Heat Exhaustion

Today I am cold, I wore my maternity capris to work today, trying to use up the jean stickers that I have gotten. I like them, they stay up, unlike my maternity jeans, but they also leave the lower part of my legs cold in the office environment. The short sleaved shirt that I chose does little more for my exposed arms.

Such a change from yesterday. Saturday night we got home late because we drove from Rochelle, I had taken a nap before coming to pick up Kevin from work, so I was wide awake the entire ride home. Sunday morning though was difficult to wake up to. But I forced myself up and got Kevin's meds for him and started on his programs for church. He had taken a sleeping pill to get to sleep the night before and now was having trouble waking up. I fed the dogs, ate some cereal, did all the things that usually work for me. Then while printing off the programs our black cartridge ran out, with no way to finish the programs without another cartridge Kevin had to go to the store for a refill.

While he was gone I started my shower. The water felt warm, maybe a little hotter than usual, but I figured I would be ok. I had left the bathroom door open so that I had more cool air in the room, but the shower felt so warm, and then suddenly too warm. I was halfway through the shower, I had just finished shampooing my hair and was just about to put conditioner in, when I began to feel weird, wrong, light headed, wobbly, wrong. I turned off the water and opened the door, sucking in cool air, hoping it would clear my head. It didn't. So I stumbled from the shower, nearly passing out in the bathroom as I reached for my towel and stumbled to the bed.

Thank goodness for Kevin's sister who got us huge bath towels for Christmas, I spread out the towel on the bed and lay there, my wet hair thankfully seeping into the towel and not my bed. The fan above spun, cooling me but not fast enough. I felt like passing out, but instead I clung to conciousness and waited for Kevin to come home.

Finally he got home and I told him I wasn't doing so well. I told him what had happened and he said it sounded like heat exhaustion. He asked how much fluids I had so far that day. None. He let me lay there for a while, finally I felt good enought that I got up and put some conditioner on my hair and then covered it with a shower cap. Letting conditioner soak into your hair for awhile is good to do every so often and I did not have enough energy to finish the shower yet.

I went out and sat in one of our computer chairs. I felt tired, no exhausted, like all energy had been sucked out of me. I told Kevin and he said fatigue was one of the signs of heat exhaustion. He brought me a jug of Gatorade and a jug of water and told me I had to finish at least one of them. I finished off the Gatorade as I watched his programs print for him while he took his shower. I was feeling better by the time the programs were done and folded but I still was only halfway through the shower. And Kevin had to get to church. So he left me at home and left, saying that I should call him when or if I felt ready for him to come and pick me up and take me to church too.

I waited a little longer, and then when I felt good enough I went to finish my shower. I made the water cooler than before, and took less time, but by the time I got out I was panting again. I finished getting ready, putting up my hair, putting on my lotion, but I still felt about to pass out. So I called Kevin and told him I didn't think I would make it. He told me he was coming home to me, which sounded wonderful to me.

He came home and we slept for the next few hours. I still felt tired the rest of the day, but better than before. It was a scary reminder that I need to keep hydrated.