Fun in the Sun

Oh, the joys of vacation! Afternoons at the beach. Warm nights watching the sun go down. Good meals. Sun stroke.

Yeah, sun stroke. It's a real fun part of going on vacation. I've never had it before and I hope to never get it again, but two days ago I did get sun stroke and thought I might die.

I've been in the sun during the summer all my life. I've never had a problem. I use sun block. SPF 45, as a matter of fact. I hang on my floatie for hours every day and I've always been fine.

Not the other day. And it scared the crap out of me.

Everything was fine. I'd been at the beach for a few hours and came back to the condo to eat dinner. Suddenly, I was nauseous. Horribly nauseous. Then I became very hot. I didn't think much of it, and headed to the casino. While there, I became very weak and didn't think I'd make it home. I had no idea what was happening to me, but I knew I was getting very, very sick. So I headed back to the condo (and left my winning penny slot machine!). On my way home, I became disoriented and ended up at the grocery store rather than the condo. But I was able to pull it together and get back home. My husband took one look at me and handed me a big glass of water. I went to bed and after about 20 minutes, I could feel the weakness leave my body. The nausea went. My temperature dropped.

I ran into an EMT in town yesterday and told her about what happened. Yep, heat stroke she said. Not good.

I don't think I'll ever feel the same about going to the beach. I now have a six pack of Gatorade at my side. And bottles of water.