Another Thing To Manage

I went to another football game last night, another game between my two favourite CFL teams, the Calgary Stampeders and the BC Lions. I like to say that when these two teams play, my team wins either way. The truth is that I have been a BC Lions fan since I was 9 years old, the year my Uncle Peter took me and my brother Bobby, now known as Adam, to a BC Lions game in the old Empire Stadium in Vancouver.

It must have been quite the challenge for my Uncle Peter, a young, single man only in his late twenties at that time, to haul two rambunctious little boys to an open stadium football game, expecting them to sit and watch, cheer at the right time and only stand up when there was a touchdown. It was quite the ritual for Peter. I remember him more than once telling me to sit down.

Of course I was just a little boy. When I sat down I couldn't see that much of the action, especially down field. When the BC Lions scored a touchdown, I stood up like everyone else, only to discover that the people standing all blocked my view anyway. It didn't really matter, though. I remember that day, I remember my Uncle Peter and his love for football. I remember his laugh, much like my Grandpa's laugh, and his love of humour, still a family trait.

Unfortunately for me, outdoor games in cold weather are becoming more and more problematic. With my leg muscles no longer pumping blood properly and no longer generating heat, my legs and feet become very cold, even in the mildest of conditions. I can take the cold; it's no big deal. The problem is that it takes many hours at home for my feet and legs to get warm afterwards.

This means I go to bed with cold feet. When my feet are cold, I cannot get to sleep. Last night I was able to move my upper legs about and generate some warmth. I even tried rubbing my lower legs and feet, but to no avail. The circulation is so poor and the muscle activity is essentially non-existent. My feet stayed cold and I stayed awake.

It was about 3:00 AM before I finally got past the cold feet and into the warmth of sleep. Fortunately I have no plans for today, so I slept until well past noon. It's just frustrating. In times past when this happened, I could just get up and put on a pair of socks. That's a major deal now, with the wheelchair and my legs not working. And anyway, I doubt that would have worked all that well. Even with socks on, there is no circulation down there. So I would be putting all the effort in for socks, only to find my feet remained cold beneath them. It's just that way these days; things that used to work don't, and working hard to make up for it doesn't usually work either. It's just another thing to manage.