As California Burns

I work construction and it has been pretty hot out lately. I've been working in the sun mostly. I usually drink lots of water. Last week I drank plenty of water, but I was not sleeping nearly as much as I normally do. Last Thursday I felt feverish at work, but when I got home I didn't have a high temperature. Went to work Friday and within two hours had the same symptoms but far worse, this time with an incredibly intense headache, nausea, and weakness. I literally felt like I was dying or something, and I started having severe muscle cramps in my entire neck and shoulders. Came home after work and cooled off, my temp was 102+. Took medicine thinking I was sick, went to bed.

Saturday morning, my temp was 100+. I went to a walk-in and the doctor told me I had a heatstroke. They quick-tested my blood and urine while I was at the doctor's office, took about an hour. They said both came back ok. Gave me a shot for the pain and told me to keep taking ibuprofen.

Sunday: I still had intense headache that wasn't letting up, and my neck and shoulders were still incredibly stiff. Upper neck muscles in a bit of pain. Still nauseous. Called my boss, told him I was taking a couple days off to recuperate before jumping back into the heat, sun, and work.

It's Monday now. I'm still having the same intense headache, muscle cramps, and nausea. Why are they not going away? What can I do to feel better so I can go back to work Wednesday? I need to be ready for it as much as possible.

I started a concrete/construction job late last year. I have been told that I can deduct certain things off my taxes if I save the receipts, for example tools, gloves, boots, safety wear, etc., things that my employer does not provide but that I need to perform my job. Tools especially, there isn't enough spare stuff to go around. Is this true? Are there stipulations? Details I should be made aware of?

I have also heard that driving my vehicle to job sites can also be deducted. This happens often, as there just aren't enough work trucks to go around, and meeting at the job site is often much more efficient than everyone meeting at our office and then heading out from there. Do I have to save gasoline receipts, or log mileage, or both?

If I were to file this on my 2014 taxes next tax-season, will my employer be notified? If so, will he lose money if I file these types of things? Does he have to verify this stuff to fed/state? How does that work?

I'm new to this, so any help at all would be great. I spend a lot of money in this line of work and would like to save as much money as possible in the long run, especially because I have no dependents.

To sum it up, I work nights at a distribution facility. I drive around on a pallet jack and put together huge orders of heavy liquid products. It is very, very fast paced and incredibly labor intensive. I get a lot of overtime. I've already lost a lot of weight after a month or so of it, at least 15 pounds. That's a lot for me. But I am concerned about losing muscle mass along with my weight. I would also like to increase my strength so that my job is easier to do and not as intense.

Question: What can I do to simultaneously increase muscle mass and strength while working my full-time intensely physical job (i.e. diet, supplements, etc)? Is working the job enough? I am worried that it's not.

Basically, I got laid off for lack of work in July, and my last day of actual work was July 3rd. My first day of being laid off was July 5th. I was very confident in my ability to find another job. In order to avoid having to draw unemployment in case I found another job, I used what little savings I had to pay my bills. I scraped by, but was careful and made it last. But it has been three months now and I am becoming steadily behind on my bills!! I filed for Unemployment on September 28th, and also applied to have my claim backdated to receive my Unemployment from when I was initially and legitimately off of work. They asked why this was, and I told them the honest truth: I was initially avoiding having to take Unemployment if I didn't have to, because why would I take this money if I could find a job in a short time, therefore skipping the necessity to draw in the first place? I didn't want to use the State's resources if I didn't have to.

Today, I got a letter in the mail stating that "Backdating of this claim is denied under the provision of Kansas Administrative Regulation 50-3-4. Ineligibility begins 07-01-2012 and ends 9-22-2012. Findings: Claimant established a claim. Claimant requested that the claim begin prior to the effective date. THE CLAIMANT HAS NOT ESTABLISHED GOOD CAUSE FOR LATE FILING OF THIS CLAIM." I only have a small window of time to send an appeal back to the Department of Labor for the backdating.

So what is "good cause"? Why was my honest answer to them not considered "good cause" for backdating? Will sending an appeal re-stating that I was initially trying to avoid drawing Unemployment in the first place solve this problem? What should I do?