4 degrees of awesome

Greetings blog friends and my apologies for leaving you in the lurch. (I mean, clearly you were losing sleep over the lack of blog posts. Duh.) Our internet/cable line was "accidentally" cut by a competitor...but at least they tried to repair it with duct tape. How thoughtful. In any event, I have made the pilgrimage to Starbucks where I am sipping on a steamed soy milk and at long last, reuniting with my blog.

Today I had my second appointment with a doctor who focuses on biofeedback.  Not only does he focus on biofeedback, but he claims that he can teach me to re-warm my hands and feet. Sign. Me. Up.

My last appointment was spent mostly getting to know me and learning about what I have been up to for the past year...ya know, just casual small talk. Today, we got down to business and I was hooked up to a biofeedback machine within minutes of my arrival. When I was at Mayo, the electrodes were attached to my back, but here they are attached to my fingers and includes a temperature monitor.

Obviously due to my celebrity status, I refuse to follow "normal" protocol. Typical body temperature? 98.6. My typical body temperature? 96.4. Now, that may not seem like anything worth rolling out the red carpet, but today I also learned about the average skin temperature, which is between 90 and 95 degrees Fahrenheit. My average skin temperature? 70.3 degrees Fahrenheit. Oops. Seems that my blood not only has separation anxiety with IVs and blood draws, but it also prefers to stay in one spot in my body and not circulate. Details, details.

Now we have all had those moments where we are outside shoveling snow (ok, maybe not this year, but  work with me here) and our fingers and toes go numb. We think as many tropical thoughts as possible until we can be blissfully reunited with the benefits of a heated home. If this situation applies to you, it turns out you are among 80% of the population, who can successfully increase blood flow simply by thinking warm thoughts. I'm not saying you can fry an egg on your hand and you may not even notice it, but most people are likely able to increase his/her body temperature by at least 5 degrees. It goes without saying that I am not in the 80% majority here. Clearly. Let me assure you that if I increased my blood flow every time I dreamed about returning to my lovely honeymoon destination, Punta Cana, I would NEVER have blood flow issues.

So what's the deal with the other 20%? Autogenic training. In the 1930's, a German doctor invented the technique of autogenic training, where patients spent two solid years under Dr. Schultz's tutelage and devoted every waking hour to learning how to use their minds to basically self-hypnotize certain parts of their bodies. Now let me assure you that neither I, nor my bank account, have any intent on spending 730 straight days with my doctor, learning how to use this technique. My doctor assures me that he can teach me the basics and I can take it from there, as long as I practice. A lot.

The basis of autogenic training is repeating a set of visualizations and kinesthetic reactions in order to induce a state of relaxation. It is especially useful for influencing one's autonomic nervous system...ding ding ding! In my case, my vasomotility (how my blood moves through my body) is less than ideal, as my blood both forgets to circulate and gets caught when my veins spasm. So in a nutshell, the idea is that I'll be able to use certain movements to trigger my autonomic nervous system into getting my blood to flow. No big deal.

Am I skeptical? Ok, a little bit.

But at this point, why not?

So today I spent an hour repeating bizarre phrases and movements over and over again. My doctor asked me about just about every warm and tropical location I have ever frequented and got nothing. He changed my bizarre phrases and movements a smidge and told me to concentrate. I did my best, with the occasional stray "what on earth am I doing??" thought, but finally, after 56 minutes of 70.3, I raised my temperature to 74.3.

Was it luck? Possibly.
Did I walk around like I had just won the Nobel Peace Prize? Maybe.
After all, it's only 4 degrees, but it was four degrees of awesome.

Next up? I'll think really hard about, ya know, curing cancer and initiating world peace. Stay tuned.