My Body, My Enemy
Posted on | November 7, 2005 at 9:37 pm | Comments Off
This is the first (and possibly last) in a new series of entries about why my life sucks. So if you don’t want to hear me whine and would rather read something uplifting instead, by all means go peruse some Christian Blogs.
My body hates me. Over two weeks ago, I pulled a muscle (hamstring, I think) in my upper right leg. Not sure how I did it, but it didn’t hurt much the first day. Then I went running the next morning. BIG mistake, which I realized after the first couple of blocks. It’s still so tight I can’t run, though I have managed a few walks lately. The walks are humiliating. Since the end of frickin’ Daylight Saving Time, the climate has been just right during my usual morning run time – lighter and warmer. But do I get to take advantage of it? Noooo. Instead I have to walk, and to endure the mental snickers of the joggers I pass on the way, whom I just know are thinking, Look at the poor schlub – walking when he should be running! I’m glad I’m all fit and athletic, unlike that pathetic speciman. And I have a better iPod. I want to stop one of them, shake them, and shout THIS ISN’T REALLY ME! I LONG TO RUN FREE! I’M ONE OF YOU! But that would be rude.
Sheesh, how long is this going to take to loosen up anyway? I really hate being this inactive, and my muscles are starting to atrophy. I can’t even ride my exercise bike.
My friend & co-worker Pilto thought this next item was hilarious when he overheard me telling another co-worker about it. He is always saying that I suffer from the strangest ailments known to man, and he laughed and laughed when he heard this one. Like the other co-worker, I have a problem with high triglycerides (fat in the blood), which is one of the risk factors for heart disease. He cut down his tri-gly levels greatly by ingesting several capsules of fish oil per day. Indeed, I have read many reports on the web saying that helps many people with this problem, because of the Omega-3 fatty acids contained in fish oils. So, I began to ingest the little buggers also.
Then I started having a problem with my right eye, where it always felt “sticky”, like someone had rubbed cat hair in it and I was suffering from a (non-itchy) allergy attack. But only the right eye, not the left one. The right part of my nose next to the eye would also vibrate unexpectedly sometimes, like something was crawling right beneath the skin. I tried many things, without relief. Finally, I remembered how it started about the same time as I started taking the fish oil, so I stopped taking the pills. Lo and behold, a few days later my eye returned to normal. So then I tried the fish oil pills again. 
After a day or two, the eye started acting up again. I went through this cycle a few more times, and they definitely correlate. Even as little as two pills a day is enough to start up the eye problem again. Either I’ve got some weird allergy to concentrated fish oil, or I’m so psychosomatic that only a therapist can really help me. The co-worker who originally suggested the fish oil thinks it might be mercury poisoning, and that I should try a more expensive brand that is “cleaner”. But I’ll probably just give him the big old jar of capsules I bought and I hope I can find some other way to bring down the triglycerides. I don’t know if the pills had any effect on that for me. Would’ve been nice. I don’t seem to have the eye problems when I eat salmon or other foods that are high in Omega-3, but I don’t actually eat those foods that often.
This problem is somewhat ironic, since fish oils have been shown to help with Dry Eye Syndrome, which I have suffered from somewhat ever since my Lasik surgery (I use a lot of artificial tears). Maybe that’s the problem – it’s causing my eye to get too watery now.
So there you have it, two ways (out of many) in which my life sucks right now. Although I did get one bit of good news today – I didn’t realize we get Veteran’s Day (this Friday) off from work. Woo hoo! Three day weekend! Although I guess I won’t be spending it running or fishing.
It’s tough getting old. Latre.