Winter is coming, or so i wish.
Today it's 30+ degrees celcius and i'm totally floored! I feel inflamed from top to bottom, can't stand up and feel completely exhausted. It started last night with a terrible hayfever reaction, i woke up with bloodshot eyes, clogged sinuses and non stop sneezing. Quercetin and feverfew brought me some relief but on top of that i took 5mg cetirizine this morning.... bad choice as it increases vasodilation.
Anyone else here that wishes summer ends rather sooner than later?
And what do you do to control heat triggered OI / POTS?
I'm staying with my parents for a few weeks in the Netherlands but they don't have air conditioning (which is rarely needed in this depressing country anyway), at home i usually crank up the AC and lay down until i feel better.
I'm thinking about taking cold showers. Caffeine works great too as vasoconstrictor but it always leaves me overstimulated and in the end it worsens the OI / POTS because of its diuretic effect. Perhaps some extra sodium?
Since I became severely affected with ME then POTS, from May to September I can't function due to the heat, and that's just in the UK. Sure there are days when it's colder, but most of the time if it's over 21c room temp, I'm screwed.
I first noticed this in UK Hospitals in the South of England, where of course there should have climate control, but there isn't due to cost savings. In the summer it used to be 28c on the ward and I struggled to breathe, that was years before I developed Asthma as well. I realize eventually it was the heat, as come September in the UK, the summer ends and once back home, colder, I could walk to the bathroom, rather than be totally bedridden. So my circulation was
hugely affected by the heat, at the time I didn't realize and put it down to 'ME' weakness.
So I sympathize with you.
To control the heat at home each summer, I bought air-con units (400 euro or so), then gave up and had air con professionally installed around the house as the place looked like a warehouse with machines everywhere. It's extremely expensive, about a 50% profit ratio for the installers, but it keeps me out the hospital and helps me feel less terrible with ME and POTS (I got POTS after a virus, years after having ME as teenager). With POTS, the heat made it much worse as the pain was far worse. Heat for me, makes the pain worse. Although this may be explained by Dysautonomia affecting the CNS, it can also be found in Neuropathy (nerve damage) which I have. I only found that out recently, as yet again, I put all my symptoms down to ME or POTS.
If you have chronic pain, fluctuating burning pains, and find yourself far worse in the heat and also get shooting lightning bolts in your feet (at first), episodic crawling insect sensations, and biting sensations in your arms and legs you might want to get a test done when back home, for Small Fiber Neuropathy/Peripheral Neuropathy, it's a little skin biopsy.
Back to the heat...
In your situation in someone else's house without air con, the only thing I can think that would help is to not walk anywhere, buy some tight support hose stockings that women wear (even if you're a guy) and sit near a big fan. Also I sticking your head under the cold tap helps for a few seconds, as of course does drinking cold water and holding a glass of water with ice in it whilst sitting near a fan.
Avoid caffeine as it's a stimulant and in POTS can cause chest pain, and tachycardia. I learnt this once downing an entire 2L bottle of an energy drink and ended up in Hospital!
If you're staying into August and the heat stays then I'd hire or buy a portable air con unit. As long as you have a window in your room you can throw the giant exhaust hose out the window and block the rest of the air with cushions or a duvet as a crappy looking, but moderately effectively emergency air-con solution. That's what I did for years.
The good news is, Holland is reasonably cold and the current heat won't last long. It should go today and be absent for the next week or so, so you should get lucky and miss it, unless you're staying throughout August. If so, I'd try and raise 400 euro and buy a little portable aircon machine. Make sure it's at least 12,000 BTU,and ideally get one where you don't have to empty the water as it's exhausting to have to get a little bottle out and siphon the water and dispose of it. More expensive models you don't have to do this and the water 'drips' out the hose onto the floor outside.