I'm Back!!!

Wow! All I can say is WOW!!! The last week or so has been very eventful, to say the least!! The weather here in the cool North West has been very warm, unusually warm. We are going on 70 days with no appreciable rain, so the weatherman says. So, it’s been hot and dry. Most people love it. Me…not so much. Well, I was doing sort of OK, MS wise, but somehow I guess my body just said, “That’s it!” After about the 5th day of temps in the house above 75 degrees, my symptoms started to flare. I started to have the old “ice picks” jabbing thru my ear and my walking was becoming very difficult, and various other pains that come on when I have a flare-up. I thought that I was handling it. Apparently NOT!! I didn’t up my fluid intake enough and I wasn’t using ice-packs to cool down. MDH came home one evening to find me “cooked.” I don’t know how he got me upstairs and into the shower, because I couldn’t walk. Somehow I showered and washed my hair and then lay on the bed with ice packs on my chest and neck. The house was about 80 degrees and I had been drifting in and out of consciousness for a couple of hours, with an afghan over me. I had been chilly. Hint, Hint. It’s 80 degrees in the house, (hotter outside), your face is hot and dry and your extremities are cold. Something is not right! I suppose the prudent thing to do would have been to go to the hospital, but we didn’t realize how really bad I was. We got some fluid into me and some juicy fruit and kept the ice-packs on all night. The next day I was better, but still couldn’t take care of myself. The things MDH has to do to live with me in this body. He decided “That’s it!” We now have air conditioning! The air-conditioning man “flipped” the switch yesterday!! Oh Happy Day!!! For those who can dance, there is dancing and singing and smiling!!! This wasn’t on our list of things to get done this summer nor someplace to sink some money, but one hospital visit, even w/ insurance, could just about pay for this “coolness.” MDH says, “Don’t worry about it.” After all these years, he just doesn’t understand that “worrying”, is my job!

I apparently had hyperthermia, not a heat stroke, but close. Whatever it was, not fun for all involved. Needless to say, I lived with ice packs and drank 2 quarts of water and sugar free sports drink and ate lots of watermelon, until yesterday. Today, diet and H2O consumption is back to normal.

So I have talked to my sister and told her the story. She says “we don’t sweat”, meaning our family. It’s taken all these years to learn this? I know that I have never liked the heat, even as a child. As an adult, I thought that the reason that I couldn’t take the heat was because of the Multiple Sclerosis. Maybe that and a body that does not work properly, in more ways than one!

At any rate, life is back to normal, or new normal…it doesn’t have to stop anymore when it gets too hot. I have just over a week to get the quilt done. I think 'll just make it!

As Always, Healthy Days to You....Your Smiling Maven