sick

Who likes being sick?

Don’t answer that.  I don’t want to know.

In a sense I am fortunate that I don’t get sick that often.  I have escaped the flu season without taking shots for so long that I don’t even remember my last flu vaccination.  I can weather most colds at work and soldier on without a pause in my work rhythm.

But when some malady grabs hold of me, it really knocks me down.  I get listless and dull.  I get apathetic and nothing seems to matter much.  These last few days I’ve been down with some sort of food poisoning and haven’t wanted to do a thing.  Luckily most of our clients have the “Christmas disease” and I haven’t had much to do so it hasn’t affected my work performance that much.

Earlier this Summer though I came down with something much worse.  Triggered by insect bites, poison spray, and too much stress I came down with a case of hives.  This is a severe skin allergy with no specific cause.  The skin turns a bright red like a bad sunburn and It is itchy to the point of being painful.

I went to see my regular doctor and skin doctor and got conflicting medical advice.  One said I should cut down all my activities and avoid irritating the skin by overheating or sweating, the other said go on with my life as normal.  They both prescribed immune suppressant drugs and sedatives which forced me to go with the former advice rather than the latter.

This inactivity just raised my stress as I worried about my physical state more and more as I was laid up doing nothing.

Finally after almost 2 months, the tie was broken by a third doctor.  An allergy specialist said to go on with my physical activities and prescribed heavier sedatives.  Although I was groggy I returned to my physical activities.  In time the hives subsided.

But I have to admit the damage has been done.  Before the illness I was doing 6 to 7 days a week of running or exercise.  I had a good rhythm going.  My weight goals were progressing on schedule in a predictable manner.

Since the illness I regularly miss 1 or 2 days at a time.  This causes me a lot of worry.  I have been able to arrest any weight gain resulting from my inactivity and stabilized my condition but I have to admit I’m stuck.

The holidays haven’t helped things either.  My time isn’t always my own.  When I think I am getting into my routine again I suddenly have to do some holiday related chore and exercise time has to be put on hold for “another day”.

I am hoping that with this new year I can wipe the slate clean and really refocus my efforts.  I so need to do this for myself.  Apart from the physical benefit to be gained are the mental benefits or disciplining my mind and body to a regime of actions which will benefit me in many other fields.

I’ve made too much progress now to slip.  My goals are so damn close that I can taste them and that makes this endeavor that much more important.