doctor fails to prepare for hottest day of year: pays for it

Yesterday my wife and I drove to north Gwent to enjoy a ten kilometre walk around the famous Skenfrith castle, including a 135 metre ascent up the hills behind that ancient bastion of Norman power.

We started at 10.30 am, and all went well for the first half of the walk. We even enjoyed our lunch of tuna rolls and cup of tomato soup. I had taken 500 mls of water with me, which I had completed by then. On the ascent, which was in two parts, I noticed I was having more difficulty than usual, even given my at best average levels of fitness and parlous lungs from a lifetime of smoking. After about 50 metres of climbing I called a halt and at this point I developed a migraine- the first time this has ever happened to me on a walk of any kind. The usual backwards "C" shape appeared before my eyes, made of spiky lines of yellow, black and white. I wondered how I could continue, but a ten minute break giving me the chance to have a fag and take on a little more water, plus the fact that my wife told me that the last time she had a migraine on a walk she simply kept going, impelled me to my feet once more. I pressed on up the hill, and thankfully the migraine phenomena began to subside as I continued clambering. At the top of the climb I fell back into a supine position, where my photographed me in my extremis: distressed, panting like someone having a panic attack, ashen-faced, utterly spent. She kindly informs me she will not be posting the pictures on her facebook page.

The rest of the walk was a gradual downhill progress, which fortunately I negotiated without any further difficulty.

Upon arriving home I fell upon the cold water tap and filled a pint mug to its brim, draining its contents in a speed a yard-of-ale exponent might have envied. A second pint went the same way. It was not until half way through the third pint I began to feel fully restored. Later we discovered we had been walking in temperatures of 31 degrees- the hottest day for the last seven years in these parts, and it now became clear I had taken insufficient water with me to ward off dehydration, unlike my wife, who had taken twice as much. This is the sort of thing I often did in my childhood and adolescence, playing golf or tennis all day without drinking, only to wonder why I was afflicted with a blinding headache by the end of the day. But in those days dehydration was not properly understood even by quite sophisticated people. These days there should be no excuse whatever for this act of gross stupidity- and I'm holding my hands up to it. Never again...