Public Service Announcement

I finally went to the clinic to ask about the lingering effects of the sunstroke I stupidly, idiotically, gave myself over the weekend.  They said that, yes, I'm still paying the price of that stupidity.  I still can expect to feel the effects of it for a while yet. 

I had never had sunstroke before, not in decades of gardening in the rocky soils of Maine hill country. From the description of the symptoms,  I could have died from it.  Really, died, last Saturday.   Seriously elevated temperature, cessation of perspiration, etc.  

Though it can happen at any age, being old is a risk factor and I'm old enough to fall into the high risk category.  And you can't just go on what you're feeling.  I just thought I was tired from hard work.   Believe me, I had no idea it was happening until my brother just happened to come by and expressed shock at my appearance.  He talked me into going inside and until I was cooled down a little instead of finishing what I was working on.  While sitting in front of a fan with cold water on me, I looked it up on medical websites, I had no idea that's what was happening.  You really want to be more aware of it than I was and protect yourself because if the sunstroke doesn't kill you the aftereffects really are awful.   If I'd died the vegetables wouldn't have done me any good. 

I'm also pretty amazed at how many people asked me if I was wearing sun screen, believing that's some kind of protection. It's irrelevant to the condition.  I was covered in it and I was wearing a broad brimmed sun hat that pretty well shaded my whole upper body.  It's the heat that'll kill you that way, sun screen won't do anything but keep you from being a sunburned corpse.