[misc.handicap] Cold Feet

ronald@UHUNIX.BITNET (Ronald Amundson) (01/04/91)

Index Number: 12632

Jean and Buddy --

I can verify that the tropics don't guarantee warm feet.  I have bad
leg circulation from post polio, and I live in Hawaii.  I wear knit
dancer's leggings year round.  It looks funny at the beach, but then
so does my wheelchair.  Come to think of it, most people look funny
at the beach, but it's impolite to tell them so.  ;-)

One thing to remember about bad circulation is that the blood that
does get circulated must be nice and warm.  The best way to guarantee
that is to keep your _trunk_ warm.  An especially good technique is to
warm the area over the kidneys -- the kidneys are close to the
surface, and all blood passes through them.  So a heating pad behind
the lower back can do a great job of warming up the feet.  Sounds
crazy, but it works.  I learned this trick from my grandfather, an old
Wisconsin duck hunter.  He used some strange hunters' device with
lighter fluid smoldering in metal cannisters over his kidneys.  I
don't recommend that, but the heating pads work great.

Cheers,

Ron Amundson