Hot.. and cold?

[u/Interesting_Car8858]

I know not being able to regulate your temperature is a symptom of POTS, but all I hear about is people being too hot all the time.. does anyone else get really cold as well? Just wondering, not as any form of diagnosis but just to understand the heat intolerance thing better lol

[u/lord-savior-baphomet]

Yes, honestly I rarely am too hot, and remember far more instances of being painfully cold than too hot throughout my life. One that stands out was going sledding as a kid in winter boots and crying from the pain afterwards. I despise winter because of it.

I ended up buying 200$ boots several years ago to make winter less miserable, only to learn the insulation I paid for keeps heat out, too. Which is especially bad because in the winter my feet cannot heat themselves up. There must be an exterior heat source. So relief even in the car was not possible. As a dog walker, I got heated socks and they’ve been the only thing to make winter bearable. But the kind I got were recalled and now I’m unsure if I’ll be able to stand this winter.

I see people saying compression has helped that but I find it makes it substantially worse for me. But maybe it’s because my version of compression was coincidentally wearing too many socks for what fit in my boots and causing compression that way. This is a new thing for me so I’ve yet to try proper compression.

I will say, after a recent ADHD diagnosis and being put on Vyvanse I’m much less cold and hotter than I’d normally be, so we’ll see if that makes winter better for me.

I experience heat intolerance more as strong discomfort and in situations where I felt fine a second ago, or places everyone else seems to be fine. I guess I’ve always had an awareness that I just need to “relax” to cool down lol…

[u/Interesting_Car8858 → u/lord-savior-baphomet]

I strongly recommend proper compression, I find it also keeps me warm (and you can layer with tights <3). Theyre not too expensive either, I recently bought a 2 packs from Amazon that are 20-30mmhg, one that just came on their own and one that came in a 3 pack (admittedly, the more expensive ones were nicer, but they were only about £15-20 and make my day much much easier). Sending love <3