Planning Ahead For Heat And MS

Does heat bother your MS?  My wife has gone through times when she can take hot baths and not have any issues, and at other times she overheats very easily.  Now that we are back in Texas we are dealing with hotter and hotter days, and my wife does a few things to make sure she doesn't overheat during the day or night.  If she doesn't plan ahead, things can go south in a hurry so we make sure that we are prepared if she is going to be outside for lengths of time or it's a particularly hot day.

Recently we stopped off at Turner Falls in Oklahoma on our way back from Kansas.  It was a hot day but we wanted to hike some so we could see the Falls and also see the different Camping areas just in case we decided to camp there.  It has become habit now for me to reach out my arm for my wife to either hold my arm or hand while we are walking.  It's pretty normal for her to be walking along and not lift her foot enough to clear something and trip.  Luckily we've been together a long time and I'm always ready to catch her if need be.

So, we did a little hiking that day and she did great.  We took plenty of water and made sure and didn't push too hard.  On that day she didn't have heat issues and was able to handle all the walking and hiking we did.  She didn't even trip, much. ;)  That was a good day without issues, but there have been other days that have not gone so well.  We've been traveling at times when she would just get out of the car after riding for hours and if it was extremely hot outside, she would just wilt.  Those are the times she freezes me out of the car because she has the A/C on high trying to get cooled off. 

If it's hot at night she really struggles to sleep.  It's kinda funny because during the winter she has a heated blanket on all night long, but as soon as it starts warming up she struggles to find a happy medium and sheds the covers fast.  One thing she recently did to help at night was to chill a homemade Heat/Cold bag our daughter made for her.  It's super simple to make, and we even put fresh lavender in it so it would smell great.  She takes the bag and puts it in a ziplock bag and freezes it.  At night she can take it out and use it as a cold bag to cool off.  There are tons of DIY rice bags on Pinterest, and it's a fun project to do with your kids.

I guess the main thing we do to keep my wife from overheating is just being prepared with water, access to A/C and having other things available if possible like the cold rice bags.  Before MS my wife could camp out and stay in the heat outside without any issues, but we know now that she has to have access to A/C if needed so we just adjust as needed.  We choose to make tweaks in our plans that we know will make things easier and less stressful for her and all of us.  She knows her boundaries and we do too, and that helps to alleviate issues before they become major problems.  If you're going to be out in the heat this summer, plan ahead and make sure you have a Plan B.  It makes things so much easier and keeps Multiple Sclerosis from stopping the fun.