Scattered Thoughts . . .

This has been a rather brutal week with miserable health. Today, however, is actually a bit agonizing.  I don't know how to describe it any differently.... agonizing.  I'm exhausted... so fatigued that it would easily classify as overwhelming fatigue. I've had mononucleosis three times in my life... anyone who has experienced mononucleosis, knows how overbearing the fatigue can be for months upon months... this fatigue I am experiencing this week is well beyond anything I've ever experienced before including the times I've had mononucleosis.  Trying to accomplish even the smallest of tasks is agonizing... including writing/typing here... this is taking too much out of me and I can't even think straight. I'll try to write more about this later...

Last night was... brutal.  The lousy health started to hit me while I was cooking dinner... country fried steak, pan roasted potatoes, country gravy and a big pan of fried okra. With four burners on the stove going at once, it was far too hot for me.  Heat is a major trigger for me. Warmer environments for anything longer than a few minutes will trigger my Systemic Mastocytosis episodes. These episodes can simply be painfully debilitating with only a few symptoms and/or they can include life threatening symptoms such as anaphylaxis. After cooking dinner, I couldn't even eat... I was nauseated beyond belief... and, generally, felt quite lousy. I knew my body was crashing but, apparently, I was not thinking clearly which is another symptom... diminished cognitive reasoning. I should have taken some emergency medications at this point but didn't think of it at the time. By the time we finished dinner, my nausea was still constant but I was experiencing worsening waves of n

It would be absurdly silly to complain about awaking to some snow falling out of the sky this morning after a winter of rain and mud so I'm not complaining at all... It definitely looks nicer out there this morning than yesterday morning... fresh snow covering dead leaves, mud, dead grass, more mud, and bare trees.... I suppose getting the boats ready for the lake is on hold for now... I usually cover the grill but this snowfall caught me by surprise. At least I hadn't already opened up the bedroom wall to install a window alcove yet.  I actually have some things to accomplish indoors... including finding the paint brushes I put away after renovating our bedroom in December so that I can paint this other bedroom...

I had a productive Sunday... The weather was beautiful and I was feeling fairly well. As I've mentioned many times before, the weather and my health must cooperate in order to have a productive day. Today, they cooperated so it was a productive day. The down side is that my spine is in miserable condition after working on this project today. I'm in constant pain... at about a seven on the ten point pain scale while at rest... but spiking to a nine or ten whenever I attempt to walk. The pain is so bad it stops me dead in my tracks and drops me to my knees, doubled over. There is no doubt that my spine is intensely inflamed but I hope I can quickly find a way to diminish this brutal pain. (While I was cleaning up and putting tools away that were scattered across the backyard, I resorted to using one of my long cabinet clamps as a cane because I definitely needed help standing on my own two feet.) Putting my health aside, I managed to build and install three shelving cabinet