Health

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed right up in my freaking grill. Stupid yesterday.

Although it feels like hundreds of years, it was probably a couple of weeks ago I noticed mild discomfort on one side of my abdomen. I’ve felt this before and it’s turned out to be that “men of a certain age” thing known as a prostate infection. After I got the first one in 2008, the doctor at the medical clinic reassured me there would be more to come.

He was correct. He’s probably old enough to be getting them himself now.

I ignored it for a few days, because it was very mild and I wasn’t sure if it was just my body being weird or whatever. This was dumb. I then made a doctor appointment and went in last Wednesday. The doctor poked my abdomen. It was unpleasant. He agreed it might be an infection and gave me some blood work to get done at a local lab.

This reminded me that the last two times I went to a local lab to get blood taken (the area is filled with them, since I live next to a hospital), the person conducting the procedure was apparently green and had difficulty finding a vein. In the second instance, the person (different each time) actually left the needle in my arm while seeking help from more experienced staff. This is like stabbing someone and leaving the knife in. I can’t properly describe how extremely unpleasant it felt.

Anyway, I delayed on getting the blood work done for a day because I got up and had breakfast. My doctor later told me I didn’t need to fast for these tests. Oops.

We now move to Friday of last week. I still need to get the blood work done, and I vow I’ll do it, very soon! Probably. I go for a walk on the river trail. On the way back, my entire body starts to ache.

I later develop a huge pressure headache, a fever, and that slight pain in the abdomen increases.

The weekend is a fugue of pain and delirium. Come Monday–yesterday–the pain in the abdomen, which I’d mostly only noticed if I was laying down, is now ever-present regardless of position, and much, much worse. I feel like there is nothing I can do to help make myself feel more comfortable. I want to leave my body, for a little while, and hop back in when it’s better.

My doctor agrees to prescribe antibiotics, even before the test results. By mid-evening, having taken the first pill, I am at least experiencing a placebo effect of feeling very slightly better, though the pain is still there. I am also very, very tired.

Today, the good news is my sleep score, which fell to a low of 31 when I felt hot enough (not in a sexy way) to set the bed on fire, rose to a mediocre, but much better 69. I feel a little more human. I am hoping I’m not allergic to the antibiotics, but if they work, I may still accept the trade-off.

Kids, the lesson here is: When you feel that weird little pain, get it checked right away. Don’t be macho and dumb and negligent like me! I can only imagine how much worse it would have gotten if the medication had come even just a few days later.

Anyway, that was yesterday. And I never liked the song much, either, so there.

Also, I already had a tag for INFECTIONS, which shows you how often this has happened.

November 2024 weight loss report: Up 1.8 pounds

Yep! One word: Bacon.

November was a stressful month, and I dealt with the stress mostly by shoving food into my mouth:

  • Cookies
  • Crackers
  • Bagels
  • Ice cream bars
  • Bacon
  • More bacon
  • But no donuts!

December is not exactly known as a slimming month, but I’ll give it a shot.

Three bright spots:

  • I am still down for the year overall (by a very modest amount, but still)
  • My running and exercise has resulted in a slight increase in muscle mass
  • Body fat actually didn’t increase

Stats:

January 1, 2024: 172.3 pounds

Current: 168.7 pounds
Year to date: Down 3.6 pounds (previously down 6.3 pounds)

November 1: 166.9 pounds
November 30: 168.7 pounds (up 1.8 pounds)

Body fat: 
November 1: 25.1%
November 30: 25.1% (unchanged)

Skeletal muscle mass:
November 1: 29.8% 
November 30: 30.0% (up 0.2%)

BMI:
November 1: 23.9
November 30: 24.1 (up 0.2%)

Historical: January 1, 2022: 182.8 pounds

4321 days (on MyFitnessPal)

I have yet to find a way to log my food on a daily basis that works better for me than MyFitnessPal. Even as the site strips away features or puts more of them behind paywalls, it’s still so easy for me to add food that I never do much to look elsewhere at other apps. It’s a classic sunk cost sort of thing. Plus, it always tells me how slim I’ll be in five weeks (MFP is a chronic liar in that regard).

Anyway, this is my commemoration for using MFP for4321 consecutive days (and counting).

That works out to 11.83835616438356 years. That’s a pretty good streak, as streaks go.

October 2024 weight loss report: Down* 0.2 pounds

The asterisk is important. More below.

When you lose only 0.2 pounds, it’s kind of technical weight loss. This month, it’s technical weight loss in two ways:

  • It happened on the last day of the month–today! In fact, I started at exactly where I was on the 1st, at 166.8 pounds, then weighed myself after a trip to the loo, and dropped to the devilish weight of 166.6 pounds.
  • I started the month up from the previous month. I ended September at 166.0 pounds, then jumped to 166.8 on October 1st, so since September 1st, I’ve actually gained 0.6 pounds.

Fun Facts this month:

  • Food was a source of comfort in two ways this month, helping to explain the minimal loss. I sought refuge in food for stress relief, and also while sick (feed a fever or whatever you might have, who cares if you even have a fever?). This meant my weight loss strategy was largely abandoned for long stretches of October.
  • I got sick early in the month. This was both a curse (I didn’t run and could not count on the extra calories being burned) and a blessing (the night after I got sick, I dropped a whopping 2.5 pounds. I gained back 2.3 pounds of it).

Given the circumstances, it could have been worse.

I make no guesses for November, but barring a second bout of being sick, or unexpected stress or just more stress, I should…drop a little more? We’ll see!

As of today, I am down 5.7 pounds for the year, which averages out to 1.7543859649 pounds per month. I deliberately avoided rounding the number to make it look bigger.

Stats:

January 1, 2024: 172.3 pounds  
Current: 166.6 pounds
Year to date: Down 5.7 pounds (previously down 6.3 pounds)

October 1: 166.8 pounds
October 31: 166.6 pounds (down 0.2 pounds)

Body fat: 
October 1: 25.0%
October 31: 25.0% (unchanged)

Skeletal muscle mass:
October 1: 29.8% 
October 31: 29.7% (down 0.1%)

BMI:
October 1: 23.9
October 31: 23.8 (down 0.1%)

Historical: January 1, 2022: 182.8 pounds

Sickfest ’24, Day 7: Mostly just annoying

I am now at the stage where the remaining symptoms–occasional coughs spurred by a tickle in the throat–and the like are mostly just annoyances, so I’m going to say I am now officially recovering.

I did opt out of running today. I don’t think my lungs are quite ready yet, but soon™.

Instead of a sad bunny, I present a nonplussed cat:

Sickfest ’24, Day 6: Semi-recovered

My watch claims I didn’t get enough REM sleep last night, but I still feel it was the best night of rest since getting sick. I didn’t really cough or sneeze at all.

This morning I am feeling mediocre. I am slightly stuffed up, but I can take a deep breath without coughing. Yay. I may be ready to run tomorrow, a regular run day. We’ll see.

I do have a possible new complication–a sore spot in my abdomen that is subsiding as I type this, but was notable in that I could poke it, and it did not like being poked. I’ve had this before, and it’s been a bladder infection, which would be about right for just getting over being sick to have a new ailment heroically leap in and take over.

But as I said, it seems to be subsiding for now. I will monitor.

Hopefully the last sad bunny, at least for now:

Sickfest ’24, Day 5: The recovery begins

Last night, my sleep score was so-so, but I didn’t have any coughing or sneezing fits. Progress! When I got up this morning, I had a mini coughing fit (<CF), so opted to take at least one more dose of cough medicine/ I generally don’t feel bad, though perhaps a tad worn from all the previous coughing, sneezing and all that.

It is Thanksgiving today and the forecast is kind of lousy, so I think I’ll just have a mellow day and urge my body to mend as I play video games, have a nice bubble bath and eat chicken, my favourite turkey substitute.

One (?) more sad bunny:

Sickfest ’24, Day 4: Coughapalooza

Yesterday was a whole lot of sneezing, and the tip of my nose is now sore. I bought a box of tissue and I’m pretty sure I went through half of it. There was increased coughing and by evening, it felt like I was “drying up” and shifting more to a cough.

I woke up around 4 a.m., had a coughing fit for around 15 minutes, then stopped, which allowed me to sleep for about three more hours. The coughing started again, seemed more stubborn, so I just got up to type this. I am now coughing intermittently, but will probably go to the store this morning to buy some kind of cough remedy, because I am already sore and tired from all the coughing, and it is not yet 9 a.m.

Once I am fully recovered, I am never going outside again. I’ll rig up some VR system and experience the world in a germ-free environment, as nature should have intended.

Today’s sad bunny is below.

Sickfest ’24 Day 3: In the chest, not bursting

Yesterday was all about the runny nose and sneezing. Last night was much the same, which made for a less than satisfying sleep.

Today, a new development: Coughing! Not much, but more significantly, when I cough, I can feel the congestion in my chest loosen. This is actually good, because it means the virus/bug/hellspawn/alien is moving through my system relatively quickly.

Also, I feel better sitting up and standing than when I’m laying down, so I guess I’ll rest while in the chair and not the bed.

In all, I’d rather be feeling healthy.

Here is today’s sad bunny:

Sickfest ’24, Day 2: Hello runny nose

It’s somewhat ironic that I hardly got sick during the pandemic, but seem to be on a once-per-year pace since then (which admittedly is still less than what I experienced before).

Yesterday, my throat was sore and that was both annoying and exhausting. Today the throat feels better, but the bug has moved into my nose, which alternates between runny and sneezy. It’s also in my chest already, so there’s some coughing for good measure. This seems to be faster than usual, so I’m hoping I’m feeling back to normal relatively soon.

In the meantime, another sad bunny:

Sickfest ’24, Day 1: It begins

Yep, I did indeed have that funny feeling in my throat manifest into a full-on sore throat, and expect it to spread to my sinuses and chest in due time, because it’s never just a sore throat.

I have no idea where I might have caught the virus, because I am pretty anti-people. Maybe I touched something virus-laden, then touched an eyeball or shoved all five fingers into my mouth. Anyway, bleah.

This also means I’ll have to wait to recover to get a flu shot, which scores irony points, if nothing else.

Here is a sad-looking bunny, which I am:

A note on getting sick

UPDATE, The next morning: Yep, I have a 100% genuine sore throat. I'd like to hope it's just a sore throat, I'll deal with it, recover and move on, but I know the reality is more likely to be:

- Virus moves into sinuses
- Virus moves into chest
- Virus hits hard for 3–4 days, then lingers for a week or two after

I am resigned to my fate. At least my watch gave me a rest day.

Late this afternoon, my nose and throat began feeling funny in that, “You may be coming down with something!” way, despite not going anywhere or near anyone that would presumably get me sick. Viruses are funny things. I’m hoping this is just a passing whatever, and I’ll be back to being A-OK and healthy tomorrow morning.

If not, I will update and probably post a GIF of a cat sneezing or something.

In fact, here’s one now: