Heat and Age

[e_moon60]

As I've said before (as you know Bob) I grew up in a hot, often humid climate.   I was a healthy kid, outdoors a lot, and though I certainly didn't enjoy the sticky hot nights before my mother put in a window AC, I could play hard outdoors in the summer without a problem.  Through high school, college, and even moving back to Texas after leaving

Comments

[saare_snowqueen]

You are going to see your doctor, please. Blood pressure, pulse rate etc... At our age these symptoms are more potentially dangerous than when we 'horses' were younger. Please go and have a check up.

[e_moon60]

I am fortunate to have in-family backup. Pulse & respirations & so forth were certainly checked, both in the field and back home.

[muaddim]

Well,you probably know,that having water and not drinking it is the same,as don't have it at all ????
Btw,i do carry water with me in the summer,but  drink it only when in shadow,or in AC'ed place,so i will not get sweaty .

[ann_mcn]

Glad you both had cellphones with you and turned on. Heat is sneaky, and all the willpower in the world won't change it.

I've worked at the GA Renaissance Festival for over 20 years, and our shop is in the back, on a hill, so when folks come in, they've been hiking in the sun and drinking beer. Or not drinking anything, usually women who don't want to use privies. We have water in the back, and urge it on people with That Look on their faces. Nearly every season, I have to call the paramedics to fetch someone who have pushed too far.

[ext_3650254]

I grew up in Port Arthur, Texas, which is really hot and humid. We didn't get air conditioning until I was 15, and I too remember how much nicer the nights were. But it seems like the older I get the less I can deal with the heat. Even though I moved to Maryland nearly 20 years ago, I find that I avoid going outside in the heat of the day because I find it so unpleasant. Maybe that's a blessing in disguise, but it sure puts a crimp in any gardening I might want to do.

Glad you're okay. Please do take care.

[thewayne]

My mom and dad in Phoenix were born in Texas and Las Cruces, NM, respectively. Both in their 80s. Yet when I went to help them out when dad was diagnosed with cancer, the house is at 82 or above. And while I spent over four decades in Phoenix, I can't handle the house at that temperature, so there's an almost constant juggling of the thermostat.

I'm very glad you know the signs and react appropriately and quickly. How heavy is your outdoor shirt? Eddie Bauer, and I'm sure others, have light long sleeve shirts with an SPF in the 50s, I use them all the time when I'm outdoor shooting and there's lots of sun.

[e_moon60]

This was a lightweight medium-light-blue denim shirt over a thin T-shirt (so I could unbutton the front and get some breeze, but with sleeves buttoned. We use denim a lot because it's not expensive to replace when the inevitable happens in contact with barbed wire, thorny vines, etc. Though I did get husband something supposedly tougher for Christmas last year (nothing you can stand to wear really stands up to working with or around barbed wire.)

I will look up the Eddie Bauer shirts, though. This was really more about deconditioning for both heat and exercise, though, I think.

heat stroke

[thewayne]

Please be careful. I am 71 and do not hesitate to us A/C in both the car and in my bedroom.

Getting old is not for sissys.

Jonathan up here in NH.

Re: heat stroke

[e_moon60]

I'm trying.

[mrs_redboots]

The converse holds true, as well. I don't know if it ever does get very cold where you live, but here (UK), where it occasionally does get cold, when it does, we are reminded to check up on our elderly relatives and make sure they are warm enough. And pensioners like us (and my parents - feels so odd to have two generations of pensioners in one family) get extra "cold-weather payments" if the winter weather is really extreme.

[e_moon60]

We rarely get extreme cold, but we do get below-freezing weather, and yes...we need to turn the heat up to stay warm. Even in several layers, I can feel cold, in part because our house wasn't built with good insulation, and though we've added it, the windows still leak. Also, writing is sedentary work, and when I sit still for a few hours, I'm not generating the heat I would if, um, housecleaning.