Diagnosis: Heat Exhaustion

Saturday night's race did not end the way we imagined. We imagined his last rookie race to go great and then he would be awarded not only his ribbon for competing, but also his white plate to replace his orange rookie number plate. But no. Not this Saturday.

We have coached Hunter repeatedly on drinking a lot of water and have provided him with bottles of water and replenishing drinks as well as insisting he peel out of his firesuit as soon as he is off the track.

The problem with coaching is that sometimes the coach-ee does not always apply the teaching. I was working in the gatehouse (in the air-conditioning) doing registrations yesterday so I was not on hand to enforce the rules and Scott was working on the kart and had repeated the rules but apparently, they were not applied. I think Hunter was drinking, but not enough, and he and his friends were running between from trailer to trailer and goofing off inside the trailers (although they were air-conditioned). And he was only dropping his suit down to his waist - all the boys were doing the same - and not taking it completely off.

As the first heat was ready to start in the 109* heat, Hunter told me his tummy was hurting. At this time, my Mom senses were telling me it was heat, but I also knew he had not had dinner yet, so I ran back to the truck to get a cool neck wrap for him and his poweraide drink. I cooled his neck down and he wanted to go race. He completed the first heat, but when we pulled him out of his kart, I could tell, it was not good.

He was taken to an air cooled room and then Brad, our track paramedic came in to look at him. He put ice bags under Hunter arms. The child I was listening to was not our Hunter. He was sick, tired, weak, eye hurting, just wanting to lay down, and just generally, not well. After a while, Brad advised us not to have him in the heat any more today and we might want to consider taking him to the hospital for evaluation and possibly IV fluids. After getting him back to the car and watching him for a few minutes, we did take him to the hospital in Denton.

At the hospital he was given an IV for fluids and a popcicle for a treat. After getting the fluids into his little body, he was a new kid. Our sweet little boy was back and better than ever.

Lesson learned for sure - HYDRATE 3 days before an outdoor activity, keep cool, and get that suit off!!

But the good news is: since he took the green flag for one heat, he was signed out of rookie status and has his white plate!!

Last Rookie Race?

This coming Saturday is the Summer 3 race at North Texas Kartway. It could actually be Hunter's last race as a Kid Kart rookie. Possibly.

I say possibly because NTK is a member run club dependent on the club members, family, and friends to volunteer to work each race. And from what I've seen on the forum so far, we have scoring, registration, scales, and gatehouse covered - all moms/wives positions. And as great as this is, unless the corners are covered on the track with volunteers, we don't race.

The Race Director can cancel the race if he does not have enough volunteers up to 24 hours in advance of the race - which means by 6pm tomorrow night (Friday), but may allow us all to get there on Saturday, register, then beg for volunteers - the "if you want to race, you'll get out and work" tactic.

However it has to work, I just hope and pray we can race so we can finally be rid of that orange rookie plate and Hunter can start in the position he qualifies in.

Praying. Keep you informed.