I remember when I first made the connection between the weather and my gastrointestinal symptoms and fatigue. I was lying on my dorm room bed, nauseated and exhausted, and it suddenly hit me: this wasn’t the first time I had felt this way on a hot day. I paid attention and sure enough, a pattern formed.
Of course, the weather wasn’t my only trigger and it would more than a dozen years before I finally put together some of the pieces of my health mystery. Still, this was an excellent start.
Over the years, as my overall health worsened, my reactions to hot and humid weather got worse, too. I began to avoid spending any more time outside in the summer than absolutely necessary. I love being outside in the cold air of the fall and winter, but sadly, most folks do not unless they are doing winter sports, which I can not do. When my friends hang out outside in the summer, I can not join them. This has been incredibly hard.
Last year I noticed some improvement. My overall health has improved a lot, and my new medication last summer probably had a bigger impact than I had realized. I didn’t think too much of it until this summer. Somehow, I could be outside without immediately feeling terrible. Fantastic! Or so I thought.
One hot day, I waited until the evening to take a walk. It was still warm and humid, but not as much, and I was feeling ok. I walked farther than I had planned. It was wonderful! Then, almost halfway through my walk, that particular feeling that I know so well hit me and I knew I would need a bathroom, and fast. I turned around and headed home as fast as I could. Thankfully the symptoms weren’t too bad (on my admittedly skewed scale.) Still, that wasn’t fun.
Another day I was sitting outside, enjoying the fact that I could simply be outside. It was around 82F and the dew point was around 60. Normally I couldn’t have been out in that weather, so this was a real treat! Until it wasn’t. Until that feeling hit me again. I got to my bathroom as fast as I could and felt horrible the rest of the day.
I knew the old rules. I knew that within moments of being in the heat and humidity I would feel bad, but if I got into air conditioning quickly enough, I could avoid feeling horrible for the rest of the day. But these new rules are confusing. My body seems fine… until it suddenly isn’t, and by then it’s too late to avoid the symptoms. How long can I be outside now? 1 minute? 5 minutes? 10 minutes? And what are the new temperature and dew point cutoffs? What does my body now deem acceptable? I still check my weather app carefully, but I no longer know what will trigger my symptoms and what won’t.
The changing rules are one of the trickier challenges of living with chronic illness. This is nothing new. The rules have changed many times over the years, and every time it’s a pain in the ass to figure out the new rules. There’s no guidebook – it’s all trial and error. I don’t like it, but I have no choice.
Going outside is more important than usual this year. Typically when I get tired of my apartment, I go to the library or I walk around a store. I find visit friends. None of that is possible this year. On the other hand, at least when I feel sick, I don’t have to worry about missing out on plans outside of the house, because there aren’t any.
I am counting down to autumn, when I won’t have to worry about the temperature any more. Until then, I will be sitting at home, trying to figure out which days I can go outside without paying for it later. And feeling very grateful for my apartment’s air conditioning.
Chronic Rants 