Raynaud's sufferers unite

[shima]

Who else on here has Raynaud's? I've had it diagnosed since I was like 13 or so, I remember being diagnosed about a week before a ski trip and freaking out my mom wouldn't let me ski anymore that weekend, but thankfully the Doctor who diagnosed me assured her I could still ski with hand warmers always handy and that I wasn't going to die ;)

That was a while ago and I still always keep hand warmers in my gloves (I have the Dakine gloves w/ the hand warmer zipper pocket). I keep my toes warm w/ the Therm-ic heaters that my Atomic boots came built in with.

So who else suffers from Raynaud's on here?

 

[Christy]

I do but not as badly as others. Skiing actually doesn't bother me too much, since I have very warm gloves/mittens and use warmers. It's when I'm caught in a big temperature change without that stuff that hurts (ie a summer hike that ends up on a windy, socked in mountain peak where we stop for lunch. I actually started bringing ski gloves on summer hikes!).

 

[shima]

I do but not as badly as others. Skiing actually doesn't bother me too much, since I have very warm gloves/mittens and use warmers. It's when I'm caught in a big temperature change without that stuff that hurts (ie a summer hike that ends up on a windy, socked in mountain peak where we stop for lunch. I actually started bringing ski gloves on summer hikes!).

Yeah totally agree, I'm way more likely to have an incident when warmers aren't involved and the temperature suddenly changes... like going from inside to outside or vice versa is often a tricky one... I always keep the finger gloves that convert to mittons in my jackets just in case for this exact reason.

 

[ski diva]

Yep, I have it, too, but like Christy, it doesn't happen too much when skiing (though my hands are always cold). For some reason, it seems to kick in most often when I'm driving. Must be something about the position of my hands on the steering wheel.

 

[Delawhere]

I developed it about 5 years ago although it has improved a lot from the first miserable year.

One of the things I found has helped is to not let my fingers get cold in the first place. Once I touch something very cold my fingers blanch out white and I don't have circulation return until I provide external heat. I have a steering wheel cover that keeps me from contacting the frozen surface. I'll sometimes drop hand warming packets into my mittens about 15 minutes before I put them on.

My toes have improved quite a bit so I don't have to use toe warmers.

 

[SkiGAP]

Ive got it. Seemingly not as bad as some others. I ski with mittens and hand warmers. I also use toe warmers (the chemical patch kind), though with the tele boots I seem to get along better.

Stranger is that it will happen when not skiing, and in not very cold environments

In general it freaks people out when my hands stay white forever but you all know how that goes.

 

[shima]

Stranger is that it will happen when not skiing, and in not very cold environments

In general it freaks people out when my hands stay white forever but you all know how that goes.

Yeah I've had it happen in my house with the heat on because I got a chill before, also remember it happened with my toes after I walked into a building because outside was chilly and inside was warmer and the sudden change in temperature freaked my toes out and color stayed away for 20 minutes... which really freaked people out while I sat there holding my toes in my hand trying to get color back in them and warm them up, lol.

One of the things I found has helped is to not let my fingers get cold in the first place.

Very true! If I take my hands out of my gloves too much on a really cold ski day and the hands get chilly I'm doomed... but if I keep them covered on the really cold days and don't try to play with my phone on the lift then I'm ok (if it's a "warm" ski day though I can get away w/ checking my phone on the lift, but has to be a warm day)



https://www.mobilewarminggear.com/2010MW/enff/ie/index.html
I just learned about these and next time I have $200 to spare (haha...) I totally want to buy some gloves from them... mmm electronic heated gloves...

 

[MaineSkiLady]

I don’t have it, per se, but I can get into some trouble mainly because of where I ski and the mid-winter temps. Lots of single digit>zero>below zero days, and I refuse to bail due to temps.

One more time.
Go to Wal Mart. Women’s accessories dept. Look for the lightweight acrylic gloves; they come 2 pairs to a package (hanging). Not on sale, they are $1.40 for 2 pairs. They will sale/clearance for much less. I have a pair in every jacket I own, plus an extra pair (or 2) in my boot bag. Don’t even try on gloves w/o these on beneath.

If you have to fiddle with a smart phone, there is an alternative, also inexpensive. They also have a stretchy acrylic glove that has a touch-screen-sensitive index finger. 3 bucks. They work; I bought a pair for my son not long ago.

Agree w/Delawhere above: don't let fingers get cold in the first place.
I wear glove liners until late March.

Ski Diva: steering wheel>cold - same here. I found a sheepskin cover at STP, stretches to fit. Under $10. Combine that with the glove liners, and voila - problem averted.

Bottom line: no nekkid fingers, hardly EVER.
Been doing battle (although, as I said, never bona fide diagnosed) for decades.
This works. Trust me here. Remember last January, Ski Diva? Pretty typical Sugarloaf.

 

[Christy]

Yeah I've had it happen in my house with the heat on because I got a chill before, also remember it happened with my toes after I walked into a building because outside was chilly and inside was warmer and the sudden change in temperature freaked my toes out and color stayed away for 20 minutes...

Yeah, this keeps happening to me because I climb a steep hill up to the bus (and thus get warm) after work but there's one particular bus driver that never has the heat on. If get on his bus my fingers go yellow in that cold bus.

 

[MaineSkiLady]

Just was at my (tiny) local Wal Mart this aft. Acrylic glove-liner comparables now available in veritable rainbows of colors, usually a color pair with a black pair - great shades of turquoise, purple, bright red. 2 pairs for $1.40. Also, the smart phone touch finger gloves are in stock in lots of nice new colors. $3 a pair. How come no one else is on to this yet? I'm no promoter of the merchant, but this is one product I stand behind 100% > they WORK.

 

[EnglishSnowflake]

I've never been properly diagnosed but almost certainly have it to some extent cos my fingers do the 'going deathly white' thing, I remember creeping out my friends with it at school!

I hadn't heard of Raynaud's until a girl at work told me about it as she has it too, she suffers much worse than I do though. I had always figured I just had 'bad circulation' but now I know it has a name I don't feel such an idiot having permanently cold hands and feet for no particular reason. At home I always wear slippers (even in the summer) which helps.

When skiing I have a pair of Icebreaker merino wool inner gloves which I wear underneath my full ski gloves (Level's with gore-tex). The inner gloves cost me £20 or so but are worth every penny as they took away the misery of the freezing painful fingers after a lift ride, I highly recommend them.

 

[Christy]

MSL, do you have a web link for those liners?

 

[MaineSkiLady]

I just checked the website. ARGH. This appears to be an in-store-only item. Listen---if you'd like, I can pick up a set of 2 pairs, I'm sure it would only cost about a buck to mail them to you. PM me if interested. Still available in some nice colors, paired with one pair of black. Wore them today, with gloves (not mittens), low-mid teens. Fine.

 

[newskier378]

I'm a fellow sufferer, though never properly diagnosed I have all of the symptoms. I don't have it very bad in my hands, but I have a terrible time with it in my feet especially while skiing.

 

[shima]

My hands got really painful and I lost feeling in 3 of my fingers today during one of my runs with Daria and her husband, thankfully feeling came back on the lift line back up after that run... but I did swing by the Elite Feet store at Northstar at the end of the day to see if they had gotten the mobile warming gloves (the battery heated gloves) in stock yet, since last time I was there they had mentioned they were trying to get some in stock... and sure enough they had them in stock... and well, I'm weak when it comes to electronic heating for my poor hands and feet, so I ended up leaving at the end of the day with those new gloves. Can't wait to try them out next weekend, they are pretty awesome and kick the pants off putting the heat packets in the glove zipper compartments in that they heat all they way to the fingers very very nicely. Super excited about them, trying not to think about my new credit card bill though ;) I need to stop buying ski stuff, lol.

 

[whitewater girl]

I've never been properly diagnosed but almost certainly have it to some extent cos my fingers do the 'going deathly white' thing...

same here (just taking something out of the freezer can do it to me!)...liner gloves (will have to check my local Walmarts for those MSL - Thanks!), mittens, light wool or wicking synthetic socks, changed often...keeping my hands & feet warm kayaking is hardest - have multiple sets of neoprene gloves that I rotate as what I'm wearing gets wet - feet are tougher, sometimes I just suffer (bad, I know)

 

[newskier378]

feet are tougher, sometimes I just suffer (bad, I know)

I do too, because if I stopped everything I was doing each time my feet got numb I wouldn't be doing much skiing or much of anything. My feet literally get numb sitting in air conditioned rooms sometimes.

by the way does anyone know if frequent expose to cold especially in childhood can cause Raynaud's? When I was a little kid I wanted to ski so bad that I skied until my feet were so cold and painful that I cried. I've always had a feeling this has something to do with how my feet are now.

 

[frenchgirl]

I do not Raynaud per se, but I get hives when I am cold(it is called cold uticaria). It can happen anywhere and it does not have to be exposed. It is usually on my thighs, hands, and butt. It can happen very quickly too like it can get it from the time I cross the parking lot to reach the lodge(about 3 minutes). There is no cure except to get warm again. It gets very itchy and the hives continue to worsen if I do not get warm. It can happen in any Black Diamond Mercury Mitts for temps under 25F. My ski pants are a size too big to fit one or 2 layers under the insulated pants. I have to say that my new Liquid Boardwear pants are great.

 

[SkiNana]

by the way does anyone know if frequent expose to cold especially in childhood can cause Raynaud's? When I was a little kid I wanted to ski so bad that I skied until my feet were so cold and painful that I cried. I've always had a feeling this has something to do with how my feet are now.

Probably not since it is a disorder of vasospasm (and dilation) and can be demonstrated to be such (by an Allen test for example), and exposure to cold in childhood does not alter one's vessels' ability to constrict and dilate in response to temperature. It is generally thought to be secondary to a local fault in the blood vessels or a disturbance in the sympathetic nervous system activity unless it accompanies an organic vascular disease.

 

[shima]

I'll be testing out my new mobile warming gloves by Ansai this weekend, don't think it's going to be a super cold weekend at Heavenly unfortunately for testing purposes, but I'll still let you know how they fare compared to traditional gloves + heat packets after the weekend is over.