Shortly before midnight, I suddenly began shivering and shaking even though the room was pleasantly warm. In the past several years this has been a fairly sure sign of fat poisoning (I think it is fat that triggers it, at least) but I have not had that in months, and I don’t remember eating all that much fat the past two days compared with the rest of the summer.  I suppose it could be some other poisoning.  The only strange thing I have eaten this evening was a stir fry of carrot slices, pasta, fried and dried onion and cheese.  Not something you’d expect to threaten your life.

I am shaking badly now, even with a thick winter jacket on.  My heartbeat also changed while I was standing up, though I am not sure if this feeling comes directly from the heart or from the falling blood pressure. My guts are starting to hurt as well, and gradually my stomach.  So far it is the same symptoms as what I used to call “darkening” but renamed “fat poisoning” after I thought I found the connection.  The symptoms always occurred in a somewhat random order except at the very end. The fear is setting in gradually now, as well.  The muscles of arms and legs are stiffening in involuntary contractions, and presumably so are the intestinal muscles:  Intense and often painful bowel movements are also part of the set of symptoms that almost always occurred.

Of course, it could be something else this time, given that I have not had a sudden influx of fat that I can think of. Well, there is the ice cream, but it is not THAT fat, and I had more of it in less time earlier in the summer.

One difference from usual is that my body temperature was not lower than usual at the onset of the attack.  It is usually at least half a centigrade too low for the time of day, sometimes a whole centigrade or even a little more. This time, it was perfectly normal.  As part of my Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome (a completely different condition) my body temperature is at its highest at bedtime – in most people it is already creeping downward when they head to bed and reaches minimum early in the morning. In my case, it reaches minimum late in the morning, around the time I must wake up.

I now feel glowing hot in my winter clothes.  This is usually the last stage before the sudden onset of irresistible sleep, from which I have so far always woken up after 10-30 minutes to find the attack pretty much gone.  Here’s hoping I will wake up this time as well.

EDIT 01:30: Woke up from mandatory dreamless sleep in my chair.  Have a slight headache but the attack seems to be over. If I die before I wake, it is probably from something else.  Thanks for watching this weird and unique syndrome, live from Riverview! Perhaps historians of the future will know what it really was.