“Things we take for granted”….
The ability to be able to sweat is well and truly taken for granted…
Once you have a spinal cord injury, it is really tough being able to regulate heat and cold, even now when I get cold it can really get to me, my body locks up, my neck gets really tight and sore, I lose concentration etc etc..
Getting hot, I learned the hard way, only a few months after my injury 2000) when I was at a motorbike event and in the sun all day. I felt fine until I got out of the sun and into the shade, once out of the heat, my body sent off an alert, that I’d over heated, later finding out I had very bad heat stroke, my body at the time couldn’t sweat and I didn’t even realise…
To teach my body how to sweat again, I started to use the sauna at my gym every day. At the start I’d be in there for 15 mins, coming out bone dry, it took a few weeks before I started sweating, took a further year to learn the “new signs” & how to know when I was too hot. Bing able to sweat made a huge difference to my summers….
Last week I got back into the sauna and once again came out bone dry with clothes on, so now after every training session Amelia and I use the sauna. Yesterday my legs were even sweating and I could actually feel my legs tingling from the heat and even felt little bits of sweat rolling down my legs, not bad seeing as I can barely feel my legs externally properly…..
It may not seem like much, but to me this is awesome, I’m still getting new “function and feeling” 14+ years post injury….
Recovery from this injury is a full time job, but the rewards are beyond words… Keep fighting and never give up!
JW