I blogged last week about freezing rain, so will tie into winter weather again today. It’s a frequent topic of conversation in my area these days, even though our winter season only officially began on December twenty-first. Less than two weeks ago.
Today’s topic is a combination of temperature, in terms of the weather, a particular rare disease, and fever. Let’s start with the easy part – the weather! So far our forecast doesn’t call for any freezing rain this week (yay!). Instead, today we had a beautiful sunny day. But with an “extreme cold warning” from Environment Canada.
Our high Windchill or RealFeel temperature today was only -20 Celsius (that’s -4 Fahrenheit, for my American friends). It didn’t feel so cold in direct sunlight at mid-day, but it was really cold out there when the sun wasn’t at its strongest.
This kind of temperature is horrible for people suffering homelessness, and for those who have to work outside. And, as I found out last winter, for folks with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) – or Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD) as it was called until a few years ago. You can read my post from almost exactly a year ago, on CRPS and extreme cold.
As with last winter, the only place in which my CRPS-affected joints seem to be relatively ‘happy’ is in the dry sauna at my gym. Lucky for me, use of the sauna is included with the gym membership!
I’ve already been in there a few times this winter – and the season just began. This photo of my CRPS-affected hand was taken this morning, in that sauna. My husband said it looked creepy, so of course I thought it’d be fun to post it ‘-)
Of course I can’t stay in the sauna all day, and in any case the rest of my body isn’t happy in temperatures that high. Until being struck with CRPS, I never even used the sauna; I just wasn’t partial to that kind of deep heat. I guess that’s an example of one of the smallest lifestyle changes that I’ve made, in my efforts to adapt to this rare disease.
The final type of temperature I want to talk about is fevers. Even though we both received the flu shot (vaccination) again this year, my husband still managed to come down with influenza.
Because of his vaccination, it wasn’t as severe as it could have been. And apparently it didn’t take him as long to get over the flu as it takes people who haven’t had the shot. That said, it was still b-a-d. He had a fever of 40C (or 104F) for a while! So we’ve already decided to keep getting our annual flu shots.
He suddenly became ill on Saturday December twenty-second. Within hours he had a fever, chills, aching bones, headache, and a horrible cough. He felt exhausted and physically weak, and had an intensely sore throat for several days.
With all of these symptoms, this was definitely influenza – the flu – not a cold. To avoid spreading this nasty virus to our loved ones, or even to strangers, we cancelled all of our holiday plans.
We put ourselves in a kind of self-imposed isolation, all through the holiday period. I knew that I could spread the virus, even twenty-four before having any symptoms myself. So even though I didn’t feel sick, I didn’t go anywhere either.
When I had to go to a grocery store to pick up some fresh food, I made a list of what was needed – so I could go directly to those items; to limit my time in the shop. I kept my mittens on and left my scarf over my face during the few minutes I was in the grocery shop. I didn’t look odd, or out of place, because our weather was so cold and I just went in for a few items.
Included in my order were quite a few packages of ready-to-use chicken broth, with no salt added. These made it easy to whip up a batch of soup whenever my sweetheart got hungry; I’d just toss in some pre-chopped frozen vegetables and some herbs or spices.
The CRPS in my right hand makes it impossible for me to chop vegetables, so my husband usually does that for me. But there was no way I was going to let him into the kitchen while he was contagious – even though he’s a better cook than I am! In any case, he was still too weak to stand at the counter and chop anything.
By the way, those bags of frozen veggies are now my go-to foods for soups and stews. Another little adaptation to this pesky disease. It’s sometimes more expensive than fresh vegetables, so I tend to stock up when they go on sale.
Have you tried any of these frozen vegetables? There’s a lot more choice than when I was a kid. My favourites now are the chopped butternut squash or sweet potato, and the packages of colourful carrot slices ‘-)
Of course, spending almost all my time staying home with my flu-drenched husband made it very likely that I’d catch it from him. I’d learned, while working in a hospital years ago, that a single cough can carry the flu virus up to six feet away. So I hounded him into the habit of coughing into his elbow, to avoid ‘spraying’ droplets of the virus throughout our home.
We don’t have a dishwasher, so I’d very quickly and thoroughly hand-wash any dishes he’d touched. I’d also wash my hands before and after touching any of the dishes he’d used.
This all sounds somewhat paranoid, I know, but I’m not even done yet ‘-) Every morning and evening I’d wipe down everything he would likely have touched – with the little alcohol swabs I keep in my first aid kit. They’re not very expensive; I buy the kind sold at pharmacies for people who have diabetes and need to disinfect their skin for insulin injections.
I’d use an alcohol swab to wipe down each light switch, doorknob, and handle (even the one to flush the toilet!). Along with the microwave control panel, the kettle… anything that he might have touched.
It got to the point where I’d watch him during the day, to see what he touched – just so I could wipe it down when he took a nap or went to the washroom! What else? I washed my hands constantly, despite all the alcohol wipes – I learned from my hospital job that the first line of defence against viruses is usually good hand-washing habits.
Guess what? My flu paranoia paid off; I didn’t come down with the illness myself. The downside is that we missed dinner with his family on Christmas Eve, then my family’s Christmas Day dinner. We’d cancelled planned get-togethers with friends as well.
There was no way I’d take a chance on giving the “gift of the flu” to anyone for the holidays – by going to these events alone – in case I was contagious but didn’t yet feel sick.
His fever finally broke just in time for us to host a New Year’s Eve meal for his sister and dad. So our plans for the New Year are now to catch up with the friends and family we weren’t able to see during the holidays. And to rest, after well over a week of his non-stop all-night coughing…
I hope you had a better holiday time than we did, and hope that that you’re already off to a great start for 2019! If you or a loved one struggle with CRPS or any other health condition, I wish you support throughout this New Year – and beyond.
If you’d like to eChat about CRPS, feel free to direct-message me via Twitter or Instagram; I’ve had to disable the comments feature here on the blog because of obscene spam from overseas sources.
All the best for 2019, and thanks so much for stopping by!