Does the cold make your ocular and facial problems worse? Lately I have just been having so much behind eye pain and facial aches and sagging of the muscles., I have been so fortunate but it seems I am progressing with some generalized problems.
Any one else notice a difference in the cold?

I notice a difference with the colder temperatures. I can't seem to get warm at all and the cold makes my muscles not want to work and my face feels crooked and my eyes feel tired, but the effect is small enough that I can still function.

I do have trouble falling asleep at night because my feet are cold, too.

I wonder if this is due to not enough water. Since I started taking Mestinon it seems like I just can't get enough water in me and I often feel dehydrated which makes me get tired quickly. I feel like I have poor circulation. In fact, now that I think about it, my arms fall asleep a lot at night since it got cold (I wake up a lot with tingling arms and have to change position).

Okay, I have to admit that it is relatively warm here (between 30 and 75 F this time of year) and I really shouldn't complain. I am happy to live in a place that doesn't get too cold. I love it here in sunny Arizona!

I feel warm in the middle of the day if I am outside in the sun and I feel my energy return and my face feels firm again. I feel a definite effect from being warm and I feel more energy as I get warmer.

If I am not active, I have a space heater by my feet and wear a scarf and a sweater while in the house (and the temperature is comfortable for other people).

I look forward to the return of the sun and the temperatures rising above 80 degrees F.

While on this subject I wanted to add that I started to experiment with my heat tolerance while it was still hot this summer, between 90 and 105 F outside. I found that if I spend all day outside, starting in the morning before it gets too hot, my energy lasted longer during the day and I actually felt almost normal. The days I spend indoors at lower temperatures made me get tired faster.

Is it the sunshine? (I do wear a hat and long sleeves for sun protection) The warm temperatures? The activity? Vitamin D from the sunshine? There are so many things that effect my strength and energy that being warm is only one of many so this is hard to know.


NOTE: My eyes are not focusing great today, no obvious double vision, but I am having slight trouble reading. In the above typing I had to make spaces between some of my sentences so I could read them properly.

I am going to suggest that if anyone has large paragraphs to write that you break the paragraph up into smaller paragraphs of about 5 lines max. I love to read what everyone has to say, but I had trouble today with any long paragraphs and had to use my finger to be sure I read the lines in the correct order.

I hate MG. I used to read so fast that I wasn't aware of the words and now usually I can only read one line at a time. When my eyes are doing well, I read as much as possible...I love the flow of information into my mind without seeing the words or even being aware of reading them...now I see this way of reading as magical. Today is not one of those days.

Ditto on the paragraph thing, Susan. I can't read longer threads because of that (and the redoing of what people say with quotes).

Theoretically, the enzyme that "eats up" acetylcholine gets to be in greater numbers when your body is hot or cold. So that would leave less acetylcholine for your muscles. And it's those "smaller" muscles around the eyes and face that often get affected first.

I can't stand either the cold or heat. Right now, we're below zero and I'm not going anywhere!

Annie

When my MG was very active, heat would affect me but seldom cold. Now that I am in some sort of limbo (maybe remission), the cold makes me look as if I had a stroke. It takes a couple of hours to return to almost normal. I scares me since it makes me think full blown MG is around the corner again.

Bill

Now that you guys mention the cold, I remember as the Fall was turning into winter last year, not being able to close my lips completely a few times when it was super cold. I remember thinking that was really weird, and something was seriously wrong- I think that I just ended up chalking it up to my face being frozen maybe? Denial!

P.S. Guys, I'm definately guilty of the long paragraph thing-sorry about that! I always forget about it because I don't have DV- definately keeping that in mind for future posts!

Nicky

Yes, the cold this year has effected me greatly! Also extreme heat does the same thing.