4:30 AM Saturday morning. I awake and roll over to try to go back to sleep. It feels like I take the roll at just hair slower than the speed of sound. Then I notice the nausea. Sitting up (again, feeling like I sat up 20x faster than I’m sure I actually did and certainly 20x faster than I intended to), I noticed another neat trick. The room was spinning. Seriously, spinning and spinning fast. I’ve felt this way a few times before, but those times were in college and only after consuming large quantities of adult beverages, and I the last time I had even a single drink was many weeks ago. Getting up to get a glass of water, I was so off balance that I was having trouble walking, in fact I began to fall at least twice between the bedroom and the kitchen and had to catch and steady myself on the wall or table. Good thing we don’t have stairs in the new place! I had a glass of water and tried to go back to bed, but the damn room wouldn’t stop spinning, so I went out on front porch to get some fresh air. We haven’t got any furniture for the front porch yet (I’m thinking a little bistro set, once we’re past the initial financial stress of the move), and so I literally laid down directly on the porch in nothing but a pair of sweat shorts I’d thrown on (disoriented though I was, I figured I ought to put something on before going outside on the off chance that any of the neighbors were up at 5 in the morning on a Saturday). Eventually, things kinda slowed their spinning enough that I was able to get to bed and actually get to sleep, though things still weren’t right and body knew it so it woke me up regularly with nightmares.

Once I got up for the day, I was still nauseous, and slightly dizzy, but much less dizzy that the night before. I didn’t know what was wrong, but after I’d had a bowl of cereal, a glass of water, and taken a shower, I was feeling better (still slightly nauseous but no longer dizzy), so TheBoyfriend™ and I went to Home Depot to get some plants for the garden he’d made the day before. Standing out in the sun was a bad idea. By the time we left Home Depot I was once again having trouble walking in a straight line and the nausea was back in a big way. We stopped and got some food on the way home, but I couldn’t eat it. I put it in the fridge for later and, taking my drink with me, went to sit down, watch tv, and more or less feel sorry for myself. About an hour later I was feeling better and was able to eat. From that point on, still not realizing I was dehydrated, I began drinking a bit more water. By the time I got in bed that night, I was doing pretty good and went to sleep easily.

So far today, I’ve been pretty good (and have been keeping a glass of water in my hand all the time). I’m assuming yesterday’s episode was just dehydration as it fits the symptoms and once I really thought about it, the symptoms would ease each time I had something to drink. Take my advice, water is more important than you know. I have not felt as bad as I did yesterday in a long long time, and I plan to never let myself get dehydrated again.