Monday, July 30, 2012

Heat Intolerance

This summer has been hot as f*ck, ahem, excuse me I meant to be far more politic. I meant to say, Sir, it's hot than a sumb*tch. That is clearly the only meaningful way to put it.

Strange, I blamed this on global warming once and people jumped down my throat about how humans didn't cause it and I pointed out if your house is burning down are you gonna sit in the house and argue about who caused it or get the heck out and do something. That said, I should take my own advice. I've got to do something about this heat intolerance.

When did this all start? I'd say it started when I was a child. A monkey of a boy. Hypermobile, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, Dysautonomia, I didn't know that then but I later found out. I could make my ribs stick out like wings. As a child, it was the eyes of people, mainly adults, that seemed to burn a hole in me. I was brutally shy and I mean, I wouldn't say a word in school, not a peep, less I incur the wrath of one of those tall people and I didn't want that. Why I should have been so afraid, I don't know.

 I was saying about this heat, today it was 98 degrees. I generally can't tolerate anything over 78 degrees these days. I went to the library around 10am and it was already 90 at least. There was this woman there who I think was a former client. She got out of a Maserati, tall, ultra-tanned, bleach blonde hair, too much make-up, revealing dress. She was older, like 55 maybe. And sooo skiny and tanned. She looked like she had really tortured herself through starvation and tanning. Her flesh was like a starved rotisserie chicken. I'm not here to judge people but I felt sorry for her. Then being me, I started to feel sorry for myself because anytime I feel sorry for someone else a little voice in the back of my head goes, "You're probably more pitiful than she is." And what does this have to do with heat intolerance? I guess in that case, she couldn't take the heat either but she used it to torture herself to make herself look a certain way. It might have just been in my head that she was a former client because she didn't look like the person in mind, just had similar mannerisms. I was drawn to her as I am to people I think are troubled. It's our little secret. WE are troubled. It's as if I can go up to them, being a perfect stranger, and go, "Is it just me or is life like what-the-f*ck weird? I mean something is wrong. Wrong with us! Always has been."

There are solutions and I've tried some. Clonidine actually works quite well for heat intolerance but causes too much drowsiness so I switched to guanfacine and it helps. The other thing is hydroxyzine or doxylamine, two antihistamines. Apparently the sweating reaction might be caused by histamine or allergic reactions. If anyone has any ideas about how to combat heat intolerance please leave a comment for me. I also use a full box fan in my conversion van. Anyway I recall as a child, I used to run miles nonstop, but even then, I would be dripping with sweat before I even started so it's gotten much worse as I've gotten older but was already there as far back as age 8. Don't ask me why an 8 year old is out running miles around the track all by himself. I had something to prove when I was young I guess. It's not as sad as it sounds, I was a pretty happy kid, I was just really competitive and I was often competing against myself because the rest of the kids were off being kids. That's my spiel for today. Leave tips for heat intolerance if you have any. Watch for my next diary entry. I intend to tell all.