This morning I just felt sortt of out of it - while driving to rowing, I felt almost faint (though I've never actually fainted, so don't really know what it would feel like), then I think I rowed part of my warmup half lap asleep, or maybe just very distracted. I actually did have a good workout, but decided to work from home today. I thought about taking a real sick day, but there was one teleconference I really wanted to call in to, so I thought I might as well do other work too, and not record it as a sick day. I have a wireless modem at home, and my laptop has a wireless network card, so I can do the rest and fluids thing while still getting work done.
This all would have worked better had I actually brought the computer ome last night. However, work is only 10 minutes from the lake, so I pulled my skirt on over my rowing shorts and went in and grabbed the laptop. I didn't see anyone on the way in or out, so no explanations needed.
Then when I emailed my manger to say I'd be out, he sent directions for a couple of things he wanted me to do and added, "Call me, if you feel well enough." Barring extreme laryngitis, I'm not really sure how I could be too sick to pick up a phone, but I suppose he was just trying to be nice.
I keep forgetting to record it, but I think I've figured out a Unified Theory of Dichroic, to explain why some physical parts of me don't quite work right, and I want to note it here for future reference. I'm not sure it's medically feasible, but it hangs together logically. (Cut for gastrointestinal TMI and for being not of general interest, don't say I didn't warn you.)
My theory is that I just don't process water as well as I should. This would explain why I get dehydrated sometimes even when I'd tried to drink enough, obviously, and why I have to pee more than a lot of others seem to have to. (Rudder has some camel genes, apparently, or possibly gerbil ones.) Too much water doesn't get to the bloodstream and organs and goes straight to the bladder. Less obviously, it could help explain the Irritable Bowel Syndrome. IBS can cover a wide range of symptoms, but I rarely have pain, never ever constipation, and I get queasy much less often than I did when I was younger, though still more than I'd like. The main symptom is basically having to spend more time in the bathroom than you'd think any healthy adult would - a combination of what drug companies like to euphemistically call "fecal urgency" combined with wanting to, er, get everything cleared out before going out (especially in a small plane or boat or anywhere else without bathroom facilities). My theory is that, because of the water-processig inefficiency, basically too much water makes it through to my lower intestines instead of getting absorbed earlier when it should.
As I said, I have no idea if this makes any medical sense whatsoever. On the other hand, no one else has any idea what really causes IBS, either.
Posted by dichroic at May 19, 2006 03:26 PMAs someone who loathes using telephones even when well, it doesn't take much for me to consider myself too unwell to deal with calls -- not physically incapable of lifting the earpiece, of course, but being mentally "there" enough to hold a productive conversation.
Posted by: mechaieh at May 19, 2006 03:56 PM