Health

Zen and the art of not running

I’m not entirely sure, but I feel like it’s been so long since I ran outside (December 30, or 50 days) that I’ve become accustomed to it and am kind of avoiding running now.

For example, today is Wednesday–a run day! The snow is gone, the temperatures are mild, but the forecast calls for light rain, and I think, “I can’t run in that” like I’d melt or something.

But maybe if I just change into my running clothes and go out without a formal goal, I can test the waters, so to speak.

I will report back later with my success or lack thereof.

Also, filing this under “Health” since I may not actually do any exercise. 😛

My brain is complicated and is thinking on its own (I think)

As I’ve reported before, my trusty Garmin Forerunner 255 has been reporting that I have been under a great deal of stress, experiencing high stress while sleeping and generally having Very Stressful days for about two months now. At first, I thought it was misinterpreting my kidney infection as stress and acted accordingly. But I’ve been off the antibiotics for a few weeks now and haven’t seen any return of symptoms, yet the Very Stressful reports persist.

So, I thought, maybe it’s something else. What else has coincided with the infection over the past few months?

  • I have basically stopped running. This isn’t permanent, I took a break after tripping and hurting my hands on my last run on December 30, then got hit with resurgent infection, finally seemed to recover from that and now there is snow on the ground. But I will run again.
  • Dealing with the infection and aftermath (there are more tests forthcoming for other things discovered that may be innocuous or could be more serious).
  • I have done little in the way of creativity: few drawings, no work on the game. I have been writing, but it’s mainly been the nonsense you’re reading on this blog right now.
  • Dealing with condo/strata stuff, as we restarted our efforts to shed the current council and management company (the latter of which specifically started harassing us last summer).

So, that’s a lot of stuff. Some I can deal with easily. I can fix not running by running. I can fix not drawing by drawing. The health stuff I just need to put aside for now. I feel fine and there’s nothing else to be done at the moment.

But the condo stuff, this got my attention this morning when I realized something: My mind wanders over to it constantly. When I say constantly, I am not engaging in hyperbole, or even just regular bole. Multiple times this morning, I caught myself thinking about condo stuff. It just comes up, unbidden, in my mind. Really, it’s kind of weird. It’s like my brain has adapted to just slotting in thoughts about the condo/strata whenever I’m not focused on anything else.

I think this may be a large part of my Very Stressful days.

Now, I do and will have to deal with strata stuff for at least a few more months, so there is no escaping it. But I don’t need to be constantly thinking about it. So my goal is to somehow train my mind to not think about it or if I do, to quickly divert to some other thought, such as:

  • Kittens
  • Puppies
  • Pop Tarts (just thinking, not eating)
  • Grassy meadows
  • Summer
  • A nice relaxing bubble bath
  • Walking alone among sequoias
  • Etc.

Basically, anything that will focus me away from strata and onto something relaxing.

I’ll see how it goes and report my findings soon, in the name of science and possibly my sanity.

January 2025 weight loss report: Up 0.4 pounds

It was close, but in the end, I was up a bit this month–0.4 pounds, thanks to a whole lot of comfort food indulgence as January was a very bad month (see previous post) and I sought refuge in yummy food when I had an actual appetite.

The one concerning stat is body fat, which climbed a full 0.7% over the course of the month–not a good trend.

I make no predictions for February, but barring calamity (and this year, calamity always seems like a possibility), I expect these stats to all start improving as I resume some exercise and eating better, healthier food.

Stats:

January 1, 2025: 166.8 pounds

Current: 167.2 pounds
Year to date: Up 0.4 pounds

January 1: 166.8 pounds
January 31: 167.2 pounds (up 0.4 pounds)

Body fat: 
January 1: 25.3%
January 31: 26.0% (up 0.7%)

Skeletal muscle mass:
January 1: 29.8.0% 
January 31: 29.8% (unchanged)

BMI:
January 1: 23.9
January 31: 23.9 (unchanged)

Historical: January 1, 2022: 182.8 pounds

A farewell to January 2025, with my foot firmly planted in its monthly butt

Sometimes I am glad a particular month is over. Sometimes a month was mostly fun or rewarding.

And then there is January 2025, the start of a new calendar year and a month that was just kind of horrible, mostly due to health issues. Let’s look:

  • I did not run. The month began two days after I mangled the heels of my hands on my last run, due to tripping and falling hard on a sidewalk. Technically, I could still run today, but that is unlikely. Running is something that keeps me centered and focused. Not running does not help me achieve these things.
  • Any month I get blood taken three times is not a good month.
  • One day I logged 190 steps because I was bedridden, feverish and in a kind of delirium thanks to an infection.
  • Said infection plagued me for more than the first half of the month.
  • 11 days of outpatient IV therapy.
  • Having to shower, sleep and exist for those 11 days with an IV in my arm (five days left, six days right).
  • Still awaiting tests, including my first-ever MRI scan, for possible follow-up issues.
  • Speaking of firsts, I had my first CT-scan.
  • And all those IVs? The first one was also my very first.
  • Strata nonsense added greatly to my stress. I still haven’t found an effective way to deal with it. The stress, that is.
  • My camera stopped working, though technically that happened before January.
  • I leaned into comfort food a lot. I had Pop Tarts. Surprisingly, I was only up a modest 0.4 pounds for the month.
  • My sleep scores have been generally terrible–too much stress, generally not enough of everything else. I had one score of 81 (rating: good) shortly after the IV therapy wrapped up. It feels like a dream now.
  • No drawing. My last was at the end of December.
  • Blogging was down and I spent a lot of time staring at a blinking cursor.

On the plus side:

  • I got Jeff red velvet cake for his birthday and it was yummy, the perfect indulgence.
  • It didn’t snow (that may change in early February, sadly).

A stress haiku

I’ve been thinking about stress a lot lately. Well, maybe not a lot, but more than usual. I usually don’t think about it at all.

So while I contemplate yoga, meditation or becoming a monk, here is a haiku on stress.

Stress

My teeth set on edge
Body tenses, muscles tight
Time for funny cats

One of those moments where I’d like to see the look on my face

Today, getting blood work done to follow-up on some issues with my MOKI1Month of Kidney Infection, I am sitting at the lab, in the blood-giving chair, with my arm resting on the blood-giving tray. The tech shows up and is very pleasant and professional. She places some vials on the tray next to my arm. More than one or two vials. I count six.

I ask if she is going to fill all of them. She enthusiastically tells me yes, then says not to worry, I’ve got plenty of blood. I would like to know if my expression changed at all when she said yes. I think it might have, but just barely enough to notice before flipping back to whatever it had been before.

To her credit, she got all six vials filled quickly and painlessly. And I remembered to hydrate and eat before, so I didn’t pass out and slide awkwardly onto the floor.

Such is my life these days. But soon: Maybe I’ll post about other things, not related to my body or the fluids contained within!1

And now, a sproinging cat:

  1. And hey, at least I’m not talking politics. ↩︎

After 11 days, I am IV-free

I did not expect 2025 to begin this way.

On Thursday, January 9th, I was administered antibiotics for an infection that was originally thought to be in the prostate, then the bladder, but in the meantime actually moved to one of my kidneys. Every day since then I have gone back for another daily round of IV therapy, the first five at Burnaby Hospital, the last six at Royal Columbian, which is literally a five-minute walk from home, so that part was at least convenient.

On Day 5 they removed the IV from my left arm, because the apparatus had bent, and switched to my right arm. This was better since I’m left-handed. But it still meant doing a lot of things was cumbersome and awkward, and I had to be careful not to damage the IV while sleeping and whatnot. A shower or bath was weird and vaguely unpleasant.

But now both arms are free and treatment has ended. I wait to see what happens next. Did the infection sneak into my prostate, and will I start showing symptoms in a week? I don’t know. I am not a pessimist (I swear), but am resigned to a 50/50 chance of more infection to come. But that also means I think it’s possible I’ll be good.

I’ll wait a few more days, then start thinking about running (not on a sidewalk) again.

Here’s hoping the rest of 2025 is kind of dull and boring for me. If there’s excitement, I request that it be of a pleasant variety, without any Twilight Zone-style twists.

The non-foot club

I started my IV therapy at Royal Columbian Hospital on Tuesday, so today was my fourth day (I double-checked the math, I think I got it right). On each of the three previous days, every other person getting an IV had a foot issue. Usually the left foot. Left feet seem kind of unlucky.

But today was a new dawn: Someone in the chair ahead of me was getting an IV for the first time (I both did and didn’t want to look) and lo, he had two regular feet. His therapy ended first and as he left, he turned and waved at me, as if we were brothers-in-arms feet. The guy that came in as I was leaving also seemed to have two ordinary feet. Seeing these guys made me feel less odd.

I have had nine (technically 10) treatments, with two more to go. The desire for everything to be OK after that is something I cannot yet put into words.

And now, straight from Discord, a cat reacting to a foot:

I am not an idea machine

Not his month, anyway. I’ts like my brain refuses to focus long enough to get out more than a few sentences.

But perhaps I will bloviate again and at length soon.

Also, the IV has been making my right arm itchy the last few days and I can’t scratch it. I must use sheer force of will to convince myself it does not itch.

Three more days and I am hopefully done on this particular journey.

Cat:

slick cat moves