Heat Stroke

For those of you who know me well, you know of my struggle over the past year dealing with pre-hypertension. Unfortunately it runs in my family, and yes, at 24 years old (really beginning around 18)... I already have higher blood pressure. I've had every test run on me to see if something is wrong, only to discover that it's merely heredity. Right before I left for this trip, my cardiologist prescribed me a diuretic pill to help level out my sodium in hopes that my blood pressure would level out as well. He is adamant against not putting me on blood pressure medicine at this age. Well... God was definitely trying to get my attention to take care of myself prior to the heat and labor I will experience for the next six weeks. This morning at mass, I was praising Jesus by singing like always while we were kneeling before communion. All of a sudden, I started getting really hot and my head was extremely fuzzy. I started sweating, badly, but we were in the middle of mass and I didn't want to make a scene. I just didn't understand what was happening to me. I felt like I was having an outer body experience for a good minute or so, and stripped off my jacket. The next thing I remember is being woken up and being sat back into the pew, absolutely drenched in sweat. Apparently I passed out so peacefully (slouched over the pew like I was praying) that my teammates thought I had either fallen asleep or the Holy Spirit had come over me and I was in deep prayer. Yikes! I have learned my lesson. Taking a diuretic pill and drinking nothing but orange juice and unsweetened tea (yes, I said unsweetened... Welcome to Texas!) isn't a great idea. Thank you God for the reality check BEFORE we begin our mission work. :) We have the next two days off from work, so we actually get the chance to look around Texas a bit. A neighbor is letting us ride horses in the morning after mass, so I'm pretty excited about that! We are only 10 miles from the Oklahoma border, so we will also be driving there sometime tomorrow. :) Looking forward to a relaxing weekend before the madness begins next week.