Too Hot to Handle

I took my grandsons, Antonio and Jordon, to the King William Fair yesterday. It's a huge street fair and
is part of the Fiesta events. It's filled with vendors selling awesome stuff and there's lots of food: Foot-long corn dogs, gorditas, brisket tacos, corn on the cob, dorito pies, turkey legs, sausage on a stick, quesadillas, funnel cakes, and so much more.

We got there about 11:00 A.M. (missed the parody parade) and walked around for a while, searching for the Kid's Kingdom. While we were walking around, we got hungry. I told Antonio and Jordan they could have whatever they wanted so of course they chose the foot-long corn dogs (I knew they would). These things are huge.
(I didn't take my camera so I don't have pictures, sorry!) I had a gordita piled high with pico de gallo.

After we walked around for a while longer, finally gaining sight of the Kid's Kingdom (yay!), we decided to have a funnel cake and it was really good! Worth every penny of the $5.00. (It probably cost the food vendor about 23 cents to make.)

We'd been walking around in the heat (90 degrees) and humidity for a couple of hours and finally arrived at Kid's Kingdom. I bought $40 worth of tickets for the kid's rides and games, and we're walking over to the climbing wall and the bungi jump when I started to feel really dizzy. Next thing I knew I was on the ground and a dog was licking my face. (Dogs love me and I think this dog helped me to wake up.)

It happened so fast; I had no warning. Just felt really, really dizzy, then passed out from the heat. I think some really nice people must have caught me and laid me gently on the ground. When I opened my eyes (I don't think I was out very long), there was a really nice, very cute, guy asking me if I was okay. He said he was a physician and would stay with me until I felt better. He asked me a couple of questions, wanting to know if I had diabetes, when did I eat last, was I on any medications, and could I sit up. I remember thinking that he was really nice and wondered if I could set him up with my daughter (she's divorced).

I still felt too dizzy to sit up, so I just laid there on the ground looking up at all the people who were looking at me laying on the ground (so embarrassing!). The doctor and some other really nice people helped me stand up, then walked me to the first aid station where they gave me ice to put on my neck and a bottle of water.

I just want to say a big THANK YOU to all the people who helped me. Don't know if they'll ever read this blog, but there are really nice people out there who helped me and stayed with me until I
felt better and I'm very grateful.

After about a half hour of cooling down, I decided that since my original intent was to have a really good time with my grandsons,
I wasn't going to let a little thing like heat exhaustion ruin our
good time at the fair. Besides, I had just spent $40 on tickets
and wanted the boys to enjoy the rides and games.

Heat exhaustion can happen to anyone, at any time. It is NOT a little thing; it can turn serious and deadly if you don't take care of yourself (or have someone else take care of you) right away. If you're going to be out walking around in the heat, check out this article on Heat Stress and Heat-Related Illness.

After we finished our fun at the fair, I called my daughter and she came to get us. When I got home, I turned the air conditioning way down to about 50 degrees, took a cool shower, and just relaxed for the rest of the day. I got a good night's sleep last night, but today,
I still feel hot and somewhat dizzy, so I'm going to stay cool today and have a relaxing Sunday at home.

Heat exhaustion can happen to anyone. I'm not that young (pushing 60), but I'm really healthy, and I had already guzzled two bottles of water, so I had kept myself hydrated, but I still passed out from the heat. It gets really hot and very humid in San Antonio (and in lots of other places), so please take care of yourself. Summer is coming and heat exhaustion can affect anyone.