Cave Time

It's that time of year: the extreme-level allergies are knocking me off my feet. Nothing out of the ordinary, and I had a really good February this year, so I don't want to complain.

But - just to explain, which is a different matter - I'll be even slower than usual, so please bear with any slowpokey responses from me back to you. There may be fewer posts, or more Articles vs. original material.

My sleep patterns will be all over the place for a while, but I'll be mostly nocturnal. For whatever reason, sleeping through the high-pollen daylight hours helps hugely; I've seen this work for other superallergic people too.

I'm trying to stabilize it - maybe sleep noon until midnight, maybe hold it down to 12 hours sleep/day - but we'll see how far those good intentions take me. I pick my battles carefully. Long experience has taught me that the need to treat this profound immunological reaction with all the sleep it wants, whenever it wants, is not a productive thing to fight. On this one, I go with the flow.

I don't really mind so much. I've got lots of great pics of the outside world to keep me busy for a good long time, and I still have lots of inside rehab to do. Fun stuff, the best kind. When I stop trying to fight the fatigue and switch to night owl life, I actually get a great deal accomplished. Much better than trying to drag myself through my day feeling Zombie.

It's cave time too. Being in North Florida 3 times in April did me a world of good. Sometimes changing the local pollen environment can make a big improvement, and the contrast in my level of function in North Florida vs. SE Florida was pronounced. For now, back home, I'm shut in during daylight hours. Thank heaven for the 24-hour Walmart, where I did my grocery shopping at 4:00 this morning. And picked up whatever I missed there at Publix at 7AM, then skedaddled home, bearing the fruits of foraging around in dangerous (outdoors) territory. Whee! Victory is mine!

One thing I've learned over these long years of illness is to remember to be patient: with myself, my beat-up body's needs in sleep and pollen avoidance, all that. Since I'm not a naturally willing patient this part's been a little hard. Of course I'd rather be gardening or bricklaying or hunting shark's teeth. Acceptance of the things I cannot change is important to me. In this arena, I try to prevent emergencies rather than have to deal with them. Still, I can't avoid having some battles to fight.

But together with picking my battles, I can choose my attitude. I can choose to be joyous in the fight itself - win or lose - or allow myself to stay depressed about having to fight in the first place. I say, Not everyone has the opportunity to face challenges serious enough that they bring out the best you have to give.

You probably figured out which choice I made.