JayCS’s Fibro Blog

[JayCS]

Day 9 without work, Tuesday - 2nd night without 5-HTP… - Energy! (80% 100% )

Not quite that good start, no social stress. Ache 4 and energy 80%, so table tennis only 4.
But energy up to 100% later, cycling really fast for a short time, even sweating, no problem.
Spontanteous meeting with a friend of ours for 2h was really good, no stress.

My 24h-blood-pressure on the 11th/12th: Very high at work and after 8pm. But: That was the day after I’d gone to bed at 23:30 with a lot of Ache etc. Checked tonight: Around 120 till bed.
Sports: table tennis, cycling etc. was OK, sitting/lying/sleeping/breath-holding: 90-120, so low.

[JayCS]

Day 10 without work, Wednesday - 3rd night without 5-HTP… - Energy!

Sleep good, but strange 10-8:30, -1h20 = 9h10. (pretty awake 2x; got up, when less Ache)
“Finished” MISS Bella of the Living with Fibro Community… (if I ever am satisfied with anything…)

Bella, my toy Aussie

Dedicated to: MISS* Bella of the living With Fibro Community and AussieMom and the whole Living With Fibro Community and all the MISS** people, furry or otherwise, here! (lyrics under the song if you click on it to go on soundcloud) *Majestic in Supreme Special(i)ty **Majestic Imperial Sovereign Special

100% energy, e.g. whilst cycling. After acupressure she’d showed me a way to stroke over the (meridians of the) legs down outside and up inside, then arms down inside and up outside, then over head and back to see if that manages the stiffness.
Then 6 non-stop games of table tennis, a few seconds of my new combined yoga back/thigh/foot-exercise in between. Don’t need breath-holding, cold showering, more yoga or other exercises.
BUT: My wife just looked at me if I’d told the acupressurist that this fibro-flare is not one bit better than one year ago, that it’s only everything I’m doing which is giving me the “good life” - as I call it. Let’s try to disagree: All my pains (back, joints, clavicle, teeth/jaws, cramps/spasms and partly urethra) and my sleep disturbances are under control, they were all on overload till about August, but my *sleep amount/*time is still very high, the stiffness is “always” there, the Ache, myofascial-torso pain and feverishness as soon as I try a bit of what used to be normal. My wife sees the stiffness and the Ache, but she’s throwing the baby out with the bathwater. She’s right tho in that my acupressurist has sometimes been too optimistic and needs to be reminded of the fundamental problems which she doesn’t see. I told her today that the stiffness “at home” after 10 mins is about double of when I get up from her bench after the 1.5h of acupressure treatment.

My acupressurist asked me where exactly the stiffness is - joints or limbs? is easy: limbs, not joints. Inside or outside? No!, actually most of it is at the “tendon insertions”, i.e. at the ends of the muscle tendons/insertions. That’s why I partly agree with the 2nd rheum., who diagnosed the fibro, but said it was “more exact” to call it “polyinsertionstendomyopathy”. But I disagree, because *that isn’t my main problem, it’s the Big Ache, exhaustibility with fluey-feverishness, myofascial-torso pain and sleep need & disruptions. There’s much more to “fibro” or whatever anyone wants to call this syndrome/ collection of symptoms.

[AussieMom]

@JayCS

There’s much more to “fibro” or whatever anyone wants to call this syndrome/ collection of symptoms.

AMEN! I’ll say it again…AMEN! Something I read about FMS really stuck with me. Fibromyalgia causes the body to remember your pain, and it MAGNIFIES it. So, the pain and discomfort from all of these other conditions that go hand in hand with FMS (IBS, depression, anxiety, -Lost my train of thought here. Bella wants me to toss animals up in the air for her- arthritis, migraines, etc…, etc…) are a thousand times worse than they should be. You, JCS, listen to your body better than anyone I’ve ever met, but it’s like the FMS is right there, tapping you on the shoulder, saying, “You haven’t beat me in this area yet.” You eat what is good for you, exercise (like we all should be, but probably aren’t), use the therapies that can best help your ailments, and your body continues to fight against you!
But, you know what? Never ever ever quit fighting, my friend! It encourages the rest of us to continue on.

[JayCS]

Day 11 without work, Thursday - 4th night without 5-HTP… - Energy!

Sleep: Like last night I slept thru for 3-4 hour a stint, but was then pretty awake the 2nd time at 5, which is worse than waking up drowsily 6 times. Warm shower.
Anyway: just noticed a 2nd kind of stiffness in the lower back and thighs (and ankles) when standing for 10 mins. - Seems to depend on which position, the tendons are after lying down.

Dozing around (10:25-10:10 -1h40 = 10h10) I just had a brilliant idea for deciding how to carry on trying to work: What is best for my body is best for me, since I have detected no soul benefit in working with fibro, even tho having made it into my dream job before fibro. Sports are important for my aging, my fibro and especially my cardiovascular issues. The only longer sports I’m managing regularly is table tennis. Work is not even allowing me to play the 4 games easily, I had to go down to 3 or even leave it out on some days at 40%, going back to taking breaks in between and after. Now in the break I have gone up to 5 and 6 non-stop, without stooping. I have surplus energy for longer walks, fast cycling and short workouts, I could even go to gym machine workout. Whilst even 1 hour of work is blowing my blood pressure up to 170.
And my body needs so much sleep that alarms are bad for my health. So I don’t think my body wants me to work.
This fits neatly to what I decided beforehand as an indicator: If I can’t play 4 games of table tennis a day, I shouldn’t work. Now it hasn’t been that easy, because I have been playing on almost every day. But I need to self-care even more, and going to work is not self-care, it is doing me harm, it is hurting me.
This new orientation has come from realizing that I’ve got my energy back due to the work break. it isn’t

changing my short-term work plans however, but for after that:

I will still continue the 40% in Jan, hopefully in home office, to see if that changes anything. Then I will also prolong the 40% into Feb. If no new positive influences come up, I will then take the option of working “50%” for 50+% pay plus 25% disability = 75% pay, but use up all my overtime first, working as little as possible. Ah, no, it might be worth taking the overtime at 100% pay, but that way I would forgo the 25% disability and waste it with my overtime. If I knew I definitely wanted to keep going a bit, then it would be more sensible to spread the overtime over a few years, using the disability (what my boss suggested). If I knew I definitely wanted to completely stop working soon anyway, it’d be best to use the overtime 100% without disability pay. At 100% I’d be getting 5h/wk off work-time, which would prolong it from about 8 months to perhaps 9. The disability pay whilst working “50”% would ‘get me off’ 10h/wk, plus half of 5h/wk = 12,5h/wk.

Third kind of stiffness after sitting for a while: tendons above the ankles, but the muscles above the knees and in the backside.

Just realized my skin doesn’t even tolerate longjohns from organic cotton. I’ll try another pair.

6 games of table tennis non-stop, a bit of myofascial Ache, but still 100% energy.

[JayCS]

Day 12 without work, Friday - still good

5th night without 5-HTP… Quite a few breaks, but long sleep. My new woolen socks were OK tonight. - after the longjohns weren’t
Fourth kind of stiffness: Doing back exercises in bed before getting up it’s the tendons above and below my hips and elbows, plus wrists. The ankle tendons only become a problem when I get up.
as compared to Tendons in pelvis and above and below knees, after standing quite some time. The muscles there are very taught, but the pain is not there, it’s in the tendons. Not much in ankles and wrists.

Full energy at the same time as full tiredness
6 games of table tennis non-stop, no problems, but my wife said I look kaput after, so I laid down 20 mins. Asking her after she nagged again about me keeping overdoing things and wishing I’d find someone to talk to about this, altho I keep telling her that I’ve got you and my acupressurist. Not helping. Later I started thinking that it’s a problem of various levels of symptoms: My energy is 85-95% now, but doing - even only a part of - what my energy lets me do makes me very tired, leading to needing more sleep and sleepiness a lot of the day. Asking her whether with kaput she meant ‘very tired’, she answered yes. When I lie down, like after table tennis, my eyes get very itchy. Itchy eyes could just mean dry eyes, but do dry eyes mean I look tired? I’ll have to do my eye exercises and then ask again I spose, but I can’t really imagine that helping. But having alost full energy and being completely tired is just as weird… We’ve just been for an hour long fast walk, no problem for my energy, a bit of a strain for one knee and my back, so I did some of my speed-yoga, which was OK, but I my eyes were very itchy going out, outside and back in.

Longjohns (same) uncomfy again, took’em off as soon as we were back in from walking. Have to remember one of my thick hoodies over a normal hoodie next time, it’s getting close to freezing point.

If energy is connected with tiredness:
Could more energy without work be coming from more sleep without work ?
I’m heading for an avg. of 9h40 this week, last week 9h20. The weeks before 9h08/n (the 2nd week of 40% 9h15 wasn’t with any energy, but maybe mainly cos of the dentist?) An average of 10 mins more doesn’t in the least seem enough to explain energy going up from about 60 to 90%. And the quality of my sleep isn’t higher, I’m often dozing the last 2h and have longer sleep breaks than whilst I was working.
So: nope! (And of course not from less sleep, as I had that too.)
It still seems that more energy has a consequence of more tiredness and if possible more sleep, strangely.
My wife cannot see whether it’s ‘just’ itchy eyes from sicca that are making me look tired or full tiredness. I couldn’t be bothered to try to exercise my eyes today. I could buy some eye drops of course. Or exercise them. Or continue to try to spot another connection.

Praps my wife is right that having a tooth ache continually after 2 fillings is not a good sign. - I prophecy a new dentist visit coming up very

[JayCS]

Day 13 without work, Saturday - Energy!

Dry mouth gel does not stop me getting a dry cough from the dry mouth. Lots of short pangs of about each kind of pain, up about 8x most worrying are teeth and eyebrow (= trigeminus?). That should teach me not to go to bed later (10:30).

Energy does seem to be disrupting my sleep rhythm a little, making me stay up before and during.
Stop it. Main problem’s been compulsiveness about finding the pics/memes.
(There are so many good ones! Really makes me realize how much company we have.)

Energy still full! What joy to speed around cycling in the fresh air.

[JayCS]

Day 14 without work, Sunday - Energy!: 8x table tennis

Bed earlier 9:45 (not really early enough), 12 Really intense acid reflux suddenly: OUCH!! Why? A bit of tomato, a bit of vinegar, but mainly a load of cinnamon (which in most people helps) and sour-tasting, vitamin C heavy baobab powder (which also got up my nose from inside), because it seemed to taste like nothing much at first. Darn risk-taking.
It was the cinnamon, not the baobab, see post #192 on Jan8.
Sleep was then 9:45-8:45 -2h05 = 8h55.

Sleeping was thus a tough job, getting up when a certain deadness left me, but eyes not open, stiffness in the pelvic tendons or muscles, not sure. I want to try watching the Deadness, which starts in the early evenings, remains all night, gets better when I’ve slept 9h, and I try to get rid of by exercising, getting up, pressing the cortisol point, showering. It seems related to the Ache, but somehow different, or is that just the intensity?

A reminder where I am with my main symptoms: TCM/acupressure has helped a lot of pains, plus sleep, cold, leg-energy & breath.
I’m still struggling with sleep, the Ache, stiffness-ache and when working: feverishness, after talking a lot: again, the Ache.
Gonna target the stiffness in the acupressure next, because that’s what she’s asking for and also might be the egg, whilst the Ache and sleep might be the hen (pardon the deliberate gallow’s humour using this hen&egg-analogy). She also wants to improve my sleep, but isn’t getting further, after initial help.

Activities 8! games of table tennis, fairly non-stop, 1h zoom meeting with bro & sis, 10’ dancing, 30’ hoovering, 20’ cooking - but still not much treatment necessary, a bit of arm-body-swinging yoga all the time was enough. No breath-holding, etc., cold showering only at night.

5pm Just had a total eosophagus-block again for the first time in months. After eating raw carrots, well chewed, room temperature. Immediately tried heat on it, a spelt cushion, but after 10 mins I didn’t think it right to stand the discomfort & pain any more, very exhausting, so got the block out. I think it had to do with the acid reflux last night, which will have severely burnt my esophagus. However I can’t find any relation between my heartburn dates and my esophagus-dates and I can’t find any other reflux dates. Hmm… have to watch for that connection now: esophagus-block with reflux or heartburn.

Come to think of it, I’d eaten at least 5 small tomatoes in the last few days too, and my a is burning - maybe that ‘helped’ the other 2 symptoms as well. My wife had bought me a salad-mix and I’d forgotten to give her them…
(btw A fibromite in the rheum./fibro clinic had these blocks too. My allergologist has no clue, the last ENT suggested a digesting examination, but as it only happens occasionally I can’t really imagine that making sense, at the most directly after it happens.

Before, 2020 = carrots: 3x (severe), tofu 4x moderate, 1x severe, tomatoes moderate 3x; more strikingly: much more with the overall pains exacerbated by doc-therapy & -exams in Feb 9x, Mar 7x

(Oct 18th, but not as painful, July 31st, also, July 21st severe after cold yoghurt, May 19th after raw fennel, May 13th & Apr 28th & 20th moderate, tofu, March 31st & 25th severe, carrots, 24th moderate, 15th moderate (muesli?, 12th severe, gluten-free bread), 10th moderate, apple-juice!, 2nd severe tofu & severe gluten-free bread, Feb 28th light, 23rd moderate, chicoree, 19th moderate, salad, 17th & 16th light, 15th moderate, apple juice, 14th moderate, tomatoes, 13th moderate, tomatoes, skin-itching thru Metamizol-trial, 12th moderate tomatoes, moderate quince).

[JayCS]

Day 15 without work, Monday

Cold showering after a slight hot flush at 12 - easy no brainer.
Lotion on itchy skin and on ankle skin bc of the new woolen socks to be on the safe side, feet now only have a slight tendency to itch.
12:40am Cold shower 3h sleep. Too late again, but better and long at least.
a-pain trick: pulling buttocks aside, so wedging blankets between thighs got me to sleep!

Too rainy for table tennis, but minimally danced 15’ to music I couldn’t resist, praps I should do that more. And shd’ve done a workout.
TCM/acupressure targeted tendons & sleep, also mentioned cold feet again. No help.

[JayCS]

Day 16 of not working, Tuesday - 1st pretty bad day (doc): 10 bad hours:

Sleep: unrest, up 8x, 2 longer breaks (first probably due to the appt. today), managed 9h20 tho.
So yesterday’s acupressure hasn’t help with the Ache, stiffness or sleep. Yet…?
I had slightly less sleep breaks while I was working, but praps only cos of going earlier.

Went by bus to a new doc for ozone-injections, and acupuncture?
He says oxygen and even more ozone can help with a lot of things, I’d have to do it about 6x (2x/wk) before it does anything. Then we could try the second longer-term form they use. And parallel acupuncture. He does that too. He clarified: only few needles for fibro - same as the other Chinese-trained doc I want/ed to go to, who’s stopped treating patients due to CoV.
He knows fibro, knows there’s no cure, just the question how to manage it.
Says there’s one doc he knows well who claims acupuncture is very helpful with fibro. That doc works in my town and they’ve done lectures together, I’ve just seen.
First treatment next Tuesday.
My acupressurist thinks it’d be too invasive for her way of thinking. But I need to test something more, because of the critical point coming up with work.

12 Ache up to 6 after the appt., energy 75%, rest: 95%, cycling/grandchild: Ache 4/5, after 5/6. Shd’ve at least tried a real breath-holding exercise. Tried to postpone cold water cos of the treatment on Monday. Altho it hadn’t helped - but sometimes it does 2 days later. 10 bad hours, sleep was better and long because of the extreme “heaviness”/deadness.

Dentist appt. tomorrow, that may be fun too.

[JayCS]

Day 17 of not working, Wednesday - 3h bad (dentist), rest quite good

Sleep 9:40-8:50 -45 10h25 sleep! (but dozing after a very silly break of 25’ no laptop at night).
Better & long because of the extreme “heaviness”/deadness after the Big Ache.
Any lesson to learn from this? For work? Or going to bed “even” earlier? Ahem.
200ml oat drink very little bit of heartburn at night, just about OK.

And then getting up was good like always. Cold shower making arms a bit itchy.

Dentist isn’t just what’s done, it’s the small talk before with the (nice) assistants, I just realized. Put a new sealing coat on, after drilling a little off, maybe that’ll be OK.

The breath-holding exercise got the Ache after the dentist down from 4 after the small talkt, to 6 after the sealing coat to about 2.
An hour later up, meandering around 3/4, unlike sport/doc-type Ache, more hurtful & slightly feverish. Warm up a bit, then cold shower? Hmm, quite OK without, Ache 1/2 from 4pm.
(slight tooth pain from eating cold stuff, but better). So about 3h.
Home office in Jan. Bit worried about how it needs to be done, so read up & asked colleagues.

Again a different pair of new woolen socks at night was pretty itchy, apparently need to be broken in, too.

[JayCS]

Day 18 of not working, Thursday, 3h moderate, rest good

Sleep: Early. Waking up every 90’-120’ until 5, so too late to cold shower, then every 30’. No explanation. grrrmpf. My wife suggests too little movement - not impossible, due to the dentist yesterday (b4 that 5x table tennis, cd’ve longer).
Praps I shd give me a blast with 5-HTP plus Tryptophan early this evening. 1 drop of CBD oil?

And I read about D-Ribose once again, mainly for muscle fatigue with ME/CFS & praps FMS, works on ATP, if at all. One problem for me is it’s sugar (blood fats), however decreases blood sugar? The other is gut problems when dosed higher. OTOH fatigue isn’t the problem at the mo.

Again itchy stressed skin for 2h… after a 2x1’ cold shower. Praps coz of the cold outside. Lotions used to stress too, but I’ll try again.

8x table tennis non-stop, OK (cd’ve yesterday too), but not much more movement, cd’ve, shd’ve… Paper work tho, making me think about 2019, 2020 & 2021 & then the news - I’ll try to sleep first (with 5-HTP & Tryptophan, without checking before), and then cold shower later if nec.

[JayCS]

Day 19 of not working, Friday, bad 3h (6-9am)

Sleep: 2h stints, then yukky cold shower (always a challenge now it’s freezing outside) Didn’t need a hot water bottle after tho, concentrated more on lotion on itchy skin (legs more than neck, arms)
Bit of reflux, after cinnamon !not baobab as I’d guessed. Which usually helps people with hyperacidity, but - so it says on the web - YMMV.
Slight unwellness and hungriness upon being up a bit, feels like (3) potatoes, but might’ve been the cinnamon too.
Sleep: Not early enough. 9h altogether. Awake 4x = 35mins (cold washing, shower & lotion). 2x1h40 and a 4h! stint after the cold shower, having used tryptophan & 5HTP too, a lot of me hurts, esp. thighs - trying putting sth. soft under, painful stiffness, very tired. That’s not want I was aiming for… more pain from less breaks… (?)
OK, how’m I gonna tally that? I spose this is not quite the OK=moderate zone any more, so from 6am on I’ll call it ‘bad’, till I manage to get it down. Breath-holding? Cold? Ah, got better just by being up.

And yesterday evening was moderate for a few hours, let’s say 3h.

Morning was good after that, then TCM/acupressure great, 100% energy: 8x table tennis non-stop, 5x cycling at full speed, breaking speed records, improving the vocals an older song of mine, quick grocery shopping. Not overdoing anything, apart from I cd’ve praps rested my torso a bit more.
Despite no social control till tomorrow got everything I wanted done in time (breaking fibro-speed records helped), incl. bed, but can’t sleep…

TCM/acupressure was OK. At the beginning I got a long moderate cramp again, this time a needling one on the right lower back, which she had to calm down first for about 5 mins. After I didn’t feel it that much, and sleep was worse again, at least going to sleep, then quite good…
I told her that her pressure point plasters hadn’t helped against the stiffness at all, like they had against the tooth ache, and that mentally pretending I’m not stiff was dangerous, bc I then twist(ed) my ankles (or knees). (I sometimes wonder whether she really has fibro… But at least she always accepts when I tell her about whether her ideas have helped.) I told her about waking at night so often and then being pleased after having slept a 4h-stint twice, but being unamused when the stiffness and pain is much increased. I’m thinking I prefer getting up once an hour and then having less pain by moving regularly…

[JayCS]

Day 20 of “not working”, Saturday - good, apart from/despite overdoing it

Good sleep!, after the bad start, praps cos I’d left the heating on till shortly before, which also seems to have given me a bad sore throat (praps threw blankets off, plus heated air). Only 4 breaks, 4h-stint again from 2 to 6. 5-HTP without Tryptophan. Got up early tho, so I might manage a better start this evening.

Activities: Started with song re-recording/producing in longer stints and cleaning up the flat in 5’ stints, any dirt that gets in my way (kitchen & bathroom). (And saw I’m losing my Amitryptyline-6kg bit by bit, -3kg, I’m glad to say: that’d be OK for me now.) But I didn’t calculate on the song plus esp. cleaning making table tennis so hard, only managed 6x, just about, and need to rest - hope that wasn’t overdoing it too much. Wdn’t call it bad yet… Hmm, 4 hours later I am now thinking of calling it bad. Hold yer 'orses: Time to react, not just rest! Overdoing it, then not resting actively, and blaming fibro, tss tss. Also my energy’s surely still OK. OK, torso-stretching by turning & holding helped. Doesn’t make me nauseous anymore, I’ve been realizing, maybe acupressure has helped there, too.

Work: Actually I did about 3h of home officing on Wednesday already to prepare myself for what I ought to be doing. And it wasn’t just “reading up”, it was working thru it, and cd’ve been stress, but was fairly OK, and reassured me that I know what to do. And I’m doing some today and/or tomorrow.
Just thinking back and trying to judge work: After going to work for 2h (and talking thru a thick mask) I need to recover for at least 2h and then only manage one further activity of about 1h. Home office can be 3h if less stressy.
9 Tired enough so I should sleep right away, at least.
Tooth is still aching, need to target it and relax my jaw. Or use the pressure points on my earlobe.
Playing cards 8:45, while tired, made it hurt 4x…

[JayCS]

Day 21 of “not working”, Sunday - Really good

Sleep: Bed at 9, 6x5’ breaks. Too tired to cold shower, even while seemingly dozing, but dreaming interesting undramatic stuff, after 3:30.
Good really creative motivating ideas for work, esp. in the last dozing shortly before waking.
My middle back stung-hurt, so I used put the small spelt cushion I always have in with my normal small cushion for my head under it. Then realized this had been a little bit the past few days too. So had a look where the lambskin is for my thighs - it was 10cm too high! Prince on the Pea!: ah, eye allreddy sea meams, wrods n wroms all over the web… - and looking, find them, and also fibro-clean-hacks on The Mighty…
6x table tennis relaxing quickly but deeply after each single point, jaw and torso
Worked a lot - bit tense in between, some conferencing & mails but all good

[JayCS]

Day 1 of working again, Monday - still good, despite loads of online work stress

Sleep:
Reading stressy complaint mail made the first hours of sleep difficult, despite self-hypnosis. Got my blood pressure down from 150/90 to 130/85 by relaxation, cold-showering didn’t change it.
3am: Strange. For the 1st time my stiffness really seemed to come from my knees, not the tendons. Not sure if the lambskin is better for my thighs, not really.
Work: Hours of pure stress for video conferences that hardly worked…
Table tennis: 8x, but so relaxed that I lost most. Needed that.
Singing lesson: Good, relaxed. Great feedback.
Still have energy.

[JayCS]

Day 2 of working again, Tuesday 4 bad hours

Sleep
A thicker mattress-topper was no good idea. Nor was pizza for supper: hungry. Nor running out of soy drink. But after 11.30 hours I’d got my 10h20 of sleep incl. dozing.
Just in time for my rehab-doc (psychiatrist). Who has similar thoughts to mine about FMS. He also threw additionally CFS into the ring, not that it makes much difference. Also praps mild RLS for which he prescribed something. Probly won’t take it yet, since I’m starting with ozone-injections now. The best part was that he’s changed the rehab to 40% for the next 3 months!!! And then theoretically 100% in one jump - or disability pay. That makes everything very much easier!!!
Ache high = 6 after the doc, despite the good news, and feeling comfy in the 50min. appt. without waiting time. Really itchy eyes too: that’s not dry, that’s tired/exhausted.
Down to 2 after treatment, down to 1 after 8x table tennis, but then slowly up to again to 5 at 7pm after 20mins of grocery shopping (2x5mins cycling). Praps I shd’ve laid down longer after table tennis.
Shd’ve worked a bit today praps, didn’t have to; but too tough, after yesterday, so I’ll postpone it to tomorrow…

[JayCS]

Day 3 of working again, Wednesday - pain & Ache quite OK, but stress

Sleep
Reflux again at 12. Haven’t eaten anything unusual apart from 5-HTP. Just read up that it can cause stomach & gut problems like heartburn (tryptophan doesn’t). Wait a minute, didn’t my doc say that yesterday, too about 5-HTP? So when were the last times? Reflux after tryptophan & 5-HTP on Day 19 not working, Jan 8., altho I thought it was the cinnamon! And on Day 14 not working, Jan 3, but that was probably from the cinnamon and I don’t know about 5-HTP there, I was planning to take it, and partly did, but apparently haven’t written it down anywhere when I did in the 3rd week of not working…
Dozed a lot after a 1.5h sleep break.
After feeling yukky in my lower back I didn’t cold shower or even get up I twisted my body as far as it could go 5-6x to each side and I cd continue sleeping then so I’m counting it as 5h of sleep after the break.
But I had severe IBSD when I was woken up at 6 (by some squeaking maintenance lorry). You guessed it: another of the side effects of 5-HTP.
Learning all the time!

Itchy skin after cold showering btw was maybe cos of rubbing myself down too hard & quickly with the towel, it was only sometimes. I’ve been trying not to in the last few days & it didn’t get itchy when I didn’t.

First ozone “injection” went well - 200ml blood out, ozone/oxygen-mix into that, and slowly back into my vein.
8x table tennis without problems, faster and better than on the days before. Even appeared as if it might’ve been due to the ozone, altho they say it takes 6x before I see if it works.
Work was stress again, so much to get used to working tech-things out online for others that they can really use! But I think it’s gonna be OK soon.
a-pain - not sure why - 5-HTP still? Or ominous “spices” in a can of baked beans, which I love (cold…) O.o
Sent my new rehab-plan of staying on 40% for 3 months to my employer - I hope they’ll go along with it without too much hassle. But as my wife said: If they say no, I have to go for less pay, then that’s OK too.

[JayCS]

Day 4 of working again, Thursday - still lots to do, still OK

So much to do, that I cdn’t catch up here yet.
But slight reflux at night I think, a focal seizure after midnight, had to get up early for work, the preparation is now slowly paying off, still did about 6 hours again today, acupressure esp. on calves and jaw, she’d forgotten about my focal seizures, wants to target that again, 8x table tennis non-stop, not quite relaxing enough, my boss was a bit narked that I’d told the employer about staying at 40%, cos she wanted to know first, to be able to plan better. Well so what, I’d only just heard it Tuesday.
My wife got big eyes when she heard I’ve now got 2h acupressure mondays and fridays and 2h ozone-injection (incl. there and back by bus) tuesdays and fridays… if I’m not doing too much. But I still feel good and haven’t got the feeling it’s a cortisol/adrenaline-fake with a flare-up rolling on…

[JayCS]

Day 5 of working again, Friday, pretty bad 9h, despite hardly working today

Good sleep first, 2x3h!, then problems, managed 10h but had to get up at 8:30 for the bus to the ozone-injections, which I almost missed, so had to run 40 yards, so not being able to continue sleeping and the stress made me flare. Then I missed the bus-stop, didn’t press the button hard enough I spose, luckily there was a bus back. Long rest. 8x table tennis, fairly relaxed. Rest. 1.5h son & grandchild, fun, but: Rest. Ache of 5/6 (of 7), just due to the strain.
OK, resting isn’t changing anything. I’ll do something about it Ehm, OK, it got sort of OK.

Just realized that I now have 4 treatments a week, each 2.5h (incl. getting there)… Got to take that into account.

My “tooth” only hurts from muscle strain! (more when stressed), hardly from cold air or food/drink, a week after the dentist sealed it. Now I can push the skin/muscle up and it stops hurting, which shows it’s not really the tooth, altho it came from there. My acupressurist assumes the muscle has got used to trying to protect the tooth and overstrains.
Also the ear on that side feels slightly clotted. When I massage it, it’s better, I’d best tell her that too, praps it’s from that and not from the ear plugs all night, like I was assuming.
Back yoga while p. helps against the p-pain.

[JayCS]

Day 6 of working again, Saturday - not bad

Brilliant sleep: 9:50-8:15, 10h25-25=10h, only 5x5’ breaks. try to copy that.
Sleep-avg. this week: 9h48. Last week: 9h25, before: 9h33, before: 9h21.
Whilst working before Christmas: 9h, sometimes a bit above, often below.
Try aiming at 10h, means even earlier, aiming at bedtime 8:30 and even more discipline. Praps the ozone helped these last 2 nights - it’s sposed to, but not quite yet.

Playing table tennis was surprisingly hard at first. Got 8x done, but in the 2nd game my arms hurt as if I’d been cleaning windows, but the upper arms too. I had to stop for a minute. Rubbing/exercising didn’t help. Several 2min. breaks with arms up did the trick Shows that the short movements in table tennis are usually OK, because it’s not an endurance sport like kitchen work…

Acupressurist-ideas: Letting both knees fall to one side, then the other, and go with the fall-swing & rebound. Doesn’t help for stiffness, like she hoped, but it feels good. Good for night-back-unrest too. Trying imaginative journeys again while dozing at night. Tried eagle, but it’s a little tiring. She suggested being on a sailing boat, but I kept getting almost hit by the boom (bar, looked it up) of the sail, memories of a small sailing spree with an uncle. Suddenly I had a kite (diamond/Eddy dual-line stunt kite), which was interesting, being on the ground and holding the kite, like my thoughts, seemed to work quite well to stop getting distracted, but of course it takes energy to hold a kite.