HOW MANY
ACTIVITY POINTS DO I GET FOR COUGHING?
10 October 2002
I'm feeling out of shape. No kidding. It's been a week since I rode
either bike, it's been a week since I went to the club, I was eating "normally"
for a couple of days (with a few more "normal" days coming up), I gained weight.
The problem is total lack of incentive, energy, desire, or anything
else. When you feel like shit, it's difficult to convince your body that getting up and moving
is just a really gee whiz FUN thing to think about doing. It's also hard to convince your
body that broccoli is a comfort food.
All I can say is it's a damn good thing for Dr. G that I'm
conscientious. Around 4 a.m. this morning, as I was leaning my head on the monitor,
coughing, and wrapping up in a blanket because I was so chilled, I decided that I must be
out of my mind.
(comments not invited here, and this means YOU, bionic one!)
I worked all day yesterday and was going to come home and catch up
on transcription, but Walt had brought the bios home from the theatre to be typed for the
upcoming production of Candide, which opens in two days. So instead of doing
work-typing, I did volunteer-typing, thinking I'd do work-typing when I finished, but by
the time I finished, I really had hit the wall and just wanted to sleep.
I set the alarm for 4 hours and climbed under a blanket and was
asleep in seconds.
I actually woke up before the alarm went off--it was the coughing
that woke me up. I seem to have a voice again, but the cough has moved deep into my chest,
as coughs always do for me, and at the same time, all of my precious bodily fluids have
decided to leak out my nostrils.
I must make a lovely picture, wrapped up in an oversized jacket
(which used to be too small), hunched over a hot computer keyboard, a mountain of used
Kleenex in front of me, and trying to get through another coughing spasm. At 3:30, I
called Cindy to let her know that I would not be biking today either. (It's nice that I
can call her office at 3 a.m. and know that she'll be there working!)
I'm trying to find a plus in all of this (you know me--Ms.
Pollyanna. Look on the bright side). As another coughing spasm wracks my body, I feel my
stomach muscles tighten and the rest of my body go into automatic Kegels.
Exercise!
That's it!
This is another form of exercise. It's strengthening my stomach
muscles (they're rock hard whenever I cough--surely that counts for something!) My Kegels
work so well that I'm considering tossing away the Depends.
I haven't quite figured out the plus of all the fluid leaking out of
my nose or that tight band pressing around my head, but I'm sure I'll find one. 'Cuz I'm
that kinda guy. Maybe all the nose juice is just to make sure that Dr. G realizes how very
sick I am and might actually be passingly sympathetic as he rushes past my desk headed for
his pouch of vitamin C and echinacea. I mean, you can hardly accuse me of faking it when
I'm going through Kleenex faster than a kitten with a roll of toilet paper.
He actually talked a bit about emergency coverage for me in cases of
being sick. I never thought of this as a need, since I haven't been sick for years. But
then I've also been hiding in my little home office for years. Now I've emerged from the
coccoon and am back in the world, so my body has to readjust to all the germs out there.
In the meantime, I'm going to concentrate on doing a few reps of
deep chest hacking and stomach clenching and hope I can burn enough calories to make up
for not biking 9 miles this morning.
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