Note: Brain fog is an issue today, grammar may suffer.

The Florida summer is finally coming upon us here on the Space Coast. The summer used to not bother me, overall I enjoy the warmth and extra sunlight, but these days the heat will easily exhaust me. Sometimes I end up dehydrated as I am terrible at maintaining hydration in the heat. Other times the heat makes me sick, triggering overbearing headaches, muscle weakness, and exhaustion. I have experienced heat sickness and dehydration periodically growing up in New England and only occasionally in my twenties living in Florida. Since the fibromyalgia became strong in my early 30s I’ve experience this heat sickness regularly.

While I was in my mid-twenties I purchased a home in an area many of my friends refer to as ‘the middle of nowhere’ in Florida’s Space Coast. Where the house is there are only a handful of other homes. Most of the lots are undeveloped with extremely tall pine trees interspersed with palms and well maintained 3 or 4 bedroom homes. It’s a nice quiet place to live, 10-15 minutes from most stores and the highway, about 30 minutes from downtown Melbourne, Fl. Having a quarter acre lot I proceeded to start adding gardens around the house and throughout the backyard. I would spend most of the day outside working on the gardens and house. Back then I could hop on my bicycle and knock out 15 miles in the middle of July, with only a rare flareup of exhaustion the next day.

When the fibro started to get strong I wasn’t able to do the physical labor of gardening, struggling to do the minimum maintenance. Many gardens died out and returned to grass, but I kept the largest most established gardens looking decent. Not only was the physical labor becoming difficult, but I was losing my heat tolerance, often becoming sick when outside. At the worst I would start to suffer heat sickness from standing outside too long. At one point I was on medication that made me highly prone to dehydration, thankfully that has since changed, but bad habits still lead me to occasional dehydration.

Hydration is super important, but I learned bad hydration habits growing up. I worked summers and most weekends helping my parents with their rental properties. While we would bring water with us, there were many times where we could only drink the water after we were done with our work. Same thing in school, you were only allowed water when they said you could drink. You learn to ignore the thirst, instead relying on the watch to tell you when you can hydrate, it is a very bad habit and hard to break.

Earlier this past week I was up on the roof trying to patch my skylights, I’m fairly sure the one above my kitchen is the reason for the bad roof leak(s). For the first half hour I was fine, but towards the end of the job the heat started to get to me, I was overheating badly. I was able to finish the work, get off the roof, grab a gatorade and lay down with the ice pack to help me cool off. I recovered from that by the next morning.

Come Sunday afternoon and a friend is borrowing my garage to do an oil change. I decide to work on the bus for the hour or so we’re outside. I go in and out of the afternoon sun many times, each time leaving me feeling a bit warmer than the last. Eventually I’m moving bus parts around and realize that I can no longer lift a door. Just minutes earlier I was able to lift the door without struggle, but now my leg muscles are starting to hurt as is my head. I struggle to put my work away, my friends are finishing their work. That’s when the dizziness starts to hit, I excuse myself and go inside to lay down with an ice pack. I made one big mistake that afternoon, I drank very little water or other hydrating beverages. Usually I’ll bounce back once i rehydrate.

I felt terrible for hours and even though I was rehydrating, my muscles were aching. I figured that I needed sleep and would be okay the next day. I’ve spent quite a few hot days outside working in the sun and heat, sometimes I’m fine, sometimes I get sick. I can be stuck in traffic in a car with weak AC and overheat, triggering a flareup. I can spend the entire day working on the yard and be fine, then the next week I will barely last two hours. Sometimes the fibro feels like rolling dice, you never know what you’re going to get on your next throw.

I woke up this morning feeling worse than when I went to bed, woke in a full fibro flareup. This is not normal for me, it may be the most severe reaction to overheating I’ve experienced, but nothing about living with fibro is normal. It was hard to move this morning, random pain sometimes triggered by movement, muscle weakness returned along with lots of stiffness. My wrists and hands ache, are stiff, and feel inflamed. My shoulders, arms, and legs are in a lot of pain. To add to it, I’m highly foggy, I lose track of what I’m typing easily and forget words. Luckily bad brain fog like this is rare and should be gone by tomorrow. I ended up having to take the day off from work so that I can recover. My day will be full of turmeric and ice packs, along with gentle yoga and stretches for the achy muscles.