Heat

I am going to write about what summertime is like for me having Multiple Sclerosis (MS). For those that are new or don’t know I live in Utah so it does get hot here in the summer and super cold in the wintertime. We usually get into the upper 90’s slash low 100’s during the months of July & August and sometimes it can hot earlier than that.

Anyways now back to the topic at hand. Those of us that have MS don’t do well in the heat. The heat makes any MS symptoms we may be suffering from even worse than they usually are. We also get super weak so we have to try and avoid overheating. In this post I am going to give you some tips that I use when I am out shopping or at work to try and stay cool during the summer months.

The first thing I do during the summer is try and not go out in the afternoon or early evening because that is when it is the hottest. If I have shopping to do I try and get it done first thing in the morning so that I am not out during the hottest parts of the day.

The second thing that I do when I have to go out during the afternoon is try and park and close to the building so that I do not have to walk super far. If I am with someone else and they are driving I will try and have them drop me off at the door and avoid walking through the parking lot.

The third thing I do is keep ice packs in the freezer so that when I am leaving work in the afternoons I can have it to keep myself cool. My grandma thought of this one and I have to say that I loved it. The exterior and interior of my car is dark in color so the inside of my car is always super hot after it has been sitting out all day so having an ice pack to put behind my neck while I am driving is a great way to keep my cool until my air conditioning in my car to cool the car down.

The forth thing that I do is leave my sun roof & windows cracked so that there is some air flow through the car. This one can’t be done all the time because of the wind and things like that but I do try and do this one everyday because it also helps keep the inside of my car cooler on the super hot days.

Those are the top 4 tips I have for keeping cool in the summertime. If you do anything different please let me know because I am always looking for other things to try. Also if there is something about MS that you would like to know please let me know in the comments and I will make sure to write another post about it in the future.

This week for the writers workshop I am going to write about #4 which is how I beat the summer heat. This year the temperatures of been super high and I am not sure if you know but heat and MS don’t mix well. Here a few things that I do to try and stay cool and not over heat.

I try to only go out in the mornings and if I do have to go out later I won’t go out in the afternoon because it is too hot.
When I am leaving work at 5 I always have a ice pack that I keep in the freezer at work and I use that while I am waiting for my AC to cool down my car.
I always try and wear light colors. I am sure it would help if I didn’t always layer my shirts but I can’t wear shirts without a tank top underneath them.

Those are the things I do to try and beat the heat. The biggest thing I do though is stay inside and out of the heat as much as possible. During the summer I really am a homebody because I just avoid the heat as much as I can.

What do you do to avoid the heat?

The World As I See It

Summertime & Multiple Sclerosis

How I Beat The Summer Heat