It was our favorite sliding hill. All the kids would get our dads or moms to drive us out to the hill and our parents would either join or watch our gleeful faces as we rocketed down the slopes. Then, we would grab the string of the sled and trudge back up the snowy slope to do it all again.
Occasionally, a parent would hop on a sled and as they careened down the hill. All the parents and the kids would laugh joyously at the spectacle.
All the parents except Emily’s mom. She was never there. She wanted to be there, but when her hands got cold, she was in agony, so she never came. You could see the pain in Emily’s face when this happened. Most of us kids felt so bad for her.
Some of the dads and moms would say things like.
“We all get cold. So what? Get over it.”
What we all didn’t understand was Emily’s mom had Raynaud’s syndrome.
We live in Canada, winter is cold - Freaking Cold.
A Cold that plays havoc on machinery and on our human bodies. Most of us bundle up, deal with it, and probably even enjoy it sometimes. However, there is something called Raynaud’s syndrome that prevents some folks from enjoying anything about the cold winter weather.
Raynaud’s syndrome, whether primary or secondary, affects the small blood vessels in the body. Exposure to cold or stress causes excessive tightening and narrowing in the small blood vessels. This is called vasospasms and limits the amount of oxygen delivered to your toes and fingers. Sometimes this is extremely painful but usually the extremities feel cold and numb and the fingers and toes change to white and then blue.
For most people, it doesn’t become painful until they begin to warm up. When the fingers and toes start to warm up, they begin to feel tingling, throbbing, and pain. This can be 10 to 15 minutes of agony.
I don’t know what caused Emily’s mom’s Raynauds. For primary Raynaud’s syndrome (often called Raynaud’s disease) the causes are unknown. In the case of secondary Raynaud’s syndrome (often called Raynaud’s Phenomenon), causes can be other diseases, certain medications, frostbite, and even certain vibrating power tools.
Though, it is not always easy to find the cause of Raynaud’s syndrome, the triggers are generally easy to determine. Common triggers are cold and stress.
We can’t usually control stress, but things like holding a glass of ice water, air conditioning, or even sweat that leads to cooling of the fingers and toes can be at least partially avoided.
Certain medications have been known to help some people, though sometimes the side effects are worse than what they are treating.
At Valley Mist Health, our team helps many people with Raynaud’s syndrome by addressing the underlying diseases associated with it through our personalized treatment plan. Give us a call at 780-514-6111 and our friendly staff will schedule you in for a consultation to determine if you are a good candidate for treatment.
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