October 6, 2005

• A Few Words About that Damned Disease

  
  

  SuSu has posted often, and movingly, about her challenges dealing with myalgic encephalomyelopathy/chronic fatigue immunodysfunction syndrome–aka fibro, aka that “damned disease.”  Well, it’s my turn.  I have the same thing only not so severely, and it has been a great blessing–otherwise, I would  have no sympathy for her.  Evidently, when God was handing out sympathy and empathy, I had gone out for a beer.  Usually, it is no problem, except for the odd late-night excruciating muscle spasms, the rare brain-fog, or the driving alone late night blurred vision thing.  Today, I have the cfis thing going in a big way.

  
  

  Yesterday was real busy–I had a dental appointment, which meant driving 150 miles or so to the clinic and back.  In the process I delivered a bunch of food and stuff to SuSu and son, picked up a bunch of stuff–including my winter tires, which meant I had to take a whole bunch of my merchandise out of the back of the car to make room for them.  On the way home, I dropped off some books for her at the local library, then went way out of my way to get a Water-pik, recommended by the hygienist.  I got home after seven, tired and wired.  Finally went down well after one–after dealing with a bunch of mail and whlesale catalogs and cats–got up early this morning to go into town to get the winter tires put on, so I could put the stuff back in the car.

  
  

  Thing is, with this disease, you really should get as much rest and sleep as you can, and I tend to sleep fitfully and wake up six or eight times a night anyway.  So today, I am running on two or three fewer hours of sleep than usual, and boy, do I feel it.  Like old Bilbo Baggins, after running around forever with the Ring, I feel “thin and stretched.”  Slightly feverish, a tad out of it. Excess lactic acid burning in my legs.  I used to feel this way regularly, after a night of hard drinking and drugging and poor nutrition generally.  Now that I am living a saner, less self-destructive life, I usually feel okay physically.

  
  

  Luckily, I am pretty much done with everything I have to do today.  I may open my stand when I get home, I dunno, the weather looks iffy and I have a lot of muscle aches, and the idea of putting all four of my folding tables back into the car has scant appeal.  I HAVE to open up tomorrow, weather permitting, since I had made a commitment to do so. 

  
  

  This integrity thing is sorta new to me–I like it.

  
  

  Saturday and Sunday I will be working a gun show in Eagle River–anything unusual happens, you will read about it here next week.  Luckily, business was negligible last year, so there is nothing to live up to, and I am learning not to have expectations anyway.

  • 5:28 pm
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