Sunday, July 29, 2007

You spin me 'round (like a record, baby)

I've been feeling really dizzy all day today. I don't have a headache, but it's like somebody has been applying constant pressure to my head and my sense of equilibrium is all haywire.

In general, I have been really sick physically with various ailments for something like 6 weeks in the last two months---two full cases of the flu (the second apparently induced when my immune system was weakened by hepatitis shots), severe jet lag (worse than usual, and it's usually pretty bad for me), inability to sleep, issues because of weather/dehydration/lack of ice in Switzerland, and also other maladies from being much more stressed out than usual for various reasons. The causes have been varied (and variety is the spice of life), but this needs to stop. I've been trying to remain pretty active through all of this, although I have curtailed that somewhat, and working has often been far more difficult than usual.

I am just fucking sick of feeling like total crap. This has been going on way too long and it's also making me even more ornery than usual.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, I have a solution for you. Maybe if you stop thinking about yourself 24 7 and start thinking more of people who care about you (or should I say DID care about you amazingly much) you wont feel so bad. But you tend to throw those people away like garbage when they don’t meet you stupid standards. So I personally think that it’s only natural that someone as cruel and selfish as you will suffer well. I’m not your “nothing better that likes me” relationship option and I certainly wont be your “on reserve ” friend that you can ignore and only call up when you have nothing else to do. So have a great life being a self centered asshole, I’m sure that will work out well for you.
I won’t bother you again.
Good bye.

-“Not good enough for Mason” – russian bitch.

Zifnab said...

Anonymous: it sounds like you have some issues that need discussion in a private forum, not a public one like this one. I recommend you move your comments there.

Mason: That really sucks. My only thoughts are to see a doctor, which I think you've done (at least for the hepatitis shots, it may need another trip to see if there's something they can do to help with the overall issue), and that a lot of the recent symptoms sound like heat exhaustion / dehydration: have you been getting enough water and similar fluids that can help with that? I'm not sure where coffee type drinks stand for that, but I know when I've been drinking too much soda and not enough water / gatorade type stuff I can get similar symptoms of dizziness.

Lemming said...

Z: /agree and /agree

Also be careful your caffeine intake isn't too far from the norm in either direction. Try to get hydrated, make sure you have electrolytes (not a buzzword), enough food, etc. Yeah, your immune system is gonna be weak after the shots, doubly so after having a rough time already, so the more you take care of your body the easier of a time it'll have pulling itself back together.

Mason said...

Anonymous: We can talk privately. Here is not the place to have that discussion.

Z: I might not be having enough liquids. That is distinctly possible. Yesterday was the first day I felt dizzy. The other days I was feeling bad in other ways.

L: Electrolytes? Like in Idiocracy?


Or if I'm just getting bad karma from others' perceptions of what I think and how I feel, maybe I should just find Jesus or something and improve myself that way?

Anonymous said...

What Zifnab and Lemming said. I am frequently surprised at how easy it is to get dehydrated during high summer in LA. Drink lots of water and don't skip any meals.

Lemming said...

Yup, you know, "It's what plants want!"

From Wikipedia:
"Electrolytes are commonly found in sports drinks. In oral rehydration therapy, electrolyte drinks containing sodium and potassium salts are used to replenish the body's water and electrolyte levels after dehydration caused by exercise, diaphoresis, diarrhea, vomiting or starvation. Giving pure water to such a person is not the best way to restore fluid levels because it dilutes the salts inside the body's cells and interferes with their chemical functions. This can lead to water intoxication."

Mason said...

Lem: I forgot to mention that I think my caffeine intake has been about at the usual level. I haven't made any conscious changes, though a slight reduction may not be bad. [[He writes as he sips his iced latte...]]

AG: Don't skip meals, huh? Um, I've been doing that a lot since I went to Zurich. I think I skipped dinner a few days in a row at some point (though I did eat lunch most of those days). One thing I did on Saturday when I stopped by Jamba Juice was to try their green tea drink, and I'm thinking I should have gone with the usual fruit-based stuff, especially since I'm not good about eating enough fruits anyway. And if I do skip any more meals, I think I'll just have to make up for it when we go to Black Angus. :) I really started getting dehydrated in Zurich, so I guess I'm continuing the job here.

Lem: It sounds like another trip to Jamba Juice may be in order --- as if I need an excuse for that anyway. Maybe I need to go to Jamba Juice more in order to be able to play frisbee again rather than the vice versa I had been implicitly using. :)

Zifnab said...

It sounds like a lot of it may be the dehydration. In addition to the Jamba Juice, I'd also recommend buying whatever flavor of powerade/gatorade you can stand and drink one or two a day at least. The juice will be helpful, but may not really contain enough to help completely.

If you haven't been eating as much, it's probably better to have more smaller meals than to splurge at Black Angus. I know there's some good reason for this but don't recall what it is. And then when you're feeling better, we can hit Black Angus! :)

Mason said...

I've never been much of a powerade/gatorade drinker. I could maybe take advantage of Caltech's cherry week and go for the cherry lemonade they're selling at Red Door. I like cherries. :) Normally, I just drink water during the day after my morning coffee, but it sounds like I should do something about that.

Hmmm... I'm not sure if I'll be willing to bypass Black Angus (and tea-smoked duck as well...) during the trip to Berzerkly this weekend. It will probably be quite a while after this weekend until I again see the people I'm visiting, and I think I've even convinced Vito to do some stuff (and I haven't seen him in about 4.5 years...).