Yesterday here in Colorado it was 100 degrees. The humidity was right up there with it, I believe. When I went for a walk everyone was talking about the heat and humidity.

I know I was sweating though ten times more then any of them. Sweat just ran off of my back all day long. I tried to redo some things in my house and had to give it up. Even with it being cool in here I was still sweating and worse outside.

I asked my Dr. about the Clonidene and he says he'd rather not due to the side effects. He says it causes all of the problems I already have so he's afraid it will make them worse.

Is there another med out there that will do the same without all of the side effects?

This new Immunologist is trying to check out my immune system. Explain this too me, is it the immune system that adds to us getting the RSD and Fibro or the Autoimmune or both? I'm anxious to find out what he comes up with. I am off this morning to have my blood work done and a chest xray. My Dr. is also lining up my sleep study also. Finally this Dr. maybe able to help figure out what I am dealing with. My PCP and I both believe that I have not been diagnosed completely.

Back to the heat. I know a lot of you are seeing a lot of the sweating. Does it get to you as bad as it gets to me. I sleep with a fan on at night but I have to keep a cover over me so the air won't get the RSD acting up.

I cannot find anything to help me. I do walk around here with a wet washcloth on my neck to try and help.

Do you have any good solutions besides the Clonedine? Do you ever get past the sweating with the RSD. I notice some symptoms calm down but the sweating doesn't. Even in the wintertime I have to sleep with a fan.

Thanks for the help.
Ada

the humidity kills me. i can no longer handle the heat, and the humidity causes my feet to swell to the high pain stage. i have yet to find a solution. i also use a fan or the AC to keep cool, and yet have to have a sheet to protect the rsd areas which are freezing! oh boy, i need a new thermostat!
joan

First of all, I try to stay out of the sun. I cut out almost all caffeine after 10 AM and eat lite meals and drink lots and lots of water. Food that is difficult or slow to digest is a no no.

Our walks are mainly from 6am to 6:30 am. I try to wear lightweight cotton rather than synthetics, and make sure it's loose fitting. Wear a cap or hat that covers the top of your head yet allows air movement. You lose heat through the top of your head so you don't want to trap that heat in, yet you want to cover it because you don't want the sun shining there and heating things up even more.

During the day while inside the house I use a lot of "window management". Too much in and out of the air conditioning is really hard on me and will trigger a migraine. Don't want one of those, so... if the sun is shining in, or about to the window gets shut and the curtains drawn. Then as the day progresses you open the windows when the sun no longer shines through and close the ones that do. Sometimes a fan blowing the warm air out of the house keeps things cooler. Use ceiling fans to recirculate the air in the room you are using.

If you have to cook, use the microwave and/or toaster oven rather than the regular oven.

The cold wet washcloths help a lot, and keeping my hair off my neck makes a big difference.

I haven't turned the air on yet. Usually don't have to until mid July when the temps get above 95 and it doesn't cool off at night.

I hope some part of this helps.

Hugs and Prayers

I sweat profusely. I always had an issue with sweating before RSD, however, it is now 10x worse.

I take cymbalta, vicodin, & zanaflex. We installed a window AC (definitely cheaper than central air.)

I keep my big heavy blanket on my leg, but not touching my knee, and the AC on cold. If I don't then I am a wet blanket all the time.

I am going to be talking to my doc about this as it bugs the crap out of me.

[COLOR="Blue"]I have central air.. no sweating. I have never been one to sweat except in the sun or when it is so humid, I can't stand it. Now, it is in the upper 80's here and I love it because my hand doesn't get as cold. when it gets too cold in our home from the air, I have a ice cold hand and have to turn off the air. weird!! Love, Desi (P.S. sometimes , well a lot of the times though, my hand can still get cold even when it's hot) this RSD has it's nerve.. eh?? LOL

I am back in Iowa from AZ now, and have continued my walking each day. Now here in Iowa the humidity is about 60%, in AZ about 4% when I was there for 6-7 weeks. My whole body is a river of sweat. My pants look like I walked out of a pool. My feet have become swollen since I am back home and my second toe under the toenail has turned a bright redish-purple and is very painful..along with the burning on my top 3 toes on my right foot..I wear crocs when I am not on the walking path and it seems to help a bit...the dry heat even though 112F is much better than 85F with 60% humidity..everyone have a safe holiday!

I agree about the humidity. Colorado is a lot like Arizona with the humidity. Usually it will only get up to 10 at the most. But we have had an unusual summer and it has been raining a lot. We have had rain again now for 4 days straight and along with it comes the humidity. It makes me swell and hurt so much worse. When we don't have the high humidity, I love it here.

Ada

Ada,
Hopefully, this won't wind up being another book here for you to read, but I am not going to make any promises that I (probably) can't keep! LOL

I know all about Humidity! I live in a swampy, murky, very damp, always wet (well..usually. We were pretty dry in all ways you can be dry up until just recently here. Now, the humidity levels have come WAY back up, but it isn't raining...and so we are humid AND in the midst of a drought! Explain that one...LOL) very green part of the country. With The Gulf less than 5 hours away from here, I don't reckon that anyone should be surprised to hear that! ROFL

Anyway...it is nothing for our humidity levels to be in the 90's or even 100%. We are lucky because our humidity is lower today...only reading 45% right now, which is changing our lower-then-it-has-been-being-temp from 89 to feeling like it is only 93. Not so bad...and not near as bad is it can and WILL get here during the Summer. ROFL, I will tell you something funny; when I was a kid and living in AZ, I thought that it was only 100% humidity when it was RAINING! I have since learned (and not long after first moving here to Alabama), that is very, very wrong. LOL

The sad thing is, that I live in a place that is bad for me. I have NEVER been able to adapt to the humidity and how it affects not only the temps outside (making it feel hotter in the Summer, and colder in the Winter), but how it affects my body. Since RSD came along...well....it has been pretty horrible. Funny thing, I didn't know just HOW BAD the humidity was affecting me until we went out to first Las Vegas during the Summer and then Tucson during another Summer. I knew before that that I did better in Las Vegas when we went during the Winter for our annual Christmas Visit, but I reckon that part of my just was figuring that it was because it wasn't SO cold.....(Although there have been a few times since that it has even been COLDER in Vegas then here during that time of the year)....and that the Damp plus the cold was making it hard on me here. ROFL..DUH! If DAMP and COLD bothers...I don't know why I didn't figure that Damp and HOT wouldn't?? Kinda stupid way of thinking when I look back on it now....

Anyways..it hit home for me when we made each one of those Summer visits. The heat was SUPER high (I am remembering a 117 temp reading while we were in Vegas....and a 115 in Tucson), but I felt ever so much better then I did here at home. Even down in Tucson, where it is slightly more Humid....and was more so because we were visiting around my Birthday which falls during their Monsoon Season...I felt GOOD!

Don't get me wrong...I still hurt. Shoot, I ALWAYS hurt. I just wasn't having...as bad pain? The same pain? Different pain levels, for sure.....but...I was even able to do things there that there would be NO way that I could do here. And, do these things even with the Thunderheads building up on the Horizon and blowing into town.

I see that you have been asking about the whole sweating thing. Humidity doesn't necessarily make you sweat MORE...but it does make your body not be able to use that sweat as efficently. If that makes sense? When it is dryer out, the sweat actually evaporates and helps to cool you down some, like it is supposed to do. When it is all humid (and, that usually means that the air isn't moving much....almost as if it is just too heavy to move around. LOL) you sweat, but it doesn't evaporate like it should. Or, like it does when the air is dryer outside (and even inside the house..I will get to that in just a minute). It just STICKS there, and then builds up until it is running off of you, and making everything stick to you...and making you pretty damn miserable. LOL..I know, because this is how life is for me here in The Land of Cotton. ROFL

When the air is dryer, you sweat the same amount (or maybe even more, if it is hotter), but it isn't hanging around and building up and running off of you CONSTANTLY like it does when it is all wet and humid out. So, it makes it seem that you are sweating MORE...when you really aren't. Does that make sense?

The same thing happens in the house. Here, I have to run the AC A LOT! I would rather deal with it being colder in the house then I would like (I prefer it warmer. LOL..Meghan would say "HOTTER!!" ROFL, but then she can't stand heat as well as Jay and I can), in order to make the air dryer inside. A regular AC (or heat pump...or whatever) helps to dry the air out at least a little bit. I imagine that you are pretty miserable if it is super humid (or even just a little more humid..if you are as sensitive to it as I am) outside..AND you have to use a Swamp Cooler to cool your house! Swamp Coolers are made for DRY places and to help add a little bit of humidity into the inside air (because a LITTLE bit of humidity isn't a bad thing....it helps to keep noses from drying out and cracking and bleeding [a problem that Meghan has when we go visit out West], and skin from drying out too badly and such, and throats from drying out)....ROFL..that is why Celine Dion is weird about the climate controls in her Coliseum thing that theyu built for her in Vegas at Cesar's Palace. She is worried about her throat drying out, and her getting what is known as "Vegas Throat", and messing up her signing (either from a case of Laryngitis, or her voice cracking all over the place). So, a little bit of humidity is a good thing. Too much is just crap. The swamp cooler that you have is probably only making you more miserable, since it is actually ADDING moisture into air that is pretty moist anyways.

Like you, I also sleep with fans going. Most houses here have ceiling fans in most rooms, to help circulate the heavy air, and to try to help dry it a little bit. So, I have ALL the ceiling fans running ALL of the time (yes..even in Winter...I just flip the switch to have the fans blow the heat down in the Winter, and then flip it back so that it sucks up the cool in the Summer). I also have a box fan that I turn on (on HIGH! LOL) every night when I go to bed. I didn't used to be able to sleep with such when I was younger (like, before we moved here), but I have been having to sleep with a fan (at least one, when I have lived in places that didn't have a ceiling fan in the bedroom) going at night for so long, that I can't hardly fall to sleep without one running. It is the air circulating and the noise that I need, I guess. But, also like you, I have to AT LEAST have a sheet to cover up my bad RSD parts (mainly my leg and lower back...it is easier to get and keep my arm out of the way, and it isn't as sensitive to the whole air circulating thing as my lower parts are....it never has been, but then, my upper RSD parts have always acted some what differently than my lower ones...not sure why), to keep the breezes from blowing on them and driving me crazy. I even keep throws out in the living room all year round for the same reason. I imagine that it is pretty funny for folks to come in here when it is 90 something outside, but feeling like it is way over 100 instead, and find me huddled up under a throw. Oh well...we do what we have to do to get by, you know?

You might see about getting a Dehumidifier if your humidity is supposed to be so high for much longer...and keep it in the room where you are. Especially in your bedroom at night, so that it can help to dry out the heavy damp air at least a little. Maybe that would help?

If I can think of anything else.....besides running fans of any and all types, and the dehumidier to try to help dry out the air inside your house..I will be sure to post it. In the mean time, I hope that you get dried out there and that things get back to a more normal climate for you SOON!

Oh! One more thing; they send folks away from places like here where it is so humid to dryer places (like AZ...LOL..can you guess where I am moving to in a year?? ) to help with their Allergy problems. Not that there isn't any allergens in AZ or NV or any other dryer Western State, but because there isn't all of the humidity in the air to help hold the crap that is bothering the folk in, and cause their allergies to act up worse. Maybe the increased humidity levels are a big part of your worse problems with allergies lately? Something that you might ask your doc when you see him next, and maybe to see if he has any suggestions as to what you might be able to do?

( Sorry that this wound up being long again...but I just can't seem to keep anything SHORT at all anymore. *Sigh. Comes from talking too damn much, reckon? ROFLMAO!!)

Hope that you are having a VERY Happy Fourth!

Love and
Jose The Jabber Jaws! (Or...Jabber Fingers? ROFL!!!)

Happy 4th dear. I just read your book and I can see you are going through a lot of what I do.

I'm from Ky. so I know about the humidity being so high. What's so funny this year, they aren't getting the rain and the humidity that we are.

Two days ago the humidity had to be up in the 80's here. The newspeople were talking about how unusual it is to see it so high here.

Like you, I have fans in every room and a ceiling fan in my kitchen. What is so crazy though, when they wired my place they wired it to where you have to leave the kitchen light on to run the fan. In my bathroom, I have to leave my light on to use my hair curling items. Whoever did the wiring here sure was no electrician.

Az. is a lot like here but they do get a lot hotter there, just no humidity. Man when they get it in the 100's though, I don't think I could handle that part. They run from their air conditioned house to the air conditioned car to the airconditioned job back to the air conditioned car back to the house. I got that from a friend of mine down there.

I can honestly say we have always had the most perfect weather here. That's what made me fall in love with the place along with the mountains. It's just changed here so much weather wise and everyone is trying to figure out why.

Someone mentioned a humidifier to me the other day. I sleep with a fan on me at night and my nose is drying out I believe. I tried sleeping with the swamp cooler on last night but it got too cold in here. I can't win for losing here.

I have to go over to the kids house now. I actually like it better out there because I am more use to the cooling system in my place there.

I am hoping we will get to work on this place here soon. I am having so much trouble finding a handy man. None of them want to work.

I want to take up all of my carpets and put down tile and paint all the way through and I have a new door to put on in the front. I have had it for 2 months. I have called 3 handy men and they never come to give me an estimate.

As far as sheets, I have a blanket on me at night, and I have my RSD leg under it, the other one out, my arms under because of the RSD. Sounds crazy that we have to sleep under fans but be covered up too. I also have those throws on my couch and chair for me to cover up with and my youngest grandson covers up also. He's a lot like me.

It's funny that you thought that the humidity was up only when it was raining. Living in Ky. it was up rain or shine and I know down your way is even worse. We spent a week in Florida and left before our vacation was up.
I don't see how anyone lives there. I know it's a beautiful place but I couldnt do it.

I remember going to Weatherford Texas when my daughter got married the first time. We spent a month down there and I swear I had never been in such a hot, humid place in all of my life. I thought I would die before we left there.

The winters here are different also, Jose. They seem to be getting worse. A lot of older people here say they are getting back to how they were when they were kids but we have been here 35 years and I never saw bad ones like we have been having the past few years.

It's funny to drive up in the mountains and only see the roof of a house. Here we don't get near the snow that the mountains and Denver gets. I am dreading the winter though. Last winter was the worse on me I had ever had up here. I hurt so bad I was going nuts from the pain.

Today it's hot but the humidity isn't up as bad. I love the summers here when it's not up. My sister will be here Aug. 4th and I am so hoping it won't be so hot that we can't do anything. It gets that way here even without the humidity.

I hope all of you have a great 4th.

Ada