Thursday 14 July 2016

Breaking a sweat

The most obvious part of having a spinal cord injury is not being able to walk. There is so much more to it than that, but here is one that changed today. I broke a sweat! Big deal? You bet. Excuse me while I get into Biology Teacher mode, but the spinal cord does more than just send and receive messages about movement and sensation, it also does this thing called homeostasis. Homeo what? Homeostasis means steady state. All of those things that need to be kept in a "normal" range like heart rate, blood pressure, water balance and temperature. 

Several weeks ago on one of the first really hot days I went out to the far garden where the asparagus lives. It is far from the house and a bumpy ride to get out there - so I am sure I had some help - and it was hot. I was so keen to help pick asparagus that I ignored how hot I was getting. I could still feel it on my upper body and I know my legs were feeling it too (especially in my black yoga pants which are all I seem to wear). By the time I got back inside I felt awful. Really awful. And I could not explain it. I got on to the bed and asked Theo to turn on the AC. It took about 20 minutes before the awful feeling went away. 

Later on one day while chatting with my Parkwood riders we got to talking about how we felt when we got hot. Brian nailed it - he said that his first summer he did not go out at all because when he got hot he felt claustrophobic. That's it! That is how I felt. He also said that it got much better for him the second summer. Which made me hopeful. 

Back to my lesson (I get distracted easily - ask my students). Temperature regulation requires the ability to sweat. Through evapotranspiration our bodies are able to cool. Water on the skin (from sweat) evaporates causing a cooling effect. It is the responsibility of the spinal cord to send messages to sweat glands to tell them to work. If you can't send a message you can't sweat and you can't cool down without applying water to your skin. My injury (T4) is high, above that level of that spinal cord function. The sweat message can't get through. I can't sweat. Well, I couldn't sweat, until today. For some reason that message got through. 

I still remember the first time I met Dave Willsie and he told me he had not bought antiperspirant in 20 years. He can do a workout of wind sprints and go straight to work - no shower needed. I thought no way. But it's true, some with para or quadriplegia don't sweat unless something is wrong - really wrong like a pressure sore or an overfilled bladder. This reaction is called autonomic dysreflexia and it has happened to me only once in this past year. It is quite the signal. 

I should have taken a picture of me with my sweaty glow, but I was too excited about being sweaty!

The ekso 1544 steps

The bike 10.32 miles

1 comment:

  1. I don't think I've ever been so excited before in my life about such a simple (taken for granted) thing as breaking into a sweat! The signal is getting through!! Very thankful.

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