Body temp below injury level

[Brad09]

T6 complete. If I'm sitting in a cold room with say three layers of clothing on my upper body and only one layer on my lower body. Will I still feel cold because of my lower body temperature? Or if I have enough layers on above my injury level, where I can physically feel temperature, should I be able to feel warm?

Just asking because I tend to freeze all the time post SCI, but I never think about putting more layers on below my injury level because I can't physically feel the temperature. And I'm just talking about sitting in a cold office at work, not going outside in 30 degree weather with shorts on. As you all know, putting extra layers on everyday, especially on your legs is a hassle.

[TomRL]

Feeling cold is merely a matter of losing body warmth. If you lose it from your legs, you will definitely feel cold eventually. Can you find a way to make your work space warmer? I use a lap blanket most of the winter.

[t8burst]

Yeah I am a T8 complete and I am cold all the time as well. It is important (at least for me) to keep your whole body warm including below your injury level. I really like this stuff: http://www.uniqlo.com/us/men/heattech.html (no spam, I am not associated with the company) as easy to put on stuff to keep you warm.

T6 complete. If I'm sitting in a cold room with say three layers of clothing on my upper body and only one layer on my lower body. Will I still feel cold because of my lower body temperature? Or if I have enough layers on above my injury level, where I can physically feel temperature, should I be able to feel warm?

Just asking because I tend to freeze all the time post SCI, but I never think about putting more layers on below my injury level because I can't physically feel the temperature. And I'm just talking about sitting in a cold office at work, not going outside in 30 degree weather with shorts on. As you all know, putting extra layers on everyday, especially on your legs is a hassle.

[Bob Sullivan]

I have very little lower body feeling, I think I could go out into the snow barefoot, but what I feel is as Tburst and TomRL said, if you protect the below the injury body warm it will help greatly keeping your torso warm. Keep those feet warm especially, they seem to lose a lot of heat fast, and then the rest of your body becomes un-recoverable.

[SCI-Nurse]

Not only do you loose body heat from you body both above and below your injury level by convection, most often you will not have the ability to shiver below the level of your injury (which generates muscle heat to keep you warm). You need to cover as much of your body as possible in cold temperatures. Many find that long underwear as above is very helpful, and lap blankets or quilts can be useful in more extreme cold such as outdoors.

You are actually at MORE risk for hypothermia and to frostbite than your AB peers in the same cold environment.

Be very careful about the use of external heat sources on areas where you cannot feel. This can include items such as hot water bottles, heating pads, space heaters, furnace air outlets, and "instant" hot packs. Even electric blankets can cause burns.

(KLD)

[Brad09]

Thanks everyone, very useful information. I'll check out that long underwear posted above. I always have some sort of base layer on (usually under armour cold gear under my shirt), but I don't usually wear anything like that under my pants for heat, so I'll have to give it a try and just suck it up having to put them on and off everyday. Tight stuff is not fun. And I've already made the mistake of burning my legs in the past, so I'm pretty aware of that. Thanks again.