[234/366] Friday five about health
Aug. 21st, 2020 08:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cosmolinguist1. How's your health this week?
I have a pinched/trapped nerve in my shoulder. It just suddenly appeared Tuesday afternoon, when I was sitting still in a chair. My neck and shoulders were so tense that the muscles just fucked up all by themselves!
My mental health was garbage especially on Wednesday. It's gotten a lot better since, in some ways, but I'm at the "can only lie on my bed and play games on my phone" stage today which is not surprising but is frustrating. It's not fun for me, because I'm lacking in activation energy/executive function rather than because I'm relaxing and enjoying it.
My sleep has been utter trash this week, but that's nothing new.
2. What's the healthiest thing you've done recently?
Refused to worry about how healthy any particular activity is. I've had disordered eating and bad body image pretty much constantly and sometimes quite severely in lockdown.
3. What do you look for in a doctor?
I really wish I could find someone who would prescribe me anxiolytics. I might have to start looking for one who can do trans stuff too.
4. What was your most memorable childhood illness?
I wasn't very often ill. I had chicken pox at an inopportune time -- my mom was recovering from an operation (I think it was the emergency appendectomy) and to be released from the hospital couldn't be too far away. Our house was too far but my grandparents' wasn't. My brother and I would've been four and six so we stayed there too. It was the beginning of summer vacation.
My grandma was already looking after my mom who was still sick (the appendix had been full of tumors and was poisoning her blood before they could get it out) and then my mom was getting me dressed one morning and asked her mom to come look at some spots on my torso. The verdict is that they were indeed chicken pox. My little brother was possibly the most solicitous he'd be of me his entire life, bringing me juice and spending so much time so close to me that my mom and grandma were worried he'd get chicken pox too. He didn't, not for a couple more years, but he did get some kind of intestinal infection so my grandma had all three of us to look after at once.
I remember this situation but don't remember exactly having the chicken pox itself. Apparently I had such a mild case my mom has always worried I'd get shingles as an adult. But I've babysat kids who had chicken pox and stuff and I've always been absolutely fine.
5. What's your most interesting scar and how did you get it?
When I shave my head, the scar on it becomes much more obvious. I got it on what must've been my twelfth birthday. I was wearing a white sweatshirt I just got from my parents as a present. I dropped something on the classroom floor near the whiteboard and when I picked it up, I stood up with my head too close to the marker ledge.
I thought I'd just given myself a bruise first but a minute later I rubbed my head and my hand came away completely covered in blood. I thought "oh maybe I should go clean this up." I was found in the girls' bathroom, blood on it and myself, by Amber S., one of the prettiest most popular people in my grade. It was practically the only interaction we ever had so she mentioned it even in the pages of my high school yearbook autograph pages, six years later.
My mom had to collect me and take me to the doctor. Amazingly it didn't need stitches; it was a deep cut but very narrow. Those metal marker ledges were vicious, it turns out.
I have a pinched/trapped nerve in my shoulder. It just suddenly appeared Tuesday afternoon, when I was sitting still in a chair. My neck and shoulders were so tense that the muscles just fucked up all by themselves!
My mental health was garbage especially on Wednesday. It's gotten a lot better since, in some ways, but I'm at the "can only lie on my bed and play games on my phone" stage today which is not surprising but is frustrating. It's not fun for me, because I'm lacking in activation energy/executive function rather than because I'm relaxing and enjoying it.
My sleep has been utter trash this week, but that's nothing new.
2. What's the healthiest thing you've done recently?
Refused to worry about how healthy any particular activity is. I've had disordered eating and bad body image pretty much constantly and sometimes quite severely in lockdown.
3. What do you look for in a doctor?
I really wish I could find someone who would prescribe me anxiolytics. I might have to start looking for one who can do trans stuff too.
4. What was your most memorable childhood illness?
I wasn't very often ill. I had chicken pox at an inopportune time -- my mom was recovering from an operation (I think it was the emergency appendectomy) and to be released from the hospital couldn't be too far away. Our house was too far but my grandparents' wasn't. My brother and I would've been four and six so we stayed there too. It was the beginning of summer vacation.
My grandma was already looking after my mom who was still sick (the appendix had been full of tumors and was poisoning her blood before they could get it out) and then my mom was getting me dressed one morning and asked her mom to come look at some spots on my torso. The verdict is that they were indeed chicken pox. My little brother was possibly the most solicitous he'd be of me his entire life, bringing me juice and spending so much time so close to me that my mom and grandma were worried he'd get chicken pox too. He didn't, not for a couple more years, but he did get some kind of intestinal infection so my grandma had all three of us to look after at once.
I remember this situation but don't remember exactly having the chicken pox itself. Apparently I had such a mild case my mom has always worried I'd get shingles as an adult. But I've babysat kids who had chicken pox and stuff and I've always been absolutely fine.
5. What's your most interesting scar and how did you get it?
When I shave my head, the scar on it becomes much more obvious. I got it on what must've been my twelfth birthday. I was wearing a white sweatshirt I just got from my parents as a present. I dropped something on the classroom floor near the whiteboard and when I picked it up, I stood up with my head too close to the marker ledge.
I thought I'd just given myself a bruise first but a minute later I rubbed my head and my hand came away completely covered in blood. I thought "oh maybe I should go clean this up." I was found in the girls' bathroom, blood on it and myself, by Amber S., one of the prettiest most popular people in my grade. It was practically the only interaction we ever had so she mentioned it even in the pages of my high school yearbook autograph pages, six years later.
My mom had to collect me and take me to the doctor. Amazingly it didn't need stitches; it was a deep cut but very narrow. Those metal marker ledges were vicious, it turns out.