Monday, November 27, 2017

recovering from... the treatment

Saturday. I have a nap after breakfast, a nap before lunch. Then a nap after lunch. Each time, I wake up feeling worse than ever. Not in an, I'm feeling sick, sort of way. I just wake up feeling more exhausted than ever. Too tired to do much more than sit & rest & sleep some more.

We go orienteering in Cottesloe. Beautiful weather, very pleasant area, good company. I do a "short" course. Very carefully... I know where I am, I know what I'm doing, I am so close to falling asleep that I worry that I could fall asleep on my feet...

Remember my "VSE"? Visual Surveillance of Environment? I constantly think, Where am I? where should I be? Do I remember where I was a few minutes ago? All is well: I am not unconscious, not unaware... just drifting around the course.

Conversation with other orienteers is similar: I am there, I am taking part... but I am drifting through the conversation. Enjoying the interaction. Not really "involved".

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Sunday. I have a nap after breakfast, while Deb goes for a run. Then we go out for coffee & cake.

aside: We go to Floreat Beach cafe. This is a cafe at the beach, a place for people who are at the beach and who want a cafe... We enjoy the atmosphere of this cafe. There is a feeling of enjoyment, of being amongst people who are taking a break from enjoying being at the beach. As opposed to the nearby and newer City Beach cafes. Where the feeling is of being at a cafe. Which happens to offer a remote view of a somewhat distant beach. Not the same thing at all.

We go home for lunch. I have a nap... and wake up feeling refreshed. As I should! Today I am still feeling tired -- but not completely exhausted. A definite improvement :-) I have the energy and enthusiasm to do a few minor chores around the house.

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What would this post be without a reference to some form of bodily function? Have I mentioned that -- a week or two back -- I had chafing of the backside? In an area where stinging could well be caused by too much chili in a previous meal. I saw a different cause.

All of this napping... I have found one chair which is comfortable for an hour or two's nap. A leather armchair. Lounging on leather, I reason, I am sitting in sweat. Sweat -- as it does when running -- encourages chafing. So now I sit... sleeping... on a thick towel. An absorbent towel. And the chafing has cleared :-)

And while I think of it: I have finally been applying moisturiser. Radiation had finished. There is a hairless circle on my skull where the radiation hit. (Will that hair grow back?) The top of one ear has burnt and peeled, it is within the zapping zone. Okay, there's no more radiation treatment. But I've moisturised those areas. Better late than never?

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Back to Sunday, evening: we go out for dinner with the family.

I am feeling fine, involved, enjoying being out with the family. Noticeably more involved with reality than I was at yesterday's orienteering. Okay, I spend half the time with an absolute focus on what I am eating... my appetite is good :-) And I drag out a "joke" which is so old that ... well... the boys just ignore it. But that's pretty much standard for my jokes.

Saturday I felt fine. Sunday I feel good. I am definitely recovering from the treatment.

All good, all getting better :-)




==== Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper & Flaneur
        Agamedes Consulting / Problems ? Solved
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"Give a man an inch and he'll think he's a ruler" … Agent 86

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Now much more than a clever name for a holiday journal:





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