Cold water feels hot on my skin, can anyone relate to this?

I normally take a shower because a hot bath completely drains me but I have a cold at the moment so my hubby ran me a hot bath. After a while I was getting too hot so I ran some cold water in to cool it down but when I put my left foot under the running water it felt hot, not scalding or anything but a lot hotter than room temperature and certainly not cold.

At first I thought I’d ran the wrong tap but I double checked and it was definately the cold tap. I then thought it might have been residual hot water in the pipe from running the bath but again that would have cleared before I put my foot under the running water.

I often have a burning sensation in my left calf and foot. Could it be something to do with that? Could it be the MS or am I beginning to lose it? Has this happened to anyone else?

thanks

Hi Anon,

It’s another form of paraesthesia, or “false feeling” common to MS, I’m afraid.

When I had the relapse that led to my diagnosis, I had to be very careful about the bath water, as I could tell it was hot OR cold, but not which! Luckily, my fingers were still OK, so I could check with those. But I could no longer test with a toe, before stepping in, because I couldn’t tell whether it was OK or not.

It’s nothing sinister in itself - just another thing to add to the list of symptoms. Plus having to be extra careful about how hot you think things are!

Of course, if you’re not yet diagnosed, this doesn’t prove you have MS. I expect other things can cause it as well. But it’s happened to me with MS.

Mine got better: temperatures now feel normal to me again. Or about 90% right, anyway. I’m not sure anything feels exactly as it did before it happened, but good enough for all practical purposes, anyway. I’m no longer at risk of scalding myself, because I thought the bath was cold, or hypothermia, because I thought it was hot!

Tina