The downfalls of heat

A few posts ago I mentioned how I could cope with the winter months by using heating pads, hot baths, and other methods of attempting to warm up my foot.  My foot is always cold.  Even when pressed right up against the heat, or submerged in a hot bath I often can't feel the heat.  My foot is just cold -not numb.  I couldn't be so lucky as that.  It's a cold pain- and nothing will warm it up.  It's hard to explain the col pain to someone who doesn't suffer from the symptom.  It's kind of like if you walked outside in the middle of a snow storm, with no jacket.  The snow bites into your skin and after a few minutes the cold permeates to the bone and you feel this deeply painful chill.

Then today I ran across this article on MSNBC http://bodyodd.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/22/10470748-heated-seats-burn-bums-of-2-women and it got me to thinking.  Ever since I got CRPS/RSD I've had some discoloration, and the burning pain comes and goes.  I wonder if using heat as often as I do (in the winter it can be a near daily thing) could be creating more of a problem with my leg.  I wonder if maybe that's part of the reason the winters can be so difficult.

So I think I'm going to try to cut back on using the heat.  I will try not to use it as often as I currently do and I'll see if that brings any improvement.  It's easier to avoid on the weekends anyway, so there's no better time to start than now.

Brewing beer

The husband and I got a home brewing kit.  We brewed our first batch on February 20th.  It was President's Day so both of us had the day off and we decided it was the perfect time to try it out.  I wanted to be right there with him the whole time for our first batch.  I did grab a chair a few times during the process.

Let me begin by saying that brewing beer takes a while.  We made a Brown Ale as our first beer.  It needs to ferment in the fermenting tank (full disclosure- its a bucket, not a tank) for about a week, then it needs to be transferred to another tank for a couple more days.  Then we'll be ready to bottle our beer.  After bottling we can drink some of the beer immediately, but for best results we'll have to wait a few more weeks.  It's a good thing we made so much so we can try it at various times during the final aging process.

In the meantime, we had to make our wort.  This required hours of standing in front of the stove, stirring (and then just watching) a big pot.  After that we had to cool the boiling liquid in an ice bath, which took another 2 hours or so.  Then we siphoned our beer into our fermenting tank and put the tank in our closet to ferment in the dark for a while.  Finally we could sit down for good!

Needless to say we went to sleep early last night.  I'm still exhausted an my leg is screaming at me, but it was well worth it.  We had a blast.

When this batch is done we want to try our hand at wine.  From what I've read the whole beginning process is much easier, but there seems to be more tending to throughout the whole process.  I can't wait!

This crazy thing called life

I got a new computer!  Now I can blog again!  Alright, I probably still won't be updating often, but I have less of an excuse now.  The computer I was using before could barely even load my blog.  It made posting such a hassle.

Life has been crazy and this winter has been driving my leg wild!  It's been cold and then warm, cold then warm, snowy, sunny, rainy, and everything in between.  I wish it would just stabilize.  I wouldn't mind if it were cold.  I wouldn't mind if it snowed.  I just wish it wouldn't get so warm again so soon after.  It's below freezing here today- as I look out the window I can see its snowing- and tomorrow it's supposed to be near 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

Oh well, so goes life.  It rarely bends to our whims.  Space heaters, hot baths, and heating sachets still exist so for now I'll stick to those for what little relief I can find and hope for Spring soon.

I got a phone call from the doctor that implanted my stimulator a few weeks ago.  He was calling to inform me the manufacturer had issued a recall of certain parts of certain stimulators.  From what he said some people were either unable to charge their batteries or the batteries were not holding a charge for very long.  Thankfully I have not experienced this trouble.  It was very nice to catch up with him, though.  He's very friendly and I didn't expect to hear from him again until I needed to have my battery replaced.

I am still so grateful I decided to get this Spinal Cord Stimulator.  As bad as the bad days are I know they could always be worse.  The good days are so much better than they could be otherwise and that makes the bad days so much easier to cope with.

I dropped a glass lid on the big toe of my right foot on December 27th (I keep track of these dates because I suppose I should).  As of today, February 21, the spot is still black and blue.  The spot doesn't hurt inordinately much, when compared to the rest of my foot, and I suppose it kind of blends in when my foot starts getting really cold and turning bluish-purple, but I do wish it would go away soon.  When I catch it with the corner of my eye, there's an immediate sense of alarm.  Of course soon enough I'm reminded of what the spot is, but for that split second it scares the crap out of me.

And now a shout out to all my USARSD friends.  I miss you all!  I hope someday soon we can really catch up!