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Mind, body, health.
Jul. 25th, 2009 10:06 amSo, as my Twitter mentioned, I was feeling a bit feverish the other day. I woke up yesterday morning feeling worn down and with the sort of sweaty chills that are rarely, if ever a good sign, and decided that if I wasn't feeling better by the afternoon I'd go to the doctor.
I wasn't feeling better by the afternoon.
The general diagnosis was that I just plain wasn't taking care of myself. Too much stress, not enough rest, not remembering to eat during the day... as I've said, I have reminders in my phone calendar for things like that, but since my phone frequently holds its charge all week I also frequently forget to charge it all*.
I did... and possibly do still have... a low-grade fever and a possible throat infection that need to have an eye kept on them, but the doctor... who knows I'm not a big fan of jumping to medication as a solution and also that I don't have drug insurance... advised that I'd probably be able to shake it off myself if I don't weaken my immune system. If I don't get better, I'll have to go back and there will probably be medicine involved, which will be a grade-A suck, financially... but it beats the alternative.
I'm inclined to agree, especially considering that looking back at how I've felt over the week, it seems like I might have gone through the worst of it without registering that I was sick: headachy, ill-tempered, slightly irrational, and very hot. I spent most of the preceding week In The Company of Smokers and also doing a lot more talking in silly voices than normal, so I guess I'd stopped thinking about how my throat felt. But that was all over last Saturday morning.
So, anyway, I came home and after some introspection, I improved my system of reminders for things like "eat lunch" and "stop drinking caffeine". I also blocked myself from a laundry list of websites that only cause me stress... and a few that are simply stress-free time wasters. I'm also working to identify the vicious cycles of stress I get myself into... where I refrain from something relaxing, like reading a bit or taking a bath or putting on ambient music, because I think "I have to get this stuff done", but the "stuff" I do is easier to do when relaxed and I get more stressed...
I've probably blown more deadlines by not stopping to take care of myself than the opposite.
Anyway, I'm not feeling awesome this morning, physically. Part of that might be that I was up in the middle of the night, after having obeyed doctors' orders to "get some rest" in the afternoon. I made a point of turning my mind towards relaxing and enjoyable things instead of finding something to get worked up over or stressing the fact that I couldn't sleep. You can see the results on my gaming site. Yes, nerdery relaxes me.
Given that, at the age of 29, I'm officially "pushing thirty", it's probably a good thing that the "you stress out too much and don't take care of yourself" wake-up call was nothing worse than a throat infection.
*Side note: I've just realized it's still dead. I should probably go put it on the charger now while it's on my mind. Done.
Side note 2: I'm thinking about canceling my phone's service and just using it for a PDA (which will make the charge last even longer), and using Skype for my phone needs. I use its data functions when I'm out and about a lot more than I use its phone one, and now that I've got a netbook it's approaching redundancy. Sure, the cell phone would be useful for travel, but knocking an unnecessary expense out of my budget will make it more likely I'll be traveling sooner.
I wasn't feeling better by the afternoon.
The general diagnosis was that I just plain wasn't taking care of myself. Too much stress, not enough rest, not remembering to eat during the day... as I've said, I have reminders in my phone calendar for things like that, but since my phone frequently holds its charge all week I also frequently forget to charge it all*.
I did... and possibly do still have... a low-grade fever and a possible throat infection that need to have an eye kept on them, but the doctor... who knows I'm not a big fan of jumping to medication as a solution and also that I don't have drug insurance... advised that I'd probably be able to shake it off myself if I don't weaken my immune system. If I don't get better, I'll have to go back and there will probably be medicine involved, which will be a grade-A suck, financially... but it beats the alternative.
I'm inclined to agree, especially considering that looking back at how I've felt over the week, it seems like I might have gone through the worst of it without registering that I was sick: headachy, ill-tempered, slightly irrational, and very hot. I spent most of the preceding week In The Company of Smokers and also doing a lot more talking in silly voices than normal, so I guess I'd stopped thinking about how my throat felt. But that was all over last Saturday morning.
So, anyway, I came home and after some introspection, I improved my system of reminders for things like "eat lunch" and "stop drinking caffeine". I also blocked myself from a laundry list of websites that only cause me stress... and a few that are simply stress-free time wasters. I'm also working to identify the vicious cycles of stress I get myself into... where I refrain from something relaxing, like reading a bit or taking a bath or putting on ambient music, because I think "I have to get this stuff done", but the "stuff" I do is easier to do when relaxed and I get more stressed...
I've probably blown more deadlines by not stopping to take care of myself than the opposite.
Anyway, I'm not feeling awesome this morning, physically. Part of that might be that I was up in the middle of the night, after having obeyed doctors' orders to "get some rest" in the afternoon. I made a point of turning my mind towards relaxing and enjoyable things instead of finding something to get worked up over or stressing the fact that I couldn't sleep. You can see the results on my gaming site. Yes, nerdery relaxes me.
Given that, at the age of 29, I'm officially "pushing thirty", it's probably a good thing that the "you stress out too much and don't take care of yourself" wake-up call was nothing worse than a throat infection.
*Side note: I've just realized it's still dead. I should probably go put it on the charger now while it's on my mind. Done.
Side note 2: I'm thinking about canceling my phone's service and just using it for a PDA (which will make the charge last even longer), and using Skype for my phone needs. I use its data functions when I'm out and about a lot more than I use its phone one, and now that I've got a netbook it's approaching redundancy. Sure, the cell phone would be useful for travel, but knocking an unnecessary expense out of my budget will make it more likely I'll be traveling sooner.