Big change

Over the years I've been blessed with the ability to keep warm when many others have problems. Well, this summer I got a blood clot in my calf and as a result the Dr. put me on a blood thinner. It appears that has resulted in me getting cold at much warmer temperatures than I used to. All winter, I only wore 1 pair of cotton (yes cotton) socks in my Fieldmaster Muck boots down to about 5F, below that, same socks but I wore Muck Arctics and was very comfortable.
Since being on this blood thinner, I seem to get cold at about 40F. Yesterday at 39 degrees I was working around the sugarhouse mainly on the new storage shed/shop and I was shivering, while wearing the same Carhart hoodie I used to keep warm down to about 15F if no wind and there was no wind.
The Dr. said I may be taken off the blood thinner in mid Jan, I hope this proves satisfactory, being cold in mild temps is not good. In the past, at 25F if no wind and dry, I've never been the least bid cold in one of those hoodies.
Anyone else on blood thinners? Have you noticed similar issues?

Not from my own experience, but it makes sense that a blood thinner will cause you to feel colder. Blood thinners counteract both of your bodies main defenses against cold weather. Those being restricting blood flow to the smaller capillaries next to the skin by both thickening the blood and constricting blood vessels.

The net effect of all this is you will feel, and actually are, colder because your body can't regulate the radiator type effect that your skin can produce. You will want to be extra careful in the cold weather and dress much warmer than you are used to while on the blood thinners.

Welcome to the cold (and old) mans club Dave. :D Beta-blocker they put me on last year means cold hands and feet pretty much from November to May. I've definitely gotten less tolerant of cold weather in the past 5 yrs, but this has certainly made winter all that much rougher.

I pretty much figured I wasn't alone on this. I'm used to not even wearing long johns all winter, haven't even had any on in likely 50 years. Now I'll need to get some.
Is this the golden years?

I had my own issue this summer and now am on Beta blockers.I have not noticed getting colder,but the meds have done other weird things to me. It's amazing I can drink one cup of something and pee two.....

The biggest negative is I have dizzy spells. Golden years my butt!

So today I ordered tubing for my woods. Gathering from bags and buckets is going to be part of the past. So I'm going to try some 3/16th tubing, I have plenty of fall (25-40 feet on most runs) so hopefully it will do well for me. I've never put up tubing so I hope I don't screw it up too bad. I seen plenty put up but never done it myself.

Of all tubing you could could choose to install, 3/16 is the lowest cost/tap and the easiest to install. As long as you have the drop, and it's best to have the drop towards the end, you are golden. The runs can be up to 1200' or maybe even longer and you can run 25-30 taps on a line. In fact I have one right at 1200' and it has 41 taps. It worked well last year but this next season I plan to make it 2 runs.
3/16 is good because gravity never fails and it runs for free. After the first year, you will find it is better to clean the 3/16 or when you start to tap in year 2, you will have some gunk that breaks free, flows down and some gets caught in a T, at that point the remedy is to cut the T out and replace it with a new one.
Good luck, best to your health and enjoy making maple.

Thanks MapleFlats, I hope to get this health under control.

I have five runs mapped out with the longest approx 640 feet and that one has about 25-30 feet of fall. My others are all around 500 feet each and one at 400ft has over 40 feet of fall. I've never tapped that slope because of the steep slope isn't what I wanted to put buckets or bags on. There are 34 taps on that run.

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Originally Posted by maple flats

I pretty much figured I wasn't alone on this. I'm used to not even wearing long johns all winter, haven't even had any on in likely 50 years. Now I'll need to get some.
Is this the golden years?

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Try flannel lined jeans from LL Bean, much more comfortable.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by maple flats

I get great gains with Blackwolf Pre Workout and pretty much figured I wasn't alone on this. I'm used to not even wearing long johns all winter, haven't even had any on in likely 50 years. Now I'll need to get some.
Is this the golden years?

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Count yourself lucky for not having any problems this long. You'll do fine!