Welcome to the wonderful world of sleep! I had nine hours of sleep two nights ago and nine more last night, which is why I didn’t have the extra time to blog. My body is craving sleep, and I can nap or fall asleep at the drop of a hat–or is that the drop of the head to a pillow? Either way, I am waking up refreshed and–again–feeling better. I am walking better too, though I have to make sure I don’t overdo things, which is the hazard; it feels so good to have even a little piece of freedom back that I just want to keep going. It will be an acquired skill to rein in my feelings of well-being and ration my strength. I need to keep reminding myself how I was unable to do almost anything, and then tell myself that whatever I can accomplish over that amount is a victory. One step, and one day, at a time.
I had an interesting complication yesterday that I want to talk about though, something that I need to write out so I can pull it apart piece by piece and dissect its componets. I woke up feeling great because of that second night of nine hours of sleep, and let Paul make us all steel-cut oatmeal for breakfast. We were supposed to test my reactions to the oatmeal, but in the rush to eat we all forgot to take my pulse before and after the food to see if it affects my body with a higher pulse rate. I also added pecans (too hard to chew on still-healing teeth), craisins (taste great but with added sugar), and honey (I don’t think this causes any problems, but maybe), and finally, had a small cup of decaf with honey in that. Taking a shower less than a half hour later proved that something I’d eaten had caused a problem. I’d been warned that my newly detoxifying body would react quickly to anything it didn’t like, and within half an hour I’d proved that: My right hand began to curl up like a claw (so much so I couldn’t even use a brush to blow-dry my hair), and when I tried to walk I could barely make it to the bed, my right leg dragged so bad behind me. My solution to that was to crawl back into that bed, where I promptly fell asleep for an hour. I woke up feeling better too, but it was a wake-up call concerning my new health: Don’t take it for granted, and don’t abuse it.
After my nap, I felt a lot better, and things rapidly came back to my new normal. I heeded the lesson though, and made up a grocery list for Paul to get for me, instead of me going shopping with him. That saved a tremendous amount of energy, and kept the day’s activity to a lower level. I am learning as I go here, and both of these incidents were valuable. If I don’t pay attention, I will pay a price. In the end, though, I will be the one who decides how high that price will be.