My head cold has pretty much dried up, but the chest cold is on the offensive now. I have a dry cough as if I have inhaled lots of dust, and a hint of pain in my chest when breathing deeply. My pulse is 40-50 beats too high, I am shivering now and then even when the room is warm. I have a slight temperature, although I hesitate to call it fever as it is just below 38 degrees C.

To further complicate things, my bowels also are growing loose now in the evening. I am not sure if that is part of the same illness or just happens at the same time. Perhaps that accounts for some of the feeling of weakness and the hard beating of my heart.

The first day of my 5 weeks “writecation” has not been the success I hoped for. I put on my pulse watch to get some exercise done during work hours, when my pulse is lower. Except it was like +30-40. A sitting pulse of 90 and above is high even for a normal human. For me who usually has 60 or below at this time of the day, it was shocking.

My bowels went wild a couple minutes later, but I was not sure whether that was the cause of the high pulse or whether the high pulse just scared me shitless… Probably not, because over the next couple hours I had two more excessive bowel movements. In preparation for the second of the three, my heart did the drama queen thing where it goes as fast as it can, which seems to be around 170 these days. I am pretty sure it was closer to 180 last summer. Oh well. I survived (so far – it is now four hours later), still not sure it actually makes me stronger though…

Pulse is much closer to normal now, so that is good. But this morning, despite sleeping for over 7 hours, I woke up kind of hazy. It was as if my senses were all behind a thin layer of gauze, if that makes sense. I felt not quite dizzy, but a bit unsteady and clumsy. At work, I ate a light breakfast of two cups of chocolate pudding. After this I began shivering for about an hour, had to hurry to the toilet several times, and was generally overcome with such a feeling of malaise that I could not concentrate on my job. Eventually I went into “hibernation mode” as I call it, a state of dreamless sleep in my chair. For about half an hour I did so, waking up every five minutes, and then slept continually and dreamlessly for about a quarter of an hour. I woke up and felt mostly fine, except for a slight headache. I worked normally the rest of the workday.

In the evening I walked for 20 minutes. My pulse was still only +5 – +10, marginally higher than normal. So that is good. But the hazy feeling started to come back, so I went home. It seems like I need unreasonably much sleep these days. Normally, 6 hours 30 minutes used to be enough. I think the semi-stuffy nose could contribute to this: I don’t get as much oxygen as usual. Well, that is one hypothesis. I really don’t know. But it seems I have had these two things for the same period of time.

Anyway, now I have a dry cough. Not sure what’s up with that. Perhaps I just have to have SOMETHING to complain about. ^_^ Hopefully no one is reading.  I mean, I don’t really want people to read this unless I die, in which case perhaps they can find a clue here as to why. I certainly don’t have a clue, but then I am not dead either. Well, as of writing this, I am not!

Gums are sore and feeling of swelling in both upper jaws, starting with the left. It began last evening, and a long night’s sleep did not cure it this time, although it has only progressed very little in my sleep. My face feels stiff and swollen around the upper jaws, but I cannot see anything in the mirror, so it can’t be much. There is no strong pain, just the constant pressure, and the tenderness in the gums.

It’s been a week and my pulse is still 10 beats higher than it used to be. I can’t point to any particular infection; in fact, my digestion is more or less back to normal, it seems. My nose is still slightly stuffy, but no more than that. I am perhaps a little more sleepy than usual, but that is hardly an illness.
I walked for an hour today, even though my pulse was still higher. After half an hour, my lower legs were getting stiff; after one hour, my upper body is also stiff. And I was not even jogging, just walking fast. So yes, there is definitely something going on. But I don’t know what it is.

Suddenly my vocal cords felt like there was something stuck on them, and I began to clear my throat compulsively. Now my throat is super sore and it still hasn’t quite stopped. This bothers me because occasionally my vocal cords lock up completely for half a minute when I have these attacks, and I cant breathe till they unlock.

I am still alive as of writing this though. I am not sure whether it relates to the infection I wrote about on Sunday. I also wake up each morning with what feels like a head cold, though I suppose it could be dust mite allergy or something, not sure if that plays in. Really, I’m not sure about anything regarding this. I took more phones today than I have done in a long time, there seems to be a correlation between that and getting this condition too. Who knows. Humans see patterns even where there are none. I am still human enough that I might do this too.