Dog Days of Summer

I don't know when I developed an intolerance to heat but for some reason, this year seems hotter than all others. Perhaps it's because I'm older now and I pay more attention to it or to the electric bills for air conditioning or perhaps it really is hotter than it was when I was a child. 

I grew up with no air conditioning. So it shouldn't be a big deal now, but it is. Back then, our little cinder block home only had an attic fan and casement windows for ventilation. During summer months, we'd wear as little as possible to stay cool. Thank God for shorts and for Mama letting us run around barefooted. 

I used to hate our old tile floor in the living room and in the kitchen because when it was dirty and I wasn't wearing shoes, it felt gritty beneath my feet. But in the summers, that tile was so cool beneath my skin and I was thankful for it. 

We spent most of our summer days back then playing outside beneath huge Oak and Pine trees. Their shade helped keep us cool. Occasionally, we'd play in the sprinkler or squirt each other with the hose. 

One Summer, Mama signed us up for swimming lessons at our local pool. I don't know how much she had to pay for us to be taught to swim, but I was very grateful for the opportunity to learn the basics of swimming and also enjoy the pool after our lessons were over. Back then, I think it cost .50 cents to get in. Teen lifeguards were on duty but that didn't stop people from drowning. 

Milam looked like this back in the day

I'll never forget one summer in particular they had to close down the pool because a teenage boy got his leg caught in the drain that filtered debris from the pool. He was unable to get loose and drowned. It was a huge tragedy for a small town. 

Summer nights were our saving grace. When we were home and getting ready for bed, Mama would turn on the attic fan, we'd open all our bedroom windows and a gentle breeze would blow across us lulling us to sleep. 

One night in particular was scorching. Nothing Mama or Daddy tried to do could help us cool down and we were all complaining. Mama told us to get our pillows and bring them down to her. She took a spray bottle and sprayed each of our pillows with a fine mist and told us to put them in the big chest freezer in the garage. We obeyed although we had no clue what she was doing. After about thirty minutes, she told us to get our pillows and go back to bed. 

The pillows were nice an cold! What an ingenious idea. I think Mama could have become a millionaire if she'd thought to invent cooling gel that goes inside many pillows and mattresses these days. 

Milam now

The dog days of summer are usually in late July and August but man, I swear, it seems they're here now. Is it "Climate change" or are they tampering with the weather by other means? Who knows. I could have just become a wimp in my old age, but I don't think so. 

Every day I sit out on my back patio and enjoy the early morning air. It's breezy and perfect for a cup of tea and a good book. In the afternoons, it gets sweltering and uncomfortable so my husband and I come inside to cool down. 

I'm so thankful for air conditioning. I do try to keep the thermostat set at 76 most of the time during the Summer months, but sometimes, we have to drop it down a few notches. 

My heart hurts for the homeless this time of year. It must be horrible for them to try and find a place to cool off. Some churches offer respite from the heat for them and I've seen many homeless just sitting in our libraries, heads hung as they try to remain invisible before being kicked out. 

Milam at dusk

There are so many things we take for granted each day - a glass of iced water, our air conditioned homes and cars, lightweight clothing, etc. 

In the Summer, I always try to keep some cold bottles of water in the car. When we see someone walking on the street in the heat, we offer them a drink. They're usually very grateful.When we do it, we do it in the name of Christ, as He encouraged us to pay particular attention to the less fortunate and to strangers. 

Yes, it's hot this summer and it will probably get hotter in the next month or two, but hopefully we can bear it. Thank goodness we haven't had any power grid issues and hopefully we never will. 

Can you say "spoiled American"? I'll admit it, I am, especially when it comes to staying cool.

Hot Georgia Summers and Childhood Memories

Oh, how thankful I am for air conditioning! It's such a blessing on these hot Georgia days. I don't know how we ever lived without it, but it wasn't too long ago that we did. 

As a child, we didn't have air conditioning. We grew up in a two story cinder block house on a large wooded lot with beautiful Oak and Pine trees. Thinking back now, I'm so thankful for all those trees! Their lovely, leaf laden limbs helped cut down on some of the sweltering heat that bathed our house each summer. The only way we had to cool down was to run around half naked, play in water from the garden hose, flip on our attic fan, or open every window wide. Usually, we did a combination of all those things but there were some days nothing seemed to work. 

I remember marveling at the hard, dry, cracked red mud from lack of rain and seeing the steamy haze of heat rising from it. We could barely wait for evening to come so things would cool off a little. As soon as cicadas started to sing, we knew it wouldn't be long before we'd get a little relief. 

I was so thankful our old house had real tile floors in the kitchen and the living room. That tile was so cool to our bare feet in the summertime, although I hated the way the floor always felt dirty and gritty no matter how many times Mama swept it. We were always tracking in dirt with our little feet. 

The attic fan didn't do much for us during the day other than move around the hot air. In the evenings, after dark, with our open bedroom windows, the fan would often draw in a little breeze that would gently flow across our bodies as we lay on top of our covers trying to get cool. 

One particularly hot summer, none of us could get comfortable. We fussed and whined and complained until Mama told us to go get our pillows. We thought she was going to let us sleep downstairs so we ran to get them, but she had something else in mind. 

I remember standing in front of her in my little white undershirt vest and my panties, the coolest thing I could wear without going completely nude. She took a large spray bottle and began squirting my pillow. When she got one side sprayed, she told me to flip it over. I did and she sprayed away. I had no idea what she was planning, but I was obedient. She did the same for my siblings. Then, she told us to take our pillows and put them in the deep freezer which was in our garage. So we did. 

I don't remember what we did for the next thirty minutes or so, but we waited. When enough time had passed, Mama got our pillows out of the freezer and handed them to each of us telling us to go on back to bed. 

Carrying that chilled pillow up the thirteen stairs to the second floor of our house, was a blessing! I could feel the coolness against my little chest and it felt amazing. 

When I reached the landing at the top of the stairs, I turned right and headed to my bed. Laying the pillow on my bed, I crawled up on the mattress, lay down, and fell asleep. 

Mama was pretty ingenious! Who would have thought to do something like that? 

Now, we buy cooling gel pillows! I have two in my room right now. If Mama'd had the resources, I'm sure she could have invented those and become rich!

Last night, as we were closing the garage door I heard the low, rhythmic hum of cicadas start up in the cluster of trees across the driveway. It made my heart smile. 

Cicada

I'll never forget my hot childhood summers and I have no idea how we survived without air, but we did. Thankfully, I don't have to worry about that now unless we have power outages or something. I don't think I could make it. I've become less tolerant of the heat now that I'm older.

Thank God for the person who invented air conditioning. He's spoiled us mighty good. 

Sweaty boobs and swollen arms

Summer is a challenging month for many women. We don't like sweat. It's unattractive and bothersome. We don't enjoy having to reapply our makeup or wear ultra strength deodorant to keep ourselves looking and smelling pleasant. But add to those minor inconveniences the challenges of having to wear silicone prostheses and compression sleeves for Lymphedema and you get some pretty hot ladies! No, I'm not talking about hot as in extremely good looking...I'm talking about hot as in lots of heat, as in who turned up the thermostat to 120 degrees?! The excessive heat of Summer is instantly compounded by having to wear these medically necessary items. So what's a girl to do?

My first Summer after having bilateral mastectomies, I went without prostheses. My scars were still pretty raw and I didn't like to have anything rubbing against my skin. I found cotton tank tops provided just enough coverage while at the same time kept me cool and dry. It wasn't a problem to wear those around home but when I wanted to go out to dinner or visit friends, I needed to dress more appropriately and that meant wearing my prostheses.

When I went for my first fitting, the breast specialist spent a lot of time with me. I tried on several different styles of prostheses and was amazed at the different types available. My fitter brought in a flesh colored pair of breast forms with a clear backing. She explained they were a new model. The clear gel diamond backing was specially formulated to help keep my skin cool. I hadn't given a single thought to the prostheses and how they would feel against my skin. I naturally assumed, since they were silicone, they'd be cool but that was not the case. Even inside the mastectomy bra, the regular prostheses picked up my body heat. Discovering the difference between the normal silicone prostheses and the newer cool gel backed ones made my choice an easy one. But even on a hot Georgia day, rivers of sweat trickle down my chest when I wear my prostheses. The cool gel backing helps but doesn't make Summer easy. I don't like having sweaty boobs so 9 times out of 10, I don't wear my prostheses. It's just a lot more comfortable not to wear them and a whole lot cooler, too. Silicone prostheses aren't the only challenge contributing to a miserable Summer. Lymphedema also brings its own set of issues. 

One of the major long term complications after lymph node removal is Lymphedema, an uncomfortable swelling in the arms. With the disruption of the normal lymphatic flow, the lymphatic fluid often collects in the extremities and causes painful swelling. At the time of my bilateral mastectomy, I had lymph nodes in both arms removed and found out months later that I was the lucky recipient of not only one arm with Lymphedema, but two. At first, the swelling was pretty manageable with elevation and manual lymphatic drainage performed by a certified Lymphedema Massage Therapist but, as the warm Summer months began, the swelling increased. My breast surgeon recommended compression sleeves and gauntlets to help keep the swelling down. Every morning, I donned my cool gel prostheses and my compression sleeves. I felt like I was putting on battle gear. As long as I was inside with air conditioning it was bearable but outside, in the heat, it was a different story. So what to do? I had to wear the sleeves and gauntlets. If I didn't, the swelling would become unmanageable. The Lymphedema sleeves I had been prescribed were made of a very tight Spandex® type material. They were not breathable and trapped my body heat inside them. I knew I couldn't go through the entire Summer with sweaty boobs and swollen arms or I'd swelter, so I got online and did some research. I found a website called LympheDIVAS. They sell arm sleeves with a new type of technology called Coolmax®. It allows the sleeves to wick away moisture from the skin by helping it evaporate and cool down faster. I was so happy to have found a solution to my problem! Now, I could keep my chest and arms cool but I still had one more problem to deal with in order to stay cool for the Summer. 

Lymphedema caused my arms to swell so much that I couldn't wear normal sized blouses or tops. The sleeves were not big enough to hold my massive arms. Even with the compression sleeves, my upper arms were massive. If I bought shirts in a larger size, I might be able to find one that fit in the arm area but I'd just look sloppy and unkempt everywhere else. While most women enjoy the comfort of wearing sleeveless or short sleeved tops in the Summer, I liked to stay as covered as possible to hide my swollen arms and fake boobs. Trying to do both of these presented a challenge. There weren't many choices available in fashionable women's apparel. There weren't blouses that provided adequate coverage and cool comfort at the same time. Once again, I had to do some research. I began strictly searching for Lymphedema apparel. It seemed there weren't many choices for those who suffer upper arm Lymphedema. I couldn't find a single site dedicated to clothing for women with upper arm swelling. Of course, there were Dolman sleeves, cap sleeves, butterfly sleeves, Caftan type shirts...but all of these were not currently in style. Most of those styles were popular in the 70's. So how can women who suffer from Lymphedema today dress stylishly and still meet their needs to wear non-restrictive clothing? Unless you are a seamstress or know someone who is, you'll have to compromise and accept one of the types of blouses with the sleeves I previously mentioned. By visiting a website like Shopstyle and searching for a loose, flowing type blouse you'll probably find something to suit your needs. Maybe a local retail store offers other types of shirts to camouflage the swelling Lymphedema creates. Perhaps in the future, clothing manufacturers will realize there is a huge market for clothing geared specifically toward those who suffer from upper arm Lymphedema. I certainly hope so because it would help make hot days much more pleasant and help folks like me remain cool, calm and collected instead of having to focus on sweaty boobs and swollen arms. 

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