Yes, Virginia, You Can Get Heatstroke in the Winter

Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus.

Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus.. While he is not a physical.person, but an ideology of a sort, he still exists as the Spirit or intention of Christmas.. And oddly enough so does heatstroke in the winter, the day after Christmas. Neither is a myth.

On Boxing Day (December 26th here in Canada) I was dropping off presents to friends. Did I stay,? Yes, but only for short, outdoor, social distanced, safe visits with masks handy. I knew I would be outside for a little bit, so I dressed for the weather.. It was just below freezing, so I was wearing a nice snuggly sweater & with my coat on I was nice & cozy outside..

After I got home, after a long day, and a long day on Christmas Day aswell, I was just exhausted. I took off my jeans and lay down for a nap.

I woke 1½hr later, nauseous & with a headache. Normally this is just my body telling me that I’m hungry because I haven’t eaten a lot during the day. Had a snack but halfway through, realized I was feeling flushed & warm.. A peek in the mirror told me what was going on.. My face was bright red..

I was still wearing my sweater! In my defense, it was a brand new sweater that I had never worn before and was not aware of how deceptively warm it is.. So I yanked off the sweater & my skin underneath was pink from the warmth..

Went to hop in the shower to warm up. My regular ‘hot’ setting I use for showers wasn’t the hot hot it normally felt like, but cooler. Since I wasn’t feeling temperatures like I should be, I set the water a smidge cooler before I hopped in… Bit by bit I turned the dial slowly down to cooler temperatures to slowly cool my body down. It took 20-30 minutes to start feeling like I was a normal temperature.. My colour was almost back to normal when the time I was all dried off.. After my shower, I simply crawled into bed to sleep it off…

I woke up a few hours later, without the nausea. So I ended up finally taking my nighttime meds because I didn’t want to risk taking them earlier and just chucking them up which is what I figured would happen..

The headache finally abetited a few hours later with some Excedrin…

Note: You can also get heatstroke from wearing too many layers outside & not taking them off as you warm up like when skiing..

Yes Virginia, You Can get Heatstroke in Winter

So, yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus, it’s not a myth . & Yes, Virginia, You can get Heatstroke in the Winter. Be careful

Weather Changes – from +20 to -2

I`m up here in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and we`ve been having some really funky weather. Our normal this time of year is about 5C.
The past two weeks have been lovely: mostly sunny with daytime highs hovering just under 20C.. I`ve lost count of the number of days that have broken the historic high temperature here. When it wasn’t warm enuf to break a historic record, it was pretty dang close to! Unfortunately all things must to end, including this gorgeous warm streak.. It took a mere 24 hours to go from late Spring/early summer, back to late winter/early spring. Weather shifts tend to be disastrous, especially dramatic, uncharacteristic ones. Not just to us, our pets and all of God’s creatures too. The worst goes to those of us with conditions such as Rheumatoid Arthritis and Fibromyalgia when the temperature drops or the barometer swings extensively. These are some of the worst days we can have, living in total agony.
Today is one of the worst days in quite a while and I think it’s hitting me harder than normal cuz I’ve been doing really well physically lately, with the nice weather & all.. The worst of the worst is my right arm, just below the elbow, on the outside. I can’t remember the name of the muscle, but when I move it, it screams – Loudly. & I am right handed.. It sucks.

 

FYI, Temperature conversions
0C=32F, 5C=41F, 20C=68F.