Slice of Chaotic Life

The daily life of a celibate middle-aged man.

Insect bites and Cola Zero

Posted by Itlandm on June 20, 2014

7:15 PM: I probably have some body-wide infection: I am feeling weak as if I have worked too hard for too long (I haven’t at all) and my heart rate is 90-100 instead of 50-60 when sitting. Temperature is only slightly elevated though, 37.6 instead of 37.

This is not at all a similar feeling to the racing heart episodes, which are local to the heart and more sudden and intense.

There are no respiratory symptoms and no extraordinary digestive disturbances. I have what seems to be a few infected insect bites on my lower right leg though. But I have those often, insects like to bite through my socks.

I also drank perhaps half a glass of Cola Zero today, something I have not done before. That was around 4 PM, the non-local symptoms started around 5 and peaked around 7. So if I believed in the fantasies about aspartame, I would totally blame that. But science. Well, I suppose if I get better, I can do my own science by drinking it again and see if I get sick again. Infections are a lot less controllable.

Come to think of it, I also drank a cup of warm broth around the same time as the Cola Zero. But it is not years since I’ve been drinking that, just months.

10:30 PM: Heart rate down to around 80, and each beat is much more quiet. So it seems the acute response is waning.

00:30 : Heart rate under 70, so not far from normal. Taking another half tablet of Metoprolol, took one half when I came home from work and my heart was beating hard and fast. Did not really notice much difference then. Temperature is also down to normal. So my body seems to have gone back to normal, except for a slight headache and the tickling feeling on my leg in the general vicinity of the insect bites (some inches around them).

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