To get annoyed about use of "heat stroke"

[brasty]

Heat stroke is a very serious condition. Having a headache, thirst, being very hot and sweaty does NOT mean you have heat stroke. Yes these are symptoms of heat stroke, but if you only have these symptoms you do not have heat stroke.

I actually did have heat stroke in Italy. I was very red, but no longer felt hot at all. My heart rate went way up as did my core temperature.

Heat stroke is dangerous. If you really think your kids have heat stroke, seek medical attention. But usually the term is not used to mean that. A but like cold and flu. And yes it annoys me.

It's very similar to people who 'have a migraine' yet can watch tv or use a computer/screen of any kind.

Try having a migraine where you can't speak and are terrified that you're actually dying but your face is paralysed so you can't actually tell anyone what's happening but you also can't see to write, everyone around you is panicking and making noise and lights which is making it feel like your skull is being crushed into tiny fragments. That is a migraine, not a bad headache.

(I know I'm going to get stick for that post from people that experience 'different' types of migraines etc)

There was a tv programme a couple of years ago where Levison Wood was walking the length of the Nile. One of his cameramen, young, fit and healthy collapsed and died from heat stroke within an hour or two. It's a really serious condition and needs emergency treatment in hospital.

You're right Titsalina. You are going to get stick as not all migraines are like that. I'd go so far as to say most migraines aren't like that. Mine (actual diagnosed by a doctor migraines) aren't. They last 3 days, but I can more or less function throughout. It isn't pleasant though.

Titsalina I've just noticed the quotation marks around different. They are pissing me off too.

I was in the sun for a few hours the other week on the beach in France. It was c.30 degrees and whilst I didn't get burnt it. Was. HOT.

I managed to get myself back to the hotel, had a nap, then got ready for dinner. All grand. Then walking to dinner on the seafront I started to feel achey in my back. Sat down and this wave of nausea started. Got a litre of water down me as I knew the heat had something to do with it. Picked at dinner and then walked through a fucking tropical storm which had started in the interim. Got into bed, shivering like mad. Thought I was feeling better when suddenly the runs started...let's just say there's no mystery left in DP and I's relationship.

I had thought it was heatstroke (especially after the, eh, evacuation) after reading the NHS website but now I suspect it "just" heat exhaustion. I'm pretty well travelled, been to plenty of tropical and hot places in the last few years and it really took me by surprise. Especially as I hadn't actually been out long enough to burn. DP always moans to me about water intake and now I think I'll actually have to start listening to him.

I think people can exaggerate, but TBH at the moment I'd be more worried about people who don't realise that, in Britain, you can still get hot enough to do harm. I guess I'm noticing this because I have a newborn, but the number of people I've seen out 'sunbathing' with little babies or toddles is mind-boggling. Someone we know has just ended up in hospital with her baby as she'd had him wrapped up in several layers and he was badly dehydrated and overheated.

Same with some elderly people - especially those who've got that cultural issue with seeing doctors or doing anything other than just putting up with the heat.