If you follow me on Twinkle, you know I had a scary experience this weekend. After recovery and research, I figured out what happened, and while it relieved some stress, the conclusion was itself a bit scary. Let me start at the beginning. My wife, a woman of ineffable and inexplicable tastes, loves horse racing. Sunday was the last operating day for Bay Meadows, the longest running, most innovating race track in the country. We had to go. The first thing we did was look for food. We ducked into a very full bar with a steam table. As I waited in line, I began to feel very hot. I mumbled something to my wife and ran out of the building, pouring buckets of sweat. Then I ran right back in, made a bee-line for the restroom, and lost my proverbial lunch. I spent the next half hour feeling extremely dizzy and somewhat disoriented. Suspecting heat illness, I sat in the shade, sipping a bottle of Gatorade and letting my drenched clothing dry. My recovery was slow, but complete. This was a relief, but seemed too fast to be attributable to heat exhaustion, food poisoning, or any other explanation. So what happened? The key element was the steam table. The humidity made it impossible for my sweat to evaporate, which caused my body to began overheating. This triggered the profuse perspiration, but caused a new problem — acute dehydration. As counter-intuitive as it may sound, sudden dehydration causes vomiting. All this led to a drop in blood pressure, which led to the dizziness. So that all makes sense, but it begs the question. As far as I know, normal, healthy people do not have their systems thrown into chaos by standing in line for a steam table. This is why this diagnosis is scary — it illustrates how to close the red line I’m running. Everything has a certain narrow tolerance range in which it operates. The human body is no exception. I know I live a very active, stressful life, but I assumed I was still well with my operating range. Now I realize I’m driving at redline, with a metabolic rate so high, a core temperature so hot, and a hydration level so low, it takes little more than a bit of humidity to push me into the red and cause serious problems. I’d been operating under the assumption I always had the option of pushing myself harder, running hotter, and living faster. Now I know I’ve reached my limit, and I find that frustrating.  Addenda  Ash
The red gatorade is less effective than the yellow, you ought to have opted for yellow. Brad
37signals has something to say about pushing yourself for work's sake: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1006-sleep-deprivation-is-not-a-badge-of-honor Random Lemur
I'm sorry to hear that, Mike.

Your haven't reached your limit, not even close. Its like a car. Your body needs maintenance but you never change the oil. Treat it like another project, it's no rental. Random Lemur
Not so tough after all. Mike Lee
And yet, here I stand. Geoffrey Wiseman
Indeed; I had what they called a 'vasovagal/positional' circulatory event while standing in line in the bank after coming in from the cold wearing a thick jacket. Basically, being hot causes the blood vessels to dilate, and standing up causes the blood to pool in your feet, and the combination of the two results in low blood pressure, so your heart races, and you feel dizzy.

Which is reasonable, I guess, but like you, I don't think people normally have that reaction to standing in line at the bank while wearing a jacket, so it makes me feel like I'm running close to the red-line as well. Nathaniel
You're Human. There seems to be something funny about software engineers that we allow ourselves to become so subsumed by our work that we can ignore the maintenance of our own bodies. I too did it before my fianceée managed to jolt me into a healthier lifestyle. Take care of yourself! A damaged hard drive can be replaced. An organ; not so easy. Chi-chi Ekweozor
You write well.

I particularly like the quirky pre-comment quiz.

Take care of yourself.http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1006-sleep-deprivation-is-not-a-badge-of-honorshapeimage_1_link_0
Everything has a certain narrow tolerance range in which it operates. Now I realize I’m driving at redline. Photo credit: simnanauto.com
Monday, August 18, 2008
Operating Range