Dehydration is the companion of hot western days, stay hydrated is the battle cry, how do we know if we aren't.

How much water is enough?

Summer is about 1/2 way through, and what a summer it is, high heat, drought conditions, and high winds. Not only are those the perfect conditions for the starting of fires, it is also prime conditions for dehydration. It would be nice if we could actually come up with a routine for staying hydrated, unfortunately, that is not possible; we are all different. Isn't that what some Government entities do, they attempt to formulate it, you know what I'm saying. There is no safety catch all when it comes to drinking plenty of water. How do we know when we are drinking enough? How do we know when we need to drink more? One thing is certain if we wait until we are thirsty we have waited too long, it is then a task of "catching up", that's not a good place to be. Complicating matters is that it is possible to drink too much water, maybe you read the news stories about the two High School football players that recently drank too much and met an untimely end to their lives. Conversely, it is possible to drink too little and meet the identical fate, sometimes a rest and a drink of water is the best solution. I worked in the California Desert for a short while, three years to be exact, my wife and I decided to leave and return to the North. I'm not talking about the North North, the place where my wife and I were raised, I mean Northern California, West and a bit North of San Francisco. It was 126 degrees F. (52.22 C.) when we decided to leave. Flies die at 120 degrees F, prior to that all they want is water, every living creature in the desert wants it as well. Lukewarm water with the hot sun beating down creates the need for a lot of issues to be resolved, clothing, food, and rest are a few, all just to stay hydrated. What does it actually mean to be "Hydrated"?

Staying Hydrated is the theme of today's blog, a definition is clearly in order. "Stay Hydrated", has become a greeting, a farewell, and a topic of conversation in most of the places that I have lived and worked in this state. I worked outside my entire career, and ironically when I was interviewing for the position in the Desert I made an observation. Driving down the road from Palm Springs to Indio there was a lot of road work being done, the temperature was about 110 degrees, not really hot for that area. While passing the crews I turned to my wife and said, "how in the world can they stand to work in this heat?" Her reply was "I don't know, but if you accept the job you better figure it out because that's where you will be." She was correct, it never did dawn on me, before then I did not think about my working conditions. Moving from Fresno I thought I had this Hydration situation thing figured out, I soon found out that the Central Valley was triple-A baseball, the Desert is the big leagues. Let's get on with what it means to stay Hydrated.

Joshua Tree National Monument, miles, and miles of nothing
but miles and miles. Drive down this road and I bet we would
meet up with someone walking.

There are several indicators of being dehydrated it is not merely being thirsty. Waiting to drink water until we have a thirst is not the correct path to follow, there are other indicators. Noticing the stains our perspiration leaves behind is one tell-tale, the white streaks around our underarms, collar, and back is indication minerals are being leached out of our system. Our bodies are searching for water to keep us cool, in the process, it is removing the salts and minerals from us. Salt pills at one time were the proper course of action to take to assist us in retaining water, and the essential minerals we need to survive, followed with copious amounts of water was the cure-all. Well it did work, kind of, but we were still missing some things, we can't "catch up" to become Hydrated, we need to get there and stay that way. It is common not to sweat, or expel water in normal bodily functions when we are dehydrated, however, I have not on some very hot days after drinking a gallon or more. 

Our urine tells us a lot about our water needs, if it is dark yellow, we need to start drinking water; that means we are dehydrated. It is not an indication we are near death, that takes a few days, I can't imagine how thirsty a person is during that nightmare. It simply means drink water and take a break; a cool place to rest,  room temperature water, and a bit of electrolyte is the rule to cure that situation.

The proper color is straw to clear, once that is accomplished we are headed in the correct direction. Merely monitoring our bodily functions, however, is not quite enough, we should, and we can get ahead of it and it's not as difficult as it may seem. 

First thing in the morning, I have the habit of drinking a pint of water before I do anything else, I do wake up thirsty. The pint of water replenishes my body with much-needed liquids, I can tell the difference when I do not. Temperatures during the latter part of July, through the middle of September, hovering around the 100 degrees F. range, Fresno has been experiencing those temperatures for over a month, it's not a rare situation. A pint of water first thing in the morning sets me up in a good spot to deal with a day of extreme temperatures.

This Link leads to OSHA's directives on water consumption.

Companies in the Desert regions are concerned about dehydration and typically have extensive programs set up to instruct employees about the dangers and how to avoid disaster. The company I worked for had a doctor come to the plant once a month to conduct a conversation on just this subject. During one of the talks the doctor advised us on the proper use of electrolytes, there are many products available but one of the most recognizable is "Gator-aid". Replenishing our systems with the needed minerals, and electrolytes are necessary, but we do need to exercise caution. To simply drink nothing but an electrolyte is not a good idea, we need more water than mineral laden liquids. The doctors recommended to us to dilute our water in a ration of 1/4 of a pint of Gatorade to a quart of water, we will still get the required amount of minerals that we need. Electrolytes can be hazardous as well.

I worked at a facility in the Central Valley Desert, that is the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, it is almost as hot as the desert, and just as desolate. Our water was in a "bubbler", supplied with a five-gallon bottle. We had been in a prolonged stretch of heat, it seemed to be hot always there. The standard among our supplies was powdered electrolyte to mix with plain water, I thought it would be a good idea to mix an entire bottle with the stuff and let it chill in the bubbler. I did that, the first person to take a drink from it the following morning instantly vomited, I had turned the water into an undrinkable stew of nastiness, I was fortunate the man did not get seriously ill. The consensus was that the apparatus should have been completely cleaned with bleach, there were some unidentifiable "things" in the basin, I should have known better.

It all seems so innocent, just don't load it with Electrolytes.

Each of the members of the crew, while I was in the Desert, drank no less than one gallon of water every day, but that is only part of the story. The company established a rule that we could work in the heat when it exceeded 110 degrees F, for 1/2 hour then go to the air-conditioned shop for 3/4 of an hour. Sometimes we still suffered from dehydration, even though we were acclimated to the climate, knew the precautions for drinking water, and adhered to the rules of the workplace. One man I worked with was from West Texas, I worked with guy's from all over the Southwest, of all the people who would be suspect of heat stroke, he was the last one. One day we were tasked with rebuilding a huge piece of equipment, a drag claw that was about 150' long and had a huge chain running around it, 600 feet of heavy chain. Situated on a stack of wood approximately 50 feet high and hundreds of yards in diameter it was a hard job for a hot 120 degree F. summer day. After one of our breaks in the shop we climbed back up on the pile, after working for a very short time, 5 minutes, he passed out. We were all trained as first responders, confined space rescue, and how to deal with situations just like this, so we carried him off the pile. He was unconscious until we got to the shop, we had a spot for people to lay down, it was set up for this situation. We were in the middle of nowhere looking on google maps at the Salton Sea, we were five miles North, about two miles outside of Mecca, California; it took 1/2 hour for the paramedic's arrival to transport him to the hospital which was an hour away. Those distances themselves are dangerous, I knew a man in Fresno that died of a broken leg on the way to the hospital in an ambulance, it was 1/2 hour away, but I digress.

How thirsty are these firefighters?

Wildfires are heavy on my mind, as they are for most of us, and I began to wonder how in the world the firefighters stay hydrated in the 110-degree heat, towering flames, and high dry winds. From my experiences it is much more than difficult, some of them are in extremely isolated areas of mountain valleys' and steep slopes. My past challenges pale compared to what they are experiencing, as I write this in the comfort of my home. Thanks for reading and sharing my blog, and stay Hydrated.

jacquesandkate  emergencykitsplus.com