How MS Helps Me Prevent Burnt Paws
Being diagnosed with a chronic disease with no cure can be depressing. However, I am an opportunist.
My opportunistic nature means I will grasp any advantage my condition confers. These advantages may not influence my health outcomes permanently, but they are something to write about and grow my insights to promote the health of many species. I often use these to create short video content on social media to promote animal or human health.
One advantage I have recognized is the temporary symptoms that I might get when I am outdoors walking my dogs during warm weather. Before I leave, I always check the weather app on my cell phone. The data I collect are air temperature and humidity because those impact how well I function (or not).
I have learned the narrow temperature range where I do not experience any distress from MS. Ideally, I prefer being outdoors when the air temperature is 14C/57.2 F.
Coincidentally, this overlaps with veterinary recommendations about safe temperatures for dogs.
Air temperature impacts the surfaces that dogs’ paws touch. There are many social media posts talking about air temperatures and corresponding temperatures on asphalt or concrete. Those are common surfaces that dog paws come into contact with during walks.
Asphalt and concrete can get incredibly hot despite comfortable air temperatures for both humans and dogs. The heat on those materials rise to the point where paw pads get burnt. If you have ever seen any photos about burnt paws online, those are true burns.
Which hurt and require extensive treatment.
Because I am incredibly heat-sensitive, even a slight rise of 1 degree in air temperature means I start experiencing symptoms. These symptoms are temporary and go away when I get myself out of the heat. When I start feeling dizzy or my coordination becomes more compromised than usual, that tells me the air temperature has gone up from when we left the house.
My automatic response is to tell my dog to go onto the grass. This is so that I can place the back of my hand onto a concrete or asphalt surface in the immediate vicinity. The back of my hand remains on those materials for 5 to 7 seconds as a test.
I then take a sip of water and begin trekking back home, because my heat sensitivity has begun telling me the air temperature is rising. Since I always walk my dogs in the morning, I know the day will continue getting warmer. While we are safe then, I am familiar enough with my condition to recognize that remaining outdoors would mean expecting an increasing decline in my cognition.
To the point where I wouldn’t be able to look out for the dogs.
Being heat-sensitive isn’t great, but I can act as a thermometer to take action immediately. That means I still have some cognitive function able to make decisions before I get into trouble or before my dogs do. This condition can be annoying, but I have learned to make it work.
