why drinking water is super duper important

Feeling faint or dizzy?..........Check.

Nausea?..........Check.

Rapid heartbeat?..........Check.

Cool, moist, pale skin?..........Check.

Weakness?..........Check.

Fatigue?..........Check.

Heat exhaustion?..........Check?

Unfortunately, I had the opportunity to experience these symptoms while buying groceries for dinner after work today. Joe had to stay a little late at work to make up time from this morning because the Civic wouldn't start for me and he had to leave work for about 3o minutes to come to my rescue.

Awwwwwwwww! :-)

Anyway, since he was planning on making up his time at work, I suggested that I'd grab a few groceries on the way home so that I could make dinner when I got home. All was fine and dandy and the grocery store was very comfortable.

Until I got to the meat section.

I had just picked up some beef for Lucy (yes, we freakin' spoil the crap out of our dog) and was about to get some chicken for our dinner when I started to feel really faint, dizzy, nauseated, weak, and REALLY sweaty and clammy. I leaned over on the shopping cart for a minute and started to feel a little better, so I grabbed the chicken, grabbed some broccoli and headed for the checkout lines.

Everything was good again, but when I was standing in the line after unloading the groceries, I started to feel really faint, dizzy, nauseated, weak, sweaty, and clammy all over again. So I grabbed a bar of chocolate and a small bottle of OJ from the cooler near the checkout line thinking maybe I just needed a little sugar in my blood or something.

After I got through checkout and unloaded the groceries, I got in the car and blasted the AC and started to feel really short of breath and had a semi-rapid heartbeat. So I took deep, calm breaths, drank my OJ, had a few pieces of the chocolate bar I bought and just sat in the cool AC for a couple minutes.

Luckily we only live like 1 mile from the grocery store, so I got home just fine and Joe grabbed the groceries and from then on I’ve just relaxed and felt extremely fatigued, weak, and exhausted.

I decided to look up my symptoms and…while maybe you could call me a hypochondriac…my symptoms fit the list for heat exhaustion almost 100% to a “T”.

Scary stuff.

Here’s the kicker, though…

I drink at least 80 ounces of water a day in addition to any other fluids I take in. And that’s a LOT!! Probably more than most people, actually. But apparently today it was not enough. It’s very likely that being pregnant leaves me more susceptible to different things. And because a pregnant lady’s body temperature is usually higher anyway, perhaps heat exhaustion is easier to come by.

But the moral of the story is that drinking water…especially in the summer…especially in an Arizonan summer…is super DUPER important. I seriously hydrate myself all day every day. But today it was no match for the heat.

So be warned, my friends.

DRINK WATER.

It may not be the most tasty of beverages…but it’s a life saver.