It has been years. I'd totally forgotten what a hangover felt like. I remember now. And I think I remember why I stopped consuming more than a single adult beverage in an evening (and putting as much distance between those evenings as possible), as a habit. Once upon a time, I was a champion binge drinker. Could put away more whiskey than most men. My cousin said he used to win bets with his friends that they couldn't drink me under the table. It wasn't just age and health that got the better of me. I stopped being interested in consuming that much of any substance, be it alcohol, sugar, meat, ice cream, or pretty much anything. It's not quite "all things in moderation" all the time, but I just can't bring myself to binge anymore. I didn't really think I'd had that much yesterday. I don't even think I finished my third glass of red wine. I think I walked away from it and forgot where I left it. This morning I had a straight up headache--not a migraine, just a "don't turn quickly" sort of headache. My breakfast consisted of coffee and Tylenol. My late lunch was a little cottage cheese and Tramadol. For afternoon tea I had a one-hour massage. And I'm still feeling a little gimpy. Maybe it wasn't just the wine. Maybe it was me pushing myself too many days in a row with not enough sleep or recovery time. At least by the time I climbed off of the massage table, I had a fuzzy-happy feeling that lasted almost two thirds of the drive home.
I keep trying to find ways to help me sleep through the night, and so far nothing has worked. The massage therapist (aka Slow Hand) suggested I keep a diary for a week of how much I'm waking up and why. He says to make it easy on myself and create a shorthand, like every time I put covers on, write the time and "+" and then when I get hot and throw them off again, time and "-." This means that I need to get a lighted clock so I don't have to reach over to check the time, and hope that I can keep the cats from sleeping directly on top of any notebook I keep next to me on the bed. I think the idea has merit. I know that I wake a lot of times for this, but I have never gotten a good count. It's possible that I'm going through half an hour of constant changes, and then an hour or two of sleep, and then back to the cycle, not realizing I'm sleeping as long as I am. Or it could be the opposite, that I wake far more often than I realize. Slow Hand suggested I keep at least a week of this, so that I have good data to present to my rheumatologist in January. I may expand the scope of the study, and keep track of how often I fluctuate during the day as well. As I sit right now, I've shoved off the fuzzy lap blanket I had on so that my feet are exposed, and from the beginning of this paragraph to now, I'm already cold again and needing to cover up. I write fairly quickly, even when I delete and edit a lot. As I cover up now, I am betting that by the time I get this post illustrated with photos, published, and the links shared, I'll be overly warm again.
I've seen an awful lot of common wisdom flying around the internet claiming that a lack of magnesium is responsible for a lot of the aches and pains we humans encounter on a regular basis. This could be as faddish as any other supplement or superfood that has gripped the nation over the last thirty or forty years. Or it could be something that makes me feel better, and I won't care if it's just internet bunk. I bought a big jar of magnesium flakes, which I have been told are somehow better than Epsom salts, and I'm going to soak for a while before bed. If this makes me sleep the night through, I'll do it again tomorrow. And if it does it again, I'll put off acquiring a lighted clock for the bedroom and sleeping with a notebook on my pillow. But for now, the plan is still in place.
No comments:
Post a Comment