The heartbreak of RD

In my lifelong search for unique personal qualities, qualities that cause me to stand out from the common herd (in addition, of course, to my bizarre sense of humor and world-renowned blog), I have now hit upon a legitimate medical diagnosis: Raynaud's Disease. This impressive francophone moniker refers to a possibly hereditary condition that makes my fingers often look somewhat like the illustration to the left -- I'm not sure my fingers ever look quite so dramatically horrible, but maybe that's only because they're my fingers and I'm used to them.

I noticed the first signs of Raynaud's Disease (let's just call it RD for short, ok? -- that's the fashion nowadays) when I was swimming at the high school pool during the summer after sixth grade. My hands got numb. I mentioned it to my friend's mother, who said I should see a doctor. In keeping with my usual practice, I avoided talking about numb hands to anyone after hearing that advice.

Symptoms continued over the years. What symptoms? Whenever my body temperature cools off slightly, several of my fingers get numb. On me, it's most often the third and fourth fingers of my right hand, but other fingers are also affected at times. The numb fingers obviously have lost circulation -- hence the white coloration, often tending to yellowish, as shown in the photo.

Today, a New York Times blog made me happy by putting a name -- RD -- to my symptoms. It's a condition, probably hereditary, at least in part, that affects about 5 percent of men, and a slightly higher percentage of women. It's triggered by a cooling of my body core temperature which causes blood vessels in my fingers and toes to constrict. This is a normal result of severe chilling -- the body attempts to save itself by sacrificing its extremities -- but for RD sufferers, blood vessels in a certain extremities overreact to only slight chilling.

My hands and feet can get cold without my experiencing RD effects, so long as my body temperature itself isn't affected. Conversely, my hands and feet can feel warm, but I'll suddenly lose sensation and color in certain fingers when my body core temperature dips slightly and unnoticeably. In winter, I keep the house cool (about 60°) to save energy. With a sweater, I'm comfortable at that temperature (I warm the house for guests!), but RD is apt to kick in. Warming my hands in front of a heater, or in warm water, immediately solves the problem.

What's cool (no pun intended) is discovering that I have an actual medical diagnosis that I can discuss endlessly at parties -- or, in an equally popular manner, in blogs -- a condition with predictable symptoms that poses only a mild inconvenience relative to its impressive glamor. (In severe cases, ulcerations can develop from insufficient circulation, but my condition is much milder.)

So, yeah. Thank you, New York Times.