My core temperature has changed.
I was out at the Beach Chalet restaurant this past Sunday
with my wife and a few friends listening to one of our favorite bands, the
Aqua Velvets. The restaurant itself is just across the Great Highway from the
beach and a perfect setting for the Surf Jazz the band features. It was a
typical San Francisco summer afternoon with a bit of fog and a very slight
breeze that, thankfully was shielded by the of the restaurant building. The
temperature was in the mid-60s. I was wearing a T-shirt and a long sleeve dress
shirt that was unbuttoned over a pair of jeans and I was perfectly comfortable.
I was thinking about it while sitting there and it reinforced the fact that one
of the long-term side effects of the of the hepatitis C chemotherapy treatment
process is that my temperature comfort level has moved a bit lower on the
spectrum. In the old days on an afternoon like that I would've been wearing a
sweatshirt at least and perhaps even a light jacket over a sweatshirt. The
breeze would've chilled me, my hands would have been cold and while I would
have stayed and listened to the band, I would not exactly have been
comfortable.
Now however it seems I am much better suited to the San
Francisco climate. Many days I wear an undershirt with a long sleeve shirt over
it, either a T-shirt or golf style
shirt or a button-front dress shirt and that's all I wear (except for pants, I
still wear pants even after chemo...).
I generally don't need to wear a jacket or I can carry a light fleece
jacket with me to can put on only in the evening when the temperature drops
into the very low 60s or the wind kicks up. In the old days, pre-treatment, I
would always follow the San Francisco prescription of dressing in layers with a
shirt, sweatshirt and jacket always with me and most often all worn at the same
time. That is no longer the case.
Many of the
long-term side effects that have stayed with me since the hepatitis C chemo are
not ones that I have enjoyed or have not been ones that have benefited me in
the long term. This one however is definitely an advantage. While I am no
longer is able to tolerate warm temperatures as well as I was in the past and
truly hot weather really leaves me exhausted, that's not the sort of weather
that we have very often in San Francisco. Now I appear to be better adapted to
my environment and I can tolerate the city that before I always used to find
much too cold for my taste.
If global warming really intensifies in the long run, this
and may not be an advantage. But for right now and for the next few years it
may very well end up being the best side effect of being treated for hepatitis
C.