Heatwave Preparation With Chronic Illness
Some people love summer.
I’m not ‘some people’.
Chronically ill and wheelchair-dependent, I dread it. And with climate change causing more frequent and more intense heatwaves, the dread grows just a little stronger each year.
It’s early July, and we’ve already had two heatwaves here in the Netherlands, with June’s severe weather being caused by a heat dome.
‘In the Netherlands, the Dutch national meteorological service, KNMI, issued an unprecedented Red Alert for extreme heat for eight provinces for 26 June, and reported a number of new station records, and a new national June temperature record of 39.4 °C.’
~ World Meteorological Organization
Now, I’m not the kind of person to panic, but this calls for some serious planning, because the weather forecasts are already hinting at the possibility of yet another heatwave soon.
Chronic Illness and Heat Intolerance
When my brain is melting and sleepless nights turn me into a sluggish wreck, I stop taking care of myself.
These are the days when I can’t be arsed to change out of my PJ’s, and even combing my hair becomes an almost insurmountable task. Preparing food?
What food? It’s just not happening, and I’m honestly lucky if I manage to eat a few corn thins for breakfast, and maybe some yoghurt and muesli for supper.
Because everything takes too much effort.
Not exactly ideal. Eating is not optional. Even during heat waves.
Stocking Up for a Heatwave
The question then, becomes: how do I feed myself? And to be honest, I haven’t a clue as to what will work, so this is going to be a trial-and-error kind of situation. I’m sure I’ll be making plenty of mistakes, but I’ll treat those as learning experiences rather than failures.
Keeping in mind that I’ll want to spend as little time as possible in the kitchen, I’m going to need to stock up on fast, easy food that I can eat cold.
These are some of the items on my Heat Plan Shopping List:
- Corn thins (lots of them, because I’ll be going through them like crazy)
- Peanut butter
- Hummus
- Falafel
- Gluten-free Oreo-style biscuits
- Yoghurt
- Soy milk
- Fancy squash (because hydration is vital)
- Frozen fruit
- Cucumber
- Cherry tomatoes
- Pickles
- Nuts, raisins, and cranberries
Meal Prep for a Heatwave
Heat wave meal prep is different from ordinary Spoonie meal prep—yet similar. As a chronically ill Spoonie I need to work smarter. Not harder.
Cold-assemble meals, grab-and-go meals… those are the meals I’ll be most likely to eat. So I need to plan and prep for those.
- Prep individual smoothie packs: individual portions of fruit in the freezer. Oats, nuts, and other dry ingredients in individual containers in the pantry.
- Trail mix: equal quantities of cashews, almonds, walnuts, roasted chickpeas, and raisins and cranberries.
- During the first days of a heatwave, I might be lucky enough to have one or two cucumbers and some cherry tomatoes. Make a quick garlic-yoghurt dressing, fry some falafel, and Bob’s your uncle.
- After that, I might be able to make pasta salad for supper: Use my thermos hack to cook pasta, add garden peas, sweetcorn, pickles, and tinned chickpeas, and finish with a quick garlic-yoghurt dressing.
- And let’s not forget about the meals I still have waiting in the freezer: the slow cooker ratatouille, the lentil soup, and the homemade bread machine bread.
- Or I could prep up to three days’ worth of healthy lunch boxes and store them in the fridge.
- And maybe, if I’m feeling ambitious, I might even make a large batch of potato salad using fridge leftovers.
- Also, I think I might want to take another close look at my 10+ Gluten-Free Vegan Breakfast Ideas, and pick a few of those. That might just make my life a lot easier.
Cooling the Flat in a Heatwave
In my post Summer in my Wheelchair Accessible Flat I already showed you what I do to keep my home as cool as possible without air conditioning. But with yet another heatwave looming on the horizon, I’ve been rethinking my strategy.
Is this really all I can do? Or are there more ways to keep the heat from entering my home?
In my previous flat, I hung shade sails in front of the windows. Worked like a charm. However, in my current flat, with its uPVC window frames and both housing association and homeowners’ association regulations to contend with, something as simple as screwing hooks into the outside wall is no longer simple.
Then, I saw a YouTube video of a guy placing flattened Amazon boxes in front of his windows, and that triggered the idea: what if I bought a few car sunscreens, cut them to size, duct taped them to a piece of cardboard, and placed them in front of my smaller windows?
So that’s what I did. It might not be an ideal solution, but even if it shaves just half a degree off the interior temperature, I’ll take it.
Of course, ideally, I’d install roller shutters, but those are expensive (and I’d need to apply for permission first), so that’s not happening this year.
Preparing for Hotter Summers
Roller shutters or not, one thing’s for sure: our summers are getting hotter. And longer. As a chronically ill and wheelchair-dependent person, I can no longer afford to roll into summer unprepared. And preparations for next summer start now. Not next year.
This summer, I’ll find out what works and what doesn’t in my current set-up, and from there I’ll decide how to prepare for next summer.
Frequently Asked Questions About Heatwave Preparation With Chronic Illness
I stock up on easy, cold foods, prepare smoothie packs in advance, keep plenty of drinks on hand, and try to minimise cooking. Around the house, I aim to keep the heat out rather than trying to cool it down when the heat has already entered.
Heat can worsen symptoms such as fatigue, pain, brain fog, dizziness, and sleeping difficulties. Some medications can also impact the body’s temperature regulation. All of this can make it more difficult for people with chronic illnesses to cope during hot weather.
I keep curtains closed during the hottest part of the day, lower sun screens and awnings, only open windows when it’s cooler outside than in, and avoid using heat-generating appliances like the oven.
Foods that require little or no preparation, such as yoghurt, smoothies, trail mix, corn thins, hummus, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, and cold pasta salads. The easier they are to grab and eat, the more likely I am to eat them.
A heat dome is an area of high pressure that traps hot air near the ground, causing temperatures to remain unusually high for days or even weeks.
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