Oh no, not a cold!

Let's face it, having a cold is a miserable experience for anyone. The tiredness, the 'bunged up' feeling, being cold or hot, headache and so on. Spare a thought for the CRPS sufferer or anyone with a chronic condition for that, matter. Not only are you trying to cope with the pain and everything that you deal with on a daily basis, but you now have all that a cold throws at you on top.

This is what I've been struggling with for the last week and a half. Of course my medication helps to a certain extent. The codeine in the co-dydramol stops the runny nose, but you are left feeling thoroughly congested and foggy headed. I slept even more than normal, losing complete days in the process. I never sleep in the evening, so that hopefully I don't wake too many times in the night. That went out the window, so that I was awake when I should have gone to sleep!

Having a cold makes life completely impossible. I have been totally exhausted so we haven't even thought of going out. My balance was even worse than normal, making even standing up immeasurably harder. I felt utterly awful and of course couldn't keep my mind off the pain as well as normal. It pretty much wiped me out, so I could only manage to do puzzles, reading etc. for a few minutes before having to give up. Where I normally play a video game whilst Eric is out walking the dogs, I went to sleep with the controller in my hand, only waking when they came back. It is so hard to adopt the usual pain minimising strategies when you can't think straight. It's hard enough at the best of times!

I can't get rid of the damn thing either. Was feeling a lot better at the weekend so played tennis on the PS3 Move on Sunday. I had been itching to do something as it is so incredibly frustrating and boring just sitting in this chair all day, all night. Didn't play for long but realised it was a mistake almost immediately I'd finished. Felt as bad as ever and still do as I try and write this a couple of days on.

Of course my legs have misbehaved as much as ever, with my feet lurching from ice cube cold, to furnace hot seemingly at will. As long as all the usual stabbing, burning and any other types of pain you can think of. And the swelling, etc

This is the first time I've had a cold in as long as I can remember. I certainly don't want another anytime soon..

It's going to be a very long Winter

My feet, as you will know, are both riddled with CRPS and have a mind of their own at the best of times. They can go from freezing cold to boiling hot at whim, regardless of the weather. However it is the Winter that I really struggle. The hypersensitivity caused by the CRPS means that any small change in temperature has a response which is completely out of proportion.

Bella's usually lying on me in some way or other.

As I sit writing this I am sitting as normal in my reclining chair with my legs up. I have already gone up one thickness of duvet. This goes over the top of my legs and underneath so that my lower legs are completely covered. No air can get in. I also have an additional lightweight fleece blanket laid over my feet and a 'slanket' over the top of that.

Despite all of these layers both feet and ankles feel like blocks of ice and have done continuously for at least the last 24 hours if not longer. The stimulus? I touched our laminate flooring when standing up. They are incredibly painful, to the point of screaming and when I get up (only to sit on the commode - just another concession I've made to this illness) they feel brittle. So brittle that it's a surprise that they don't just shatter. I shuffle even more slowly, turning is harder and my chances of falling are greater. I rely even more on Eric to help me move. A distance of no more than a few feet. It's pathetic by any definition of normal living.

Of course it doesn't help that I'm not wearing socks, nor trousers or slippers. It would seem the obvious thing to do. However none of those is an option because they would be in direct contact and so exacerbate the pain. We have to be careful with how heavy the layers we add on top are because any part of the duvet touching toes etc increases the pain. Too much weight means too much contact and so more pain. I just have to sit it out in the hope that eventually some warmth will permeate and they warm up. People have suggested hot water bottles, which of course would be natural thing to try. We have - we wrapped the hot water bottle in several pillowcases then I rested my heels on it. It was unbearably hot. To Eric it didn't even feel warm. This is what I'm up against.

Of course the slightest stimulus such as them becoming exposed to the air, or slightly touching the floor is enough to send them back to being ice cubes again. It's an absolute nightmare. Going out obviously has the same effect. It is a running battle from now onwards. They are particularly bad already, which sadly means that as the title says, it's going to be a very long winter.....