Showing posts with label sleep. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sleep. Show all posts

12 May 2010

Viral infection rears its head again

Yesterday I had to catch public transport back home and as it was rather a windy day, it was not such a good day for me to be walking around, because high winds cause a lot of pollen, dust and other things to be in the air and it's not good for me when I inhale it through my nose or mouth.
My body cant handle dust, pollen and other small particles, as they get caught up in my sinuses and lungs and make my sinuses hurt (I get pain in my frontal sinuses), my ears start to hurt too because for some reason those little particles must get in my ears too and clog them up as well and my lungs hurt too, inhaling those particles irritate my lungs and cause me to cough more and all of this causes an allergic reaction.  In addition to this, the air pressure changes when there are high winds and that also affects my sinuses by making them more sore and more prevalent to infection.

When these little particles clog up my airways, the airways get irritated, inflamed and this allows any lurking viruses to invade, because my immune system is not functioning properly and so the pathogens (viruses) can easily enter, unhindered, where they can multiply and cause infection. Obviously because I haven't been feeling at all well lately, there are always viruses around, ready to invade and infect me more, so doesn't take much to get me sick.

By the time I got home, I was feeling very lethargic and ready to lie down and sleep.  My lungs were quite sore and I was coughing a lot - the bronchitis cough. My sinuses were also sore and I was getting sharp pain from my ears, especially my right ear.

Today, I feel really sick again, even though I slept for about 10 hours last night - obviously I needed it, after not sleeping enough yesterday.

02 May 2010

Stress is taking a huge toll on my health

The constant stress of being around these chaotic, manic, obnoxious people is taking a huge toll on my health, to the point where I have been sick almost every day from a viral upper respiratory infection, almost every day for the past three months! I have had sinusitis, colds, the flu, pharyngitis and bronchitis, as well as allergies. The bronchitis makes it very hard for me to breathe properly.

My face looks terrible too. The stress is starting to take a huge toll on my looks lately. Even I can see how terrible I am looking every day! My skin tone looks bad, I have dark circles under my eyes, my hair looks limp and I have lost the sparkle in my eyes.

The viral infections mean I get hot and cold chills and fever, I feel totally lethargic and exhausted. My energy levels are so low.

I also don't sleep very well. I have really bad quality of sleep, often waking up many times during the night because I get sleep apnea - with my nasal passages completely blocked and then my mouth being closed too, I stop breathing, at which point my body realises that I am not breathing, wakes me a little to make me conscious and then I start gasping for air and wake up with a startle. It freaked me out the first time it happened and took me ages to convince doctors that it was happening (I don't fit the regular profile of a person with sleep apnea as I am not obese or even overweight), but now it happens every so often, I know what it is and I try to calm myself down after I wake up with the gasp for air and try to get back to sleep again.

With the insomnia, it means even if I do get to sleep and stay asleep, I don't feel at all refreshed when I wake up - sometimes I feel even more tired that when I first went to sleep!

I am a right mess at the moment and I just want someone to show me some kindness and gentleness.  But I think I will have to comfort myself with the cat's love as he is the only nice, sweet thing in this house. He tends to sleep in my room every night, at the foot of my bed. When he's ready to go out, he gets up from his sleeping position and walks around and makes a little purring noise and let him out. It's because I am such a light sleeper at the moment that I rouse immediately as soon as the cats wakes up. At least he loves to cuddle with me before going to sleep and before leaving, so that is the only time I get some loving and even though it's only a little bit of love from an animal, at least it's something and at least it's unconditional love and comes without any strings attached. The cat loves me for me and that's nice! At least someone does!