Saturday, September 5, 2009

Overheated With MS

My wife hasn't struggled with heat like many MS patients, but this week the heat got the best of her. One morning this week my wife started out working outside helping in the sheep barn on our campus. It wasn't very hot, but she was having to hold the sheep while someone else worked with the animal. When she finished she was pretty tired, and she could tell that her legs were already worn out from the physical exertion. After she finished that, she was helping stock groceries in the grocery room on our campus which has no A/C. After a few hours of working in the heat her body finally decided it had enough. She began to feel "funny" and couldn't explain what was going on with her body.

She called me about that time and asked if I could go back and finish the work for her that she started. She was very sorry for not being able to finish and would have tried to go and do it if I wouldn't have insisted that she lay down and rest. She explained to me that one of the main issues she was having was that she overheated through all that she did that morning. Once she becomes overheated, it seems to take forever for her to cool down. She called me after about an hour and was doing better but was still not feeling well. She rested most of that day, and slept much of the next day. She was feeling better after the sleep but still didn't feel like everything was OK. I think the hard thing to understand with her is that it bothered her more that she was letting the others down by not finishing the job than concern about her actual health. She never wants to feel like her MS causes anyone to be inconvenienced.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Have you all ever looked into "cooling vests"? Never really applied to our story because Patti's progression moved so fast. However based on this entry I was left wondering if a cooling vest could not have helped somehow better empower your wife.

Caregivingly Yours, Patrick
http://caregivinglyyours.blogspot.com/