{"id":5328,"date":"2026-03-19T11:01:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T19:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/?p=5328"},"modified":"2026-03-19T11:01:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T19:01:21","slug":"a-stroke-of-ignorance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/?p=5328","title":{"rendered":"A stroke of ignorance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I’m writing this down just for my own remembrance later. Often if there’s a question “when did we do X, or where did we go at Y?” I can search this blog to get the answer. I assume this tool will be even more useful as I age and become more naturally forgetful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking of which: According to clickbait articles there are two major points where humans experience major aging related changes. These are roughly mid forties and then somewhere in the sixties (the latter didn’t concern me so much yet so i didn’t earmark the number). It could be purely coincidental, and may also be influenced more by a covid infection in 2024 than natural age progression, but I definitely have felt this impact in my life the last 18 months or so. I feel (and look) like I’ve aged ten years in the last two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Partially (or fully, who knows) there’s a fragility that wasn’t there before, an emptiness where a reserve of strength used to be when lifting (I mean in the gym, not groceries) and a slight trembling of my grip on everyday objects. It could be a result of what I’ll called “accelerated heredity” since I understand my father experienced (still? I don’t know) a similar sort of vibration in the appendages after his infection. The gray hairs are starting to accumulate in more visible places as well, but this is luckily only catching up to what may have naturally occurred under different circumstances anyway if you look at my salt & pepper younger brother. We were also in that rear-ender accident last summer, which was a jolt to the system and caused some inflammatory and\/or arthritic (according to the x-rays) “creaking of the joints” that probably had a few more years to hide before speaking up without that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hey, maybe I just need a miraculous phone call from our God Emperor to get a “new lease on life” like Neal Dunn<\/a>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway. So things have been changing naturally (unless Covid turns out to be a lab leak, then I suppose things are changing un<\/em>naturally), but I’ve been pushing my body in other ways to make improvements. One of those was transitioning from walking around my neighborhood to running<\/em>. If you’ll recall I stumbled at first, getting shin splints two summers ago from not doing research, not committing to properly training, and not wearing the right shoes for blacktop running. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two years later I worked up to be able to run my ~5 mile route up and down the hills five days a week. I started by only running small parts and not even doing that daily. Eventually I was able to run the whole thing a few days, and now every day. It’s still not easy, but I’m also not having an asthma attack or a heart attack either. I can feel my leg muscles are changed, more stable. Perhaps this has lowered my resting heart rate and increased lung capacity, but I wasn’t testing those beforehand (in medical tests these were both at acceptable levels already). This is a conscious effort to focus on this long neglected (“skipped leg day”) area because study after study reveals that walking ability is a leading indicator of longevity. Losing the ability to walk steadily and normally is often a leading indicator, a first snowball of an avalanche that ends in death. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Obviously at mid-forties I’m not extremely worried about breaking my leg somehow leading to my death six months later, but I wanted to put in place the conditioning now so I can keep the momentum going over the next however many decades. On my runs I do see one other neighbor that’s retired out there keeping pace (and some younger guys, but who cares about those lucky jerks?). I want to be that old guy in a few decades and I know he didn’t just start running when he was 62.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes weather patterns in Los Angeles make national news. We’ve been having an unseasonably early and historic heat wave recently. For me, the warnings on television and in text messages from the powers that be weren’t troubling. After all, if the maximum temperature is mid-90s that’s nowhere near the 118-or-so degrees my parents had to endure during a visit to my condo in the San Fernando Valley many years ago when the AC broke! Also, all this heat is a “dry heat” which always feels degrees less painful than the humid summers I grew up running around in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On my runs the heat was apparent, my pace was slower, but I didn’t feel any different other than “phew, boy it’s hot out here!” and sweating a lot. In fact, I was less exhausted than last summer when I began truly powering through the hot days. It should be noted that I have a genetic predisposition to sweating buckets when laying on the couch if the temperature crests 72 degrees Fahrenheit, so copious amounts of sweat for me isn’t a natural warning sign of anything. I sweat while working in my home office every day. I sweat when I get asked a question in a work meeting I don’t know the answer to. I wake up covered in sweat in the middle of the night if the ambient temperature stretches above the 60s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ALSO, what folks who don’t run my route don’t know is that it’s partially shaded by late afternoon due to the trees in the hills and on the long inclines there’s a rush of wind (often so strong I can barely hear the podcast in my ears) forced up from the valleys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I ignored the heat warnings for “older or vulnerable people” and I made my run on Monday. I made my run on Tuesday. The temperature was rising each day by a degree or two. What I didn’t account for is the time change that happened recently, placing my regular runs in practice an hour earlier in the day with more sun regardless of the heat wave. So what I’m not thinking about is a dramatic increase in sun exposure and temperature simultaneously in addition to difficulty cooling down after since our house is hotter now too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mom is probably nodding her head reading this “I know where this is going, stubborn just like his dad!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I ran on Wednesday. Back at the house I leaned over to take off my shoes at the front door (we’re a no-shoes-in-the-house civilized <\/em>household!) and felt a little funny. Nothing too out of sorts, but not something I normally feel when bending over to untie my shoelaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inside the house I remember being more sensitive to the temperature than normal. In our house the little hallway at the front door doesn’t get any AC and has windows that heat it up making it the hottest place in the house. Even the garage, where we store our outside shoes is several degrees cooler. I remember thinking for a moment “maybe I should stay for a minute in the garage” or something like that, which is not normal. I held onto the banister (not normal) and headed down to the main level, ensuring at least a five degree difference in temperature from where I was. However, we participate in an eco program with the city that takes control ([voluntary]socialist nightmare state!!!) of our thermostat and limits our cooling during the days to save electricity – which means even inside the house it was still over 80 degrees (not normal this time of year).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I grabbed water as I always do and sat at the kitchen table (as I never do, I normally chug water and then shower). Sam came up from her office to get a drink at the same time. The next twenty minutes are a little hazy and probably best remembered by her rather than me. I still had my earbuds in listening to Rick Ruben interview Judd Apatow. I remember feeling slightly embarrassed as the sweat was pouring out of me and I was hanging my head a bit. For a minute or two we sat there taking sips in silence. And then the podcast started to fade out and I felt very odd. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I suddenly realized this feeling was getting worse, not better, progressing to something unfamiliar and troubling. I took the earbuds off, looked at her and said “I think I’m having a heat stroke” before going to lay down on the floor in the living room. As I did so Sam leapt into action and seemingly simultaneously pointed a fan at me, put an ice pack on my head, removed my shirt, and started applying cold soaked towels to my chest. All while googling other things to do and whether to call 911.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For my part what I noticed was a strong desire to resist the urge to pass out, focusing on my breathing, which wasn’t super fast just not normal. What was more concerning, and a unique experience, was my hands and forearms began tingling. The tingle was a bit like the foot’s-asleep sensation mixed with a slight electrical flow (in elementary school we discovered a pipe that had a frayed electrical wire leaking current and being dumb kids we formed a chain and experienced the “buzz” of electricity flowing through our bodies). What was even more concerning still was the fact that my tingling buzzing hands had clamped shut into a “crab” formation and I could not move them or my wrists. I kept thinking about Bob Dole’s hand and wondering if I was having a “real” stroke (even though I know his injury wasn’t from a stroke, but that’s where my mind went in the moment). My mouth too was locked in a strange pursed duck face expression (at least that’s how it felt, not sure how it actually looked). Sam would later say that during this period all the color left my body as well and the tan from running blanched into a pale white.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a few minutes (could have been 2 or 20, not sure) of pressing the ice and Sam adding new ice water to the towels all this abated. We took my temperature and by that time it was normal. Lots of googling later the apparent episode was a pre-cursor to heat stroke, with onset delayed by the adrenaline from running and nerve confusion due to overheating. Sam made the point that to my body it had no idea I was running in 94 degrees “for fun” – but would have assumed I was getting chased by a tiger, so setting aside elevating body temperature and lack of electrolytes would help me survive. This is why when I stopped and took off my shoes it signaled to my body to drop the adrenaline and start dealing with these heat issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From what I now understand heat exhaustion can be cumulative, which is why I didn’t experience anything dramatic until day 3. Part of my dietary changes the last few years is to avoid sodium, which in this case, did not help as I was probably depleting salt levels (more than I’d already adjusted to) over the three runs via extra sweat and not adequately replenishing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My wife was quick to remind me that I’m not a young man anymore. She always tells me to bring water on these runs and I don’t. I don’t normally get thirsty on hikes or runs, though, unless they continue for several hours. This run takes around 45 minutes, so drinking a lot before and after has always got me through it just fine… until now, I guess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s Thursday, still in the 90s, so I’m not going to run. I’m not even going to go outside today. I feel a little weaker than normal, but I also didn’t sleep great. Partially due to another thing Sam did, which is create an electrolyte drink with salt, lemon, maple syrup, and some other stuff, for me to chug when I started feeling better. This was very restorative, but all those ingredients are things that typically disturb my sleep. The experience being traumatic and not having time to process it (I had to go back to work for a while after calming down from all this) probably kept me up as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ll most likely create a personal rule of not doing the run unless it’s 85 or below. Maybe I need to not run on successive days in general if electrolyte loss (and other temporary damage) is cumulative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is all ironic since my week started off investigating a totally different bodily function. I’m at the age where I have to start regularly testing for something. You all know what. Waiting to see from my doctor if I can get away with mailing it in. They already prescribed the Gav and the Sim, though…but maybe you have to take those even with the mailed-in thing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I should note that at no time during any of this was I unable to respond or started talking gibberish which is apparently an indicator that things have progressed to heat stroke. Sam says I had goosebumps and was sweating – but I was already covered in sweat and then I was having ice water applied, so who knows what was causing what there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also know that other folks (Sam) naturally experience blood pressure issues in the heat and keep a close eye on it, so I got a little taste of what she has to go through (not the paralysis, etc.) on a regular basis with anemia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’ll see if writing about this will negate health care coverage for me years later if Republicans successfully remove the pre-existing conditions clause and Palantir scrapes this up for data brokers…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I’m writing this down just for my own remembrance later. Often if there’s a question “when did we do X, or where did we go at Y?” I can search this blog to get the answer. I assume this tool will be even more useful as I age and become more naturally forgetful. Speaking of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5328"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5329,"href":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5328\/revisions\/5329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.andrewlorenzlong.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}