My skin was so hot, my trainer was sure the temperature sensor would melt. Well, maybe a slight exaggeration. She did think it was going to show a much-higher temp than usual. I didn't. I was right, but I didn't know why, especially since my skin was prickling painfully from the heat waving out of me. Turns out, that may be the key. I may've been radiating a lot of heat, but my flesh's temp, which the sensor on my pinky finger would be measuring, was cooler; sweating would be part of that as that's the body's cooling mechanism. In the end, my recorded skin temp was lower than it has been; I thought I was cooling down, and then I began sweating buckets a couple of screens into my session. I began pouring out sweat like someone had primed a water pump and was going all out pumping water out the well. The good thing was it wasn't noticeable visually. So at least no embarrassment factor. It eased, but I only finally felt normal and dry right at the end when I’d finished reading and it was time to leave. Le sigh.
During the last biofeedback screen, the busy brain and 8-10Hz sailboats began beating the gamma boat. Never had that happen before. “Focus!” I told myself, and there went the gamma boat, surging ahead. It was a good feeling. My heart liked it too because I could feel my chest growing lighter. Thank god.
It was a very hot day in Toronto. I was not looking forward to hitting the blast furnace sidewalk with the skin-burning sun slicing my skin after my session. I had barely made it to my appointment, for the heat had weakened me and I had begun to be short of breath (I haven't had that old exercise intolerance/cardiac effect for a long time). Even my eyes were having a hard time focussing. But biofeedback changed that.
I still felt the heat, but I was able to tolerate it. Which was fortunate because the TTC dumped us out at Davisville station to await the next slow-to-arrive train. Fortunately, we were in the shade with a breeze blowing intermittently, and I was fine. I wouldn’t have been before biofeedback. I also found it easier to stand on the train and didn't need to sit as desperately as I had on the way to the appointment. And I also felt the cooling effects of the AC on the way home, unlike on the way to brain biofeedback.
My trainer told me how another client with brain injury keeps cool during the brain training, which I'm going to try because it's truly uncomfortable trying to work the brain while broiling and sticky for an hour, and air conditioning is insufficient to cool me down quickly. He takes a towel and wets it. He puts it in the freezer. When it's time to leave, he puts it in a ziplock bag and carries it in his bag to the ADD Centre. There, he drapes it around his neck. It sounded refreshing just hearing about it. Definitely gotta remember that for next week!
