When I was a kid, I didn’t really like summer. I preferred the structure of school, soccer practices and games, and playing with my friends. Summer meant day camp, seemingly endless days of lanyards and Red Rover, while my friends mostly went to sleepaway, which I never wanted to do. My own middle-schooler doesn’t believe that I wrote long letters to my best friend at camp in the Catskills, and she wrote long letters back, often in alternating colorful inks.
One problem I did NOT have in these long, drawn-out summers was heat sensitivity. Most of the camps I went to didn’t have too many air-conditioned spaces, but I didn’t care. I loved sports, free swim, and generally being outside more than any of the other activities.
But now, three (plus!) decades, an MS diagnosis, and some climate change later, my sensitivity to hot weather is a big part of my summers. I spend most of them in New York City, going sometimes to the suburbs to visit family, plus a week of vacation somewhere else. Those 97- or 100-degree days that regular people slog through? I typically can’t go outside at all. If there are three or four of them in a row? I feel fortunate, on the one hand, to work remotely in an apartment that has all the air-conditioning I want, and from where I can order grocery delivery and online stores to order what I need. But not being able to go out, see the sun and other people, and walk around takes an emotional toll.
So what do I do? Part of having had MS for over 20 years is learning there isn’t always an easy solution to the problems it causes. But there are some ways to mitigate them. When it’s 85 degrees, those ice bandanas I got in a giveaway years ago from one of the pharmaceutical companies can help me get outside for a short time. I scour the weather forecast for somewhat unseasonably cool weather (I’m writing this on the second consecutive 82-degree, low-humidity day in a row in July—perfect!).
When it’s in the high 80s or hotter? I stay home, working, reading, and maybe experimenting with a new recipe, while I wait for it to cool down again. I try to talk daily to friends or family to mix it up a bit. And that middle-schooler who can’t remember paper letters? Pretty good company when not in sports camp. We’re rewatching The Simpsons.