long time, no see....

Ahhhhh! 

So, the last eight days, I have been recovering from a mini heat stroke. There were some contributing things that allowed me to be in the position to have one, other than the heat. One of them was that I had a little spell of anemia. Another one was the fact that it was on a day where the temps reached 100 degrees.....and the other big ones were that I totally forgot to eat (and didn't drink nearly enough for being out in the brutal heat for that long), and that I absolutely love being outside on my little farm, and I have never had any problems with heat, that I ignored all the signs because I had never really familiarized myself with them. I was actually playing the whole day. Had a friend's kid come over the early part to the day, where she was having a ball playing in the water trough (or as I kept calling it, my above ground pool - ha!) and brushing and doting on the horses. After she left, a another friend came over and we just chilled on feed buckets with our feet in the trough while catching up on life. 

I went to an urgent care facility (after stupidly waiting just over 24 hours) running a fever that I could not break and having the worst headache I have ever experienced (and I used to have migraines - this one was off the charts of any migraine I ever had), they were pretty certain it was a mild heat stroke, performed a CT scan (kinda cool - never had one of those before), and confirmed that I did have all the signs of heat stroke, then informed me that I had some inflammation in my liver, lungs, and kidneys. They gave me a shot of a powerful anti-inflammatory, and sentenced me to my bed for three freakin' days. Poor Christian endured a complete whiny bitch the whole week. I was pissy because I couldn't do ANYTHING. If I did get up, I had to take the tiniest of steps (because my organs being inflamed taking a step was utter misery)....

Luckily one of my dear friends came by the house and picked me up to get me out of the house after day 5 of being cooped up, and I was just able walking again comfortably.

Anyway, fast forward to today, things have been improving, and I pretty much feel almost back to normal. Yesterday was a HUGE improvement from the last several days, but this morning I actually feel great (compared to the last week)!! 

So, because of my horrifying experience, I wanted to share some of the warning signs that I ignored....

~ turning bright red. This I ignored because I am pretty fair-skinned and turn red a LOT when hot. Well, my friend informed me that I was turning bright red, and I just assumed it was either the fact that I was wearing a red shirt, and it was reflecting back onto my face OR that I was just getting my normal flushed hot face. I splashed some water on my face, and kept playing because I actually felt fine...

~ For me, and for any 'sweat-hogs' out there, this is key: I stopped sweating AND I didn't feel that hot actually (this was the start of my fever) - I actually still felt fine, and the heat wasn't bathering me anymore.... So, if you are normally a heavy sweater, and you realize you are NOT sweating in high temperatures, GO INSIDE AND TAKE YOUR TEMPERATURE. If you are running a fever, jump in a cool pool, drench yourself with water, start drinking small amounts of water, and get yourself to an ER. If I would have broken my fever or at least started the process by cooling off my body, then gone to the ER, I would have saved myself a lot of this internal pain, and I wouldn't have had nearly the inflammation in my organs as I had. I wouldn't have been sentenced to bed rest for three days. FIRST THING, and I cannot stress this enough though, is to COOL OFF EXTERNALLY FIRST. Cold bath, cool body of water, hose yourself down, cold shower - and do this BEFORE you head to doctor. You will be freezing cold, but at least you will have started to bring your temperature down.

~ and last but not least,  DO NOT TAKE ANY MEDS - I did take acetaminophen and ibuprofen because of my throbbing headache and fever before I reluctantly went to the ER, but acetaminophen,  ibuprofen, antihistamines can further damage your very sensitive organs at this time - especially the liver.

That is pretty much all I have to say on this subject. It was the WORST experience medically in my life. I would not wish this on my worst enemy. PLEASE be careful out there y'all. I did not lift a finger doing any type of work that day. I was just playing outside and being a kid.... No alcohol contributed to my dehydration, but if it is hot, and you are drinking, your chances are even better to get heat exhaustion or heat stroke because you are less likely to be aware of these little warning signs.