best place to move to for cold intolerance ms

[nocoldgirl]

Hello-
I currently live in Buffalo NY which has one of the if not the biggest population of people suffering from ms in the country. Anyway I was just diagnosed with ms and it has always seemed I feel far worse in the winter than the summer. I have a slight heat intolerance where if I get too hot I feel weak, dizzy, and sometimes like I might pass out, but I have to be out in it for a long time to feel the effect. But come winter, on a good day, I get tingling in my fingertips and feet, and numbness in my legs. On bad days I get extreme muscle weakness, last year it was my arms, this year my legs. Last year I got and extreme dizzy spell to the point I couldn't walk, let alone work for a week, my doctor at the time just said it was probably a bad inner ear infection. Anyway my symptoms just about go away come spring then start back up on the first cold fall day. It's to the point any time its under 40 degrees where I'm outside for more then 20 minutes will set off a flare up. My current flare has lasted little over a week now and steroids are helping get my strength back. But I don't want to be dependent on steroids, because of all the side effects, for the rest of my life. Has anyone with cold intolerance ms moved to an area where basically their symptoms are non-exsistant? I value my health more than most things and am willing to make the sacrifice not to fell like crap 6 months out of the year.
Thanks for the input
Nocoldgirl

[Maks322]

Hi,
Just want to say its so nice to know I'm not alone.  I dread the cold, I run from my overheated car with my overheated seats to my heated house (the others really dont want an overheated house).  I take incredibly hot showers.   We live in NH and just got 6 inches of snow, twice this past week.  Ugh
Currently we are in Orlando, it it 72 degrees and I could not be happier.  Yesterday was a cold day and it was still so much better than home.  

However I have been here in May and the humidity just killed me.
I'm older and thinking of retirement in 10 years.  I could really see myself living here for the winters.
Maureen

[Lulu54]

What a great question, especially as I look out my windows and see about 8 inches of snow out there........  it's not my favorite weather either except for a different reason- The cold doesn't bother me but I do have a concern about falling on the ice and doing serious damage .  That could be catastrophic.

I love the pacific northwest and the people who live out there swear by the weather - not too hot, not too cold. Good luck with thinking this over.

[supermum_ms]

Hi and welcome to our little MS community,

I dont live in the states, so I can't recommend anywhere sorry. I just wanted to let you know that there is about a handful of community members, that also experience issues with cold temperatures. Off the top of my head though, i can't think of anyone were its just cold, more that their temperature issues are for both.

I really like GG's Goldilocks analogy, and so true for me lol I like late Spring and early Autum. Over here in OZ the temp is ramping up and up, its about to go into the 100's, Saturday I'll be travelling and its suppose to hit 110, big time groan! (I'll be the little puddle on the left side of the hwy lol)

My tremor so doesn't like the cold, I start to rattle like a defective tea kettle :o) lol so not sure what I think is worse, rattling in the cold or being a limp rag doll in the heat, its a close call :o)  

Cheers...........JJ    

[mizliz13]

We had to end of splitting the year between the mountains of North Carolina from April to October and the gulf coast of Alabama the rest of the year. Fortunately, we already had our home in Gulf Shores, AL when I finally got my diagnosis after 8 years of doctors guessing what was wrong with me.  I cannot  tolerate heat at all.  Good luck while you try and sort this temperature craziness out.

[Guitar_grrrl]

So many of us experience heightened symptoms when the weather heats up, but not as many have ramped up symptoms when it's cold.  It DOES happen, though!  I'm one of those "Goldilocks" types.  It can't be too cold, or too warm.  It needs to be juuuuust right!

I'd consider moving to a more temperate clime, especially if you don't have any pressing obligations.  Think of all those folks who move to Arizona for the dry air!

Let us know what happens!

[nocoldgirl]

My husband use to live in NC, and didn't have a good experience there. We both work in health care so where ever we go hopefully we can find jobs fairly easily. I want to work! Like I said my husband has family in southern Oregon that can help us get on our feet. But if there is another option that's better I'll look into it. I just want to feel normal again and not worry about walking out on a cold day wondering if its going to trigger an act. I know the current treatments for ms, though better than they were years ago, are still like putting a band aid on a broken leg. What probably causes it in WNY is all the leftover chemicals that started lake Erie on fire years ago. If you've ever been to Buffalo NY its a typical rust belt city with who knows what left over in the environment. And of course the local/state politics prevent stuff for being cleaned up properly.

[PastorDan]

Have you looked at the Carolinas?

[nocoldgirl]

Thanks, I'm pretty sure about the cold weather looking at winters past. Also I had a 2 month long vacation a few years ago where my husband and I stayed with his uncle who lives in southern Oregon. After 2 weeks I was totally asymptomatic, with no signs at all of a potential flare up. I'm 27 now and the first signs of my symptoms go back to my early twenties. Like I said I think I went miss diagnosed for so long was because for the most part my symptoms only manifested themselves in the winter, which isn't out of the realm of ms, but is atypical compared to most other suffers. I'm also different in the fact that the very few symptoms I have in the summer act more like heat exhaustion and only happen when I'm stuck in a crowd on a particularly hot day.

[mooksmom]

Since you are fairly recently diagnosed you might plan on making this winter a 'trial run' and keep a journal of the date, weather,reaction to the changes, meds etc and see what happens. Some people have long remissions and if you move without family...that could add stress unneeded for you. I know upstate NY and it could be a long cold winter, like now, or a warm one like most of us had last winter.

[PastorDan]

Give it up.  Nobody's gonna offer to swap places with somebody who lives in Buffalo!  

(Kidding, of course!)