WOW, TBN pulls through again. Heat Exhaustion.

[wroughtn_harv]

I drink a product called "Smart Water". It's from Glaceau.

I was turned on to it by a blacksmith from Houston. If anyone should know about the heat and surviving in it, trust a blacksmith from Houston.

It's distilled water with electrolytes added. I try to drink it fifty fifty with water. As much as it burns my backside to buy water I've learned to appreciate bottled water. I hate waste and have found having to empty the bottle makes me drink more water. So I drink what's cheapest most of the time. But when I'm on a job like I'm on now I buy the Smart Water and drink one of those to every one of the bottles of regular water.

I also drink V8 juice and eat bananas to help with the leg cramps.

I can recall so many times in my thirties and forties where I'd get sun sickness and I'd just slow down, but keep going. That's no longer an option for me. The work still has to get done but I try to pace myself and I am more in tune with my body. I try to find that place between sun sickness and exhaustion and keep on keeping on.

 

[dullpain]

Where do you get the "Smart Water" and how is it packaged. thanks

 

[RobertN]

At the Fire Station, in the restroom, we have a color chart. If you are going to the potty, and it is clear, you are good. A little yellow, ok, but drink a large glass of water. In stages of yellow, it tells levels of dehydration and how much liquid to drink, and if you are at a danger stage.

Here's a little info; I don't know where the chart at the station came from.

www.usatriathlon.org/images/dehydration_test.pdf

http://cms.firehouse.com/content/article/article.jsp?id=12317&sectionId=18

 

[California]

In addition to drinking water, pour lots of water on your head frequently to bring down body temperature. A large wet handkerchef around your neck helps too.

My first job after college was a framing carpenter in Sacramento's 105-110 degree brutal summer weather. Eexperienced carpenters avoid these jobs so its mostly kids on those hot radiating concrete slabs in the new subdivisions, working their brains out while some idiot foreman runs around yelling "what's the holdup?!!!".

I soon made the stake I needed and moved on, thankfully.

That heat ages you fast. Harv, I don't see how you do it.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

At the Fire Station, in the restroom, we have a color chart. If you are going to the potty, and it is clear, you are good. A little yellow, ok, but drink a large glass of water. In stages of yellow, it tells levels of dehydration and how much liquid to drink, and if you are at a danger stage.

Here's a little info; I don't know where the chart at the station came from.

www.usatriathlon.org/images/dehydration_test.pdf

http://cms.firehouse.com/content/article/article.jsp?id=12317&sectionId=18

My "favorites" list just grew by two. ;>)

Working amongst the public and the pressure to get the work done makes going to the bathroom inconvenient to impossible at times. So the color of the urine is usually really dark even on a cool day with no heat problems. I have a mobile bathroom that I use sparingly. The doors on the toolbox fold around to meet the doors on the cab of the truck. I can use an empty container for urninating in an emergency.

Some might find this crude and I apologize for mentioning it. But the alternatives are even less appealing. One has to be extremely discreete. If a child observes a man relieving himself it can be misconstrued as a sexual threat. It can also destroy plant life. And in a situation like where I'm working tearing down to drive to a restroom might involve a lot of effort and time each way.

When you consider a minimum of fifteen minutes to roll up a couple of hundred feet of welding lead and put it away on the truck or taking the chance that someone will decide the leads are scrap and need to be recycled. Today's copper prices, I shudder to think what it would cost to replace three hundred feet of leads.

Life is good. It just isn't simple.

I do know that we can get used to the heat and some of us do seem to have a higher tolerance for it.

Twenty plus years ago I was a contract cable splicer for the telcos. Yeah, a contract worker, and most of ya'll thought is was a new idea. ;>) Anyhow work had slowed down in California where I lived and there was tons of it in Texas.

This time of year, middle June, and I finished up a job in China Lake. The temps were in the single to double digits over a hundred and I had no problems. In Plano Texas I found mid nineties with high high humidities and I thought I was going to die in the heat. But I didn't have near the problems some of my co-workers from cooler climates experienced.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

In addition to drinking water, pour lots of water on your head frequently to bring down body temperature. A large wet handkerchef around your neck helps too.

My first job after college was a framing carpenter in Sacramento's 105-110 degree brutal summer weather. Eexperienced carpenters avoid these jobs so its mostly kids on those hot radiating concrete slabs in the new subdivisions, working their brains out while some idiot foreman runs around yelling "what's the holdup?!!!".

I soon made the stake I needed and moved on, thankfully.

That heat ages you fast. Harv, I don't see how you do it.

I'm addicted to working outside.

I love to make things. Most of the things I love to make involve hard work out in the weather. The rewards (all addictions involve rewards) are emotional, the high from accomplishment. They are also physical, first comes the pain, then comes the gain. So maybe to understand where I'm at look at your runner who pushes themselves beyond the point most of us won't even consider. And then add to that the craziness you see in the artist who's in their own world most of the time.

I'm not the athelete and I'm not the artist. But I do believe I'm the worst of both of those worlds.

And I wouldn't change it. It's a nice place to be.

 

[Doc_Bob]

I love to make involve hard work out in the weather.

I was sweating like a dog last night while cutting down trees. I love working outdoors.
Bob

 

[MotorSeven]

Good thread, here's my .02.............
I work outside every day. I keep a "Bubba Keg" full of ice water in the saddle bag. Sometimes i am out too long in the sun and run dry. I pay for it at nght with the dreaded calf cramps. I know better, but last time up to the property(March) i spent 5 days siding a shed alone. I ran out of water and drank soda the last 2 days...i felt sluggish and had to rest alot . Thought i had the flu, but didn't figure it out, until it hit me that i handn't taken a leak for over 24hrs....way way dehydrated!
2 weeks ago i was flipping burgers at home, and had a side "cramp". Went in, took a antacid. Before i could get back outside the pain increased so much, it felt like a sabre going thru the front and out the back of my right side. Next thing i know i am at the throne hurling and can't get out of the fetal position . Now, i think i have a high threshold for pain and absoultly hate hospitals....but...it was, "Honey, get me to the ER now.. PLEASE! Sooo, 5 hrs later(fetal position the entire time...lots of fun hurling) the Dr says, "kidney stone" ! By the time they gave me a pain shot, it was over. The Dr recommended that i "capture" the stone on the way out and have it tested which i did. My GP says that the composition leans towards not drinking enough water or the right kind of fluids. I think the little trip to the property may have added to this stone as i have never had one before and i'm pushing 50.
Y'all don't want to have one of these little buggers, trust me....drink lots of water when your working hard, even if it's not terribly hot outside!!