2009-08-03 - 4:36 p.m.
I feel fine now, except for a normal, little headache!

So I just got a 25 minute lecture from my dad about health on the phone. Oh yeah. This from the man who let his infected toe go unchecked for A YEAR until Saturday when my Great Aunt Dawn sent him to the Urgent Care Clinic because of a bug bite on his leg. Turns out the bug bite was massively infected because his toe infection had spread up the leg. It's probably MRSA. Genius.

He gets all bent out of shape when we nag him, but I'm supposed to listen patiently to a 25 minute lecture on electrolytes and urine color because I passed out at work today.

I know. It was so embarrassing. The day was totally normal up to that point, too! I got up, ate breakfast, drank a glass of water, put on my baseball cap and went to coach softball practice. It's about two hours in, it's hot as hell, and I'm catching balls the girls are throwing in when I notice I'm feeling a little funny. I yell to the head coach, she comes and catches for me while I get a drink. I drink probably 8 ounces out of my water bottle, making my intake for the two hours of practice about 16 ounces.

I feel a little better with the water, so I go back over and start catching again. I'm only at it for about 5 catches before the spots before my eyes are so big I can't tell where the ball is.

"Autumn! I gotta go in the dugout," I say to the head coach. "I don't know what my deal is, sorry."

So, I sit in the dugout, drink some much colder water from the cooler and put ice on my neck and face. I sit for maybe 5 minutes and the girls come in for a water break. I'm feeling better, so I get out of their way and stand right next to the dugout.

I'm talking to the student manager when I start to feel really cruddy again. The spots are back, I'm nauseated and my ears are buzzing. I excuse myself back into the dugout, trying to make it to the bench. But there are so many bodies in there I can't make it, so I just cling to the fence.

All of a sudden the big black spots condense into one giant spot that blocks out everything else. I'm clinging to the fence for dear life because I know I'm going down if I don't. I can't see a damn thing, and then I can't hear anything. All I'm aware of really are my fingers in a death grip on that chain link.

Then things slowly start to come back to me. Colors gradually seep back in and I get the feeling that the junior next to me who's saying "Uh, Coach? Are you okay?" has been saying it for a while. Then I realize that I'm crouched down on the floor of the dugout with my arms waaay above my head, fingers still strangling the fence.

"Oh! I think I just passed out for a second, but I'm fine!" I say and stand back up. I smile at everyone around me, because God, how mortifying is it to be the coach and to pass out at practice.

I convinced the kids I was just fine, but Autumn wisely had me stay in the dugout the rest of practice. I felt shitty and the ringing in my ears didn't go away for a while. It was just the weirdest feeling in the world because I honestly could not tell if my eyes were open or closed when everything went all black like that.

Before I get anymore lectures on dehydration, let me say that I don't think I was dehydrated. I think I had the opposite problem. I think I washed out all my salts and nutrients by drinking too much water the day before. From the time I got home at 3, until the time I went to bed at 10:30, I probably had about 80 ounces of water. I really didn't mean to, I was just really damn thirsty. I realized at about 9 how much liquid I'd had that day (80 + at least 20-30 at Aunt Dawn's) so I tried to eat some crackers and peanut butter to balance it out. So, it was probably just heat exhaustion brought on my my fluid/salt imbalance. Apparently, I need to eat more and drink a little less.

I drank a big sports drink and ate a hamburger right away after practice and felt better, so I'm pretty sure that was it.

Hydration is so important with my cluster headaches coming up. Water can stave them off, but only if I drink enough. What I need to find is that happy medium where I'm drinking enough, but not so much that I black out like an asshole at practice.

So, my first day back at work (really, my summer is over now) was kind of a bust. Hopefully tomorrow I won't make a fool out of myself.