Raynaud's syndrome as well, especially given the occurrence of the members having similar effects and diagnosis'. Myself included, my poor husband says that snuggling up with me some nights is like sleeping with a corpse. Hands and halfway up the arms will be frozen, feet and legs right up to the hinny, for me though it generally isn't painful, though I feel the cold and agree with the husband and feel the need to separate body parts with careful tucking of the blankets, but it can be painful when stepping on the frozen feet until they warm up, or if I have hold anything cold in my hands. I live in southeast ga and have to wear knee high socks year round and gloves well into the start of summer (90 deg and up). Of course still waiting on any kind of diagnosis, though almost all of my doctors are convinced its ms and even the neuro is mostly convinced but I'll hopefully have an answer in august.