The cold weather, also known as winter, has arrived to Texas. You would think that a Swede wouldn’t have any problems with winter and longer periods of cold and dark. And that’s correct. I didn’t have any problems with it when I lived there. And the reason was a couple. First of all, you can buy clothes for this weather in Sweden. Texas doesn’t provide that! You can buy online but most of the times when I buy online it’s way too small so it’s not worth the hassle. Secondly; I didn’t have the medical problems when I was there as I do now. I didn’t have a pacemaker in my body that reminds my heart to beat. Nor did I have to take medications every 6th hour to get my blood pressure up to somewhat normal readings.

So one of my problems is that my blood vessels doesn’t constrict without medications. When the temperatures drops I have no blood pressure in arms or legs to keep me warm. My body automatically gets all of it to the core and my vital organs. That means that my pacemaker now has to give a little more powerful shock to get the blood out in the body. Normally I don’t feel the pacemaker. It is just sitting there, does its job and that’s it. But when it has to work a step harder I start to feel it. Every single time it sends a push to my heart it’s like you have an electrical shock in your chest. I’m not getting shocked as an Defibrillator would do but I can still feel the more powerful electric waves than normal. So when it’s been cold for a couple of hours my body gets tired of all this extra work it has to do. Think about it, the muscles and the body has to suddenly do more and longer work it is very exhausting when you don’t get a break for hours.

I try to dress in many layers and take off a layer if needed to. Sadly a lot of less nice comments has appeared this week about me being dressed in so many layers. But I have to. My body can’t regulate itself from sitting in a truck and then suddenly standing up in cold degree weather outside. I need to keep it warm. I even have to break the company’s dress code and wear a black undershirt that is designed to help my blood flow to elevate. It’s like compression shirt and pants. I love this set! If they would let me wear ski pants it would be even better!

This morning I went to the barn before the rain. Took on my riding breeches and my ski pants on top of them and three layers on the upper body and a beanie on my head. It was perfect for the 40 degree temperatures!!!

I had barely any pain, could do what I needed to do and it was all good. The rest of the day will be spent inside doing absolutely nothing. I have to go back to the barn tonight to give the girls dinner. We tried to get a haybale to them but the rain came so we have to wait. Bet we will be stuck in the mud. No biggie, I just like to spoil them and when I’m off I can as well feed them hay twice a day.