Today is the day I have to close my windows and doors, and turn on all three of my air conditioners. Our temperatures are up into the upper 80's, and the humidity has been 85 to 95%. This alone pushes my COPD to drive me to my inhaler, and sometimes to using oxygen. When you put the above with the sun poisoning I was diagnosed with 38 years ago, it becomes a prison sentence for me. I will be shutting my place up untill sometime in September. If I take in two hours of sun, I will spend three to four days being sick with the poison my body developes. It is much like food poisoning, but it last for days. Before this year, I have always had my sons and husband to focus on, and keep me from going stir crazy. Now I am facing the next five months by myself, and I admit it scares me. I am having a glass door installed to replace my old screen door, and I am hoping that being able to see the outside world will provide me with some relief. So I was wondering if any of you might have some suggestions as to how I might maintain some mental composure. I'll gladly recieve all and any helpful suggestions. HELP!!!!!!
Sorry, Ina. Thankfully, my situation isn't quite as severe as yours, but I have developed issues with the heat over the years, after having heat stroke years ago. I actually posted about this the other day, but it was during the period when the site was down, so the post didn't go through. I have been sick, so was dehydrated, and went out to do a few minutes of yard work, and almost passed out in the yard. Thankfully, I keep (generic) Pedialyte on hand, for these times. Is there something you can get lost in, a hobby that would take your mind off of the situation? I don't know what your home or budget look like, so it's difficult to make suggestions. I love nature, so if I owned this place, and had the money, I'd enclose my bottom porch in glass (with screens, for the cooler weather), and sit out there, with the A/C on, of course. I can often distract myself from various things with my hobbies, and this might be a good time to learn a new skill (free online classes, Youtube videos, etc), start a journal or write a book, learn a new way of cooking, such as Asian, Italian, etc. There are lots of things, and I'm sure others will have additional suggestions.
When i was reading about the healing benefits of niacin (see thread in health sub-forum), one of the things that it was supposed to help was for people who can't be in the sun due to sun-poisoning. If you read through the link that I posted, it will explain about how that works. As for the heat and humidity; I can't deal with that either. What i have to do when it gets hot and humid is to get up really early, and go outside and do the watering of the garden, and any other outside chores that i have to do, and then get back inside the house before it warms up for the day. At dusk, I can go out again and water the flowers and veggies if they need it, and maybe even sit on the front porch for a while. Even when I was growing up, and lived in north Idaho (which is a much lower humidity), I could not take the heat of the summer. I would sleep out in the yard with my friends who had a horse, too, and then we would get up before dawn, saddle up and go riding during the early morning hours, and be sure I was back home again before 10AM , when the heat of the day started getting bad. Sometimes, I can sleep in the heat of the day, since I have an air conditioner, and then be up and outside in the evenings. This is just not the same as being able to get outside during the day; but it does help. Even knowing that this is part of summer, I still look forward to summer getting here every year. My Medicare Advantage is supposed to include a membership in Silver Sneakers, which is the use of a health club in the area where you live. Ours is in association with the hospital here. Bobby and I are going to get the membership for that, and then we can also go there and swim and exercise. You might look into something like this for yourself, Ina. It would be something you could do, a place to go, and be healthy all at the same time. I want to get into the water aerobics class once we get started there. I think if you look up Silver Sneakers for your area, they would tell you about where their membership is good. If they don't have that close to you, then possibly there is a YMCA or another health club with a swimming pool that you could go to ?
The best time, here in Florida, to get things done is early in the morning. I am out walking as the sun is just starting to rise. Reaching into the 90s now and neither I or momma can't take much heat anymore. If it gets real humid, the COPD kicks in and makes it tough to do anything, like Ina said. I wish I could suggest something that would help, Ina. We spend a lot of time on our IPads and at night there's TV. Do you have neighbor friends that you could get together with a few times a week?
Thank you Yvonne and Dave. I tend to be up by 5:00 am., and I take my morning coffee out on my porch to drink as I putter around in my garden areas. My four furkids get extra love and ear scratches to start their day, so that they can help me with my chores. Because I can't seem to close my front door, (except at night), I did come up with the idea of swapping out my front wooden screen door with a clear glass storm door. It has a full glass panel surounded by a dark brown metal frame. At least that way I can see outside, and it won't seem like I'm so closed up in this cabin all alone. My young friend, Krystin, is going to help me install it this coming week. The idea of swimming is attractive, but just taking a shower makes it hard to breath. So no swimming for me. But I am looking for a square dancing group that I might be able to join. I use to enjoy dancing every day, (I was a competitive dancers for four years in my later twenties.). As far as socializing with the neighbors goes, I haven't met any that are interested. The homes around here have at least five acers, and most have over twenty or thirty, so not any people have idle time to visit. I do have meetings with the new civic club we started last fall, but that is only about every three or four weeks. So, I guess I'll just have to make my way through this summer as it passes. So my friends, if I start to sound as if I've started to get a bit stir crazy, please jump in and give me a mental shake.
Oh thank you Dave, I'll have it installed as soon as my handyman can get to it. That is just what I need, a blaring sound that will pierce my eardrums. Then I'll not have to listen to the birds, squirrels, and owls as they bother me each morning when I have my coffee. Maybe I can even make a little money by using my new alarm system to sound emergencies as they occur. PS: My brother's name is David, but most call him Dave also. He is only eleven months older than I, so the game is still afoot. Maybe that has something to do with why I like to pick on you. Does your lovely wife pick on you too?
Hi Ina! So sorry to hear that you have this problem. I wish there was someway for you to eliminate it, but I am sure that you know a lot more than me. Hopefully there will be a cure in the near future. I think I would go crazy being inside all of the time.
Hi Ina! Sorry to learn of your dilemma with the Summer heat! Below are 27 ingenious ways to stay cool this Summer! Hope you can maintain your cool! http://www.buzzfeed.com/alannaokun/ingenious-ways-to-stay-cool-this-summer#.muRZd9leqN
Sorry to hear you have a physical condition that will keep you in doors most of the summer. I would not be able to handle not being able to go out side and stand in the warmth of the sun. It sounds like it is time to find a new skill or project, do you sew, learn a new lanuage or learn to paint or even build furniture that is one of my dream, to learn to build furniture.
It's so sad to read that your body develops sun poison, but having been locked up myself not for days, weeks or months, but for a full year or so, is that today I can tell you this; there is nothing worse that having a way to see outdoors because this can make you wish go out to enjoy the exterior lively sensation, or may depress you knowing that you better not. In my case, I locked up myself by inner conviction, trying to avoid get in touch with people. I was so disappointed of society in general terms that I didn't want to give anyone a chance to cross my way. However knowing myself and the much that I like to walk nowhere but for long hours, I thought to stay in my bedroom most part of the day. My bedroom had a window looking at an inner terrace, and I was able to see the daylight and nightlight, but nothing else of the outside world, which was good for me living then with the premise of "what you can't see, can't lure you to go after it" Now, how did I survive the locking up time? By surfing the web and focusing on developing a website exclusively as a personal project; I had in mind to write a Medieval-like tale, and that was what I did and translated into the virtual reality of the web. I was so busy coding the site, looking for the graphic elements, this and that, that whenever I realized, it was time to go to bed! Of course, different reason to be locking up, and different approach to such a situation, but this way was for me then, back on the early 2000s.
Hi Ina, You can always explore your property by way of Google earth! You can roam and zoom in at your pleasure. It is really amazing. Oh, and cucumbers....eat plenty of cucumbers....nothing cooler!
@Joe Riley, I love cucumbers, and all kinds of raw veggies, if I don't eat plenty of them I end up in a pickles of the sluggish blahs. @Carlota Clemens, as things turned out, I haven't become the shut in that I was afraid of. I go outside daily in the early morning to play in my garden, and I can sit on my porch in the late evening, just as long as I stay out of the sun. My friend Krystin, introduced me to light gauze blouses and capri pants, which I can run around outside in, and if I go from one air conditioned area to my air conditioned car, I can go out and do many things. I also now have a small collection of large floppy hats.