Raynaud's Phenomenon

What you are looking at are my hands on a moderately cold day in South Korea. No, I didn't tie a rubber band around my fingers before taking the picture. What you are seeing is something called Raynaud's Phenomenon. When my hands get just a little cold, the capillaries constrict in a way that any normal person's in more frigid conditions. The effect is... my finger tips get cold, turn white, and become numb A LOT sooner than most people's. Airconditioners can cause this to happen.

The first time I saw my fingertips get this way ,at the age of 24, I really thought that I had contracted some kind of flesh eating bacteria disiease. To my satisfaction, I was able to recover in a few minutes after getting to a warm location. I realized as time went on, that this would become a regular occurance and that I would be able to deal with it in a couple ways.

1. The best thing to do when this occurs is to run warm water over my hand for a couple minutes until the blood flow returns.

2. Have a good warm up, such as a mile run. That's 1.609344 km for the rest of you.

3. Put my hands in my pockets/ blow on my fingers/ you name it (nothing beats warm water).

Why is this important for a juggler? Well, I can't move my fingers very well when my hands are in an attack. What you see in the picture above, that's what docotors call a Raynaud's attack. When my hands are like that, I can forget about juggling.

Anyways... I haven't met any other jugglers who have had this happen to them. If you have, I'd love to hear about your experience and how you handle it.

Quotes of the Day

Rebellion against your handicaps gets you nowhere. Self-pity gets you nowhere. One must have the adventurous daring to accept oneself as a bundle of possibilities and undertake the most interesting game in the world - making the most of one's best. ~Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878 - 1969)

Each handicap is like a hurdle in a steeplechase, and when you ride up to it, if you throw your heart over, the horse will go along, too. ~Lawrence Bixby