Cold Hands, Warm Heart

January can be a really cold month for lots of people and many will wear mittens to keep warm.

Ever since my early 20s, my hands freeze no matter what month it is.

It doesn't take much for my fingers to lose circulation. I could be holding a glass of water or a set of car keys. Or it can set it off by grabbing something out of the refrigerator. When ordinary people can put on a pair of mittens or heavy socks to make them feel warm again, it doesn't seem to help me at all. I can't seem to keep the warmth in.

First my fingers turn white from lock of blood flow and when I place them in warm water to warm them up, (or near a heater), there is an intense throbbing and tingling as the blood flows back in. Similar to the feeling of when your foot falls asleep and you jump up quickly and it feels like bolts of electricity running through it.

When the blood starts flowing again, it turns them quite purple... (nearly appearing black) before it turns to bright red as the blood flows back in them. (Can you see the purple in my ring finger on my left hand?)

I took these photos today during lunch at the local IHOP. It was warm inside the restaurant, but holding the cold silverware in my hands caused the blood vessels to constrict.

It happens to my feet as well. Sometimes I can only walk on the heals of my feet until the blood circulates through them again. I've run on a treadmill for thirty minutes with numb feet before, and though I was even sweating, I still couldn't feel my feet and had to get off by the severe pain of running on feet without blood flow.

It's truly a strange phenomena. And it has a name to it: Reynaud's Syndrome.

Wishing everyone a warm New Years! (But. Not tooo warm where it affects global warming).