Sunday, July 10, 2011

Heat or Exercise?

I had a fantastic day today.

I went to a professional conference. I got up at 5:30, drove about 45 minutes, and was at the convention center from 7:30 am to 3:45 pm. The place was well air conditioned--I got goose bumps a few times.

During the morning, I had no symptoms. Of course, I didn't really have to do anything. I sat in a comfortable chair and took notes using a keyboard and iPad (I would have killed myself taking notes by hand).

I slowly walked to the lunch area and ate my lunch. And made some a new friend. :) I quickly walked back to get a good seat for the 1:30 session.

During that session, I noticed some pins and needles tingles in my right foot, the usual place. That happened a few times, not often. I had some instances of losing my train of thought and forgetting what I wanted to type, and sometimes I had to focus hard to understand the lecture (on a familiar topic). Both got worse as the afternoon wore on, but most of the time I was fine.

I left at 4:00. I couldn't believe that I hadn't taken my gabapentin yet! Normally I take it at dinner time, but I had brought it in case I my symptoms got bad and I needed to take it earlier. I left feeling great.

I was parked in a garage about five blocks away. So I walked five blocks in the 95 degree heat, with moderate humidity. About halfway, I started feeling it. The weakness. The pins and needles tingles. It got more difficult to move my legs. By the time I was at the garage, I just wanted to sleep. Normally I'm a stairs kind of girl, but I took the elevator up a floor to my car. Where I took my gabapentin.

What I'm wondering is was it the heat or the long walk? I know that using my muscles in any way makes them tired. For example: my arms, especially the right, hurt from typing this. But I also know that heat makes things worse. I think that mostly applies to the haywire nerve tingles though, which wasn't what I was feeling. But maybe I had enough gabapentin already in me to prevent them. That seems to be one of the main things gabapentin helps with.

Maybe the problem was a combination of both heat and exercise. But it certainly hit quickly.

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