Slice of Chaotic Life

I refer you to my visit to the emergency room a week and a day ago. The doctor concluded that it was the influenza which rages around here at this time of the year, even though I have certainly never heard of anyone having influenza symptoms like that, and even though I have had influenza many times and they never were anything like that. Still, the lady has quite a bit more education and practice with these things than I, so I did not entirely exclude the possibility that she might be right.

She was totally wrong, I think we can safely say by now. Unless influenza lasts for at least 8 days without getting better, worse, or different in any noticeable way.

That said, I have definitely changed in some way from before. I am just not sure whether I changed on that particular day, or earlier, or gradually.

For years and years, my temperature has followed a certain day rhythm: It started at 36C (96.8F) or a little lower in the morning. It increased gradually until around midnight, where it reached or slightly exceeded 37C (98.6F). Well, those days are over: Now it starts at 36 in the morning, rises to 37.2 or 37.3 after work, and falls back to 36.8 at bedtime. So the max temperature is almost the same or perhaps half a Fahrenheit more now, it just falls at another part of the day. What’s up with that?

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I am definitely stiffer and more achy than I used to be in muscles and joints, and I was already unpleasantly stiff and achy as it was. I assumed this was due to old age. Generally I ignored it, and kept going about my life, including my exercise. The exception was biking, which caused unreasonably much stiffness and ache for so little exercise.

The last few days, I have taken half an hour’s walk after I came home. This fits nicely with the daylight, which now lasts for about that time. My pulse varies from day to day, but only one day (three days ago) was it so high that I decided to go home after barely ten minutes. It was not critical, but 20 beats above normal, so I decided to let my body do whatever it was doing in peace. The day after, the pulse was back to the lower range of what it was before. Next day, in the upper range of the normal. Today, I may well have set a new personal record in  low pulse compared to walking speed. That does not sound like influenza to me, either. I extended the trip to 50 minutes and toward the end got back to more normal pulse. Normal for me, that is.

Something is weird, but I know not what. I think we can write off influenza. The question is, will exercise heal me or kill me? It is all too clear that asking a doctor is utterly pointless. While they do have equipment I don’t, such as the EKG machine, they simply have no experience with treating mutants.  Or whatever I am. Why do I have the pulse of an athlete and the lung capacity of a smoking couch potato? Why do I have high blood sugar but low blood pressure? Why do I become violently ill from eating fat? Why am I usually ridiculously happy unless I have some acute illness at the moment? I don’t think doctors can answer things like that. They have to concentrate on the average person, and I am nothing like that.

Unless something exciting happens again (Light send it doesn’t), I will assume the “influenza” is the new normal, and go back to my 700 calories a day exercise habit. I may also ask my regular doctor whether I can get a prescription for blood sugar measuring equipment now that I have pre-diabetes. It seems a bit absurd to have to wait with checking one’s blood sugar until it is too late.

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Finally (this is getting too long) I opened the box of fructose today. This hotly debated sugar is sweeter than ordinary sugar, has a low glycemic index (meaning it does not cause a spike in blood sugar) and is the only sugar that is converted efficiently into fat.  That may sound like a bad idea, but remember that I cannot eat fat except just a small taste without falling ill. I do not know whether the effects come from the fat in the bloodstream or in the digestive tract. If I gradually start taking more fructose, I should find out, since it is sugar while in my stomach but is slowly converted to fat in the liver. I habitually warn against fructose, for that exact reason. But fat is not my problem. Blood sugar is.

See, most type II diabetics are fat, to put it bluntly. In a few it is not visible, they contain it inwardly. But in my case, it seems likely that my pre-diabetes comes from eating large amounts of carbs, flooding the body with sugar faster than it can get used or stored. And I intend to continue that way, because eating fat makes me horribly sick. But if I can replace some of my other carbs with fructose, I may maintain my weight (and thus avoid constant hunger and reduced metabolism) but with lower blood sugar.