Since the Heat will not go away

[stormiestl]

I swore I would not become a victim of the heat at all. I drank plenty of fluids and Power8. The fluids were mostly water and lemonade besides the Power8. For those that do not know, I am a Security Supervisor. In June they took our car away from us. So that means we do all our patrols now on foot. I walk about 2.5 miles each round and I make two of those each shift I workt. Pedometers are a wonderful thing. I normally work 2pm-10pm Friday, Saturday and Sunday and overnight Monday and Tuesday 10p-6a. For the 3 days I work 2-10, it has been nasty nasty nasty hot. I had to walk in that because the Client said so and my boss is a pussy. He does not stick up for his officers. He does not make those rounds in the hottest part of the day. Hell the man does not make rounds. He sits in front of his computer and watches the email. Lord knows what else he does cause he is not watching the cameras. I got that from the ones that work with him on days. But I digress. We shall save that tirade for another day. I should also mention that I have had to use my inhaler every day and more than once a day. As a matter of fact, I used my entire inhaler in the last week. I need to get a new one.

I was working overnight Monday night into Tuesday. Now mind you, it was still 97 degrees (F) at 10 pm. It did get cooler by morning. But then it got hot again as soon as the sun came up. Now to the fun part of the night. I got the first signs of heat stress. The cramping. I thought I had gas or some silliness like that until the cramping hit other parts of the body. I was getting hot and cold within seconds of each other. (That was kind of freaky.) The bad part. When I did my rounds, in the heat, I did not sweat. I started losing fluids at that point. I spent more time in the bathroom than I did doing my rounds. I got some water and added salt to it to see if I could at least get my hyrdation back. No luck there. I kept losing it. I should also mention that my head hurt. A lot. Migraine type hurt. Only the Excedrin Migraine was not working.

I got home and decided to drink some more water and try to get some sleep. Nice try on my part. Losing fluids from both ends is not fun and I do not recommend it. I went from freezing to extremely hot very rapidly. My joints and body hurt so bad, I thought I was dying. Finally I called redrogue5. I needed to go to the hospital. I called work and told them I was not coming and that I was going to the hospital. (I am sure that made the Captain's day) I arrived about 4:30 pm. My temp was 99.9. BP 145/132 Oxygen was 97%. The scary part was the BP for me. It took them some time but they finally got me into a room and hooked up an IV and gave me an anti nausea medicine. After the second IV got started they gave me Ibuprofen to help with the joint pain that was still not going away. That helped the head. The joints were not hurting as bad by the time I left. I could have had a 3rd bag of fluids I am sure. When I left, my temperature was still 99.9 but the BP was 125/65 Normal for me thank you very much. My Oxygen level had dropped though to 94%. They still let me go home. Oh and I have a doctor's note to not go back to work until Monday.

The definition of Heat exhaustion: Heavy perspiration, weakness, skin is cold, pale and clammy. Fainting, vomiting. Normal temperature is possible. Collapse, with or without loss of consciousness, suffered in high heat/humidity, largely resulting from the loss of fluids and electrolyte imbalances (i.e. loss of sodium).

The definition of Heat stroke: Skin is hot, dry, and red (hyperpyrexia). Often proceeded by heat exhaustion and its symptoms. Rapid heartbeat. Confusion. Loss of consciousness. This the final stage in heat exhaustion, when the body is unable to lose heat, body temp above 106F occurs, and death may ensue. Consider the small range of body temperatures above normal within which we humans may survive: about 8 degrees!


Heat Index Chart

Temp Dew Point(F)
(F) 50.0 55.0 60.0 65.0 70.0 75.0 80.0 85.0
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65: 62.7 63.8 65.0 66.6
70: 67.8 68.7 69.8 71.1 72.6
75: 73.1 73.9 74.8 75.9 79.2 80.7
80: 79.8 80.6 81.6 82.8 84.4 86.9 90.9
85: 83.5 84.7 86.1 88.0 90.5 94.0 99.0 106.6
90: 87.9 89.4 91.2 93.6 96.9 101.2 107.2 115.6
95: 92.9 94.5 96.7 99.6 103.4 108.4 115.2 124.3
100: 98.1 99.9 102.4 105.6 109.8 115.3 122.7 132.3
105: 103.4 105.4 108.1 111.6 116.1 122.0 129.7 139.7
110: 108.7 110.9 113.8 117.5 122.3 128.4 136.3 146.5

Any value less than 80 is considered comfortable.
Any value greater than 90 is considered extreme.
Any value greater than 100 is considered hazardous.
Any value greater than 110 is considered dangerous.

http://www.mpsaz.org/dobson/humidity.html This website is an excellent source of information on Heat Stress.