June 15, 2006

• A learning experience.

  I am inexpressibly glad I’m not too old to learn.  Sometimes I
  think it’s awful that it has taken me so long to learn some things, but
  even when I feel that I should have learned something long ago, I am
  glad to have finally gotten the lesson.

  This week, I realized that it is not prudent, not even SAFE, really,
  for me to wait until one month’s supply of supplements is gone before I
  make up a new set for the next month.

  It wasn’t such a big job years ago, when I wasn’t in such bad
  shape.  Even now, I’m accustomed to being able to get it all done
  in a single day.  Maybe I had better get used to the idea that I
  may not always be able to do it all in one day and at the last
  moment.  There are 120 little bottles into which the hundreds of
  various pills from big bottles must be collated.  It takes
  forethought, planning, manual dexterity and a certain amount of stamina
  or physical energy. 

  All of those requirements are things I don’t always have at my disposal
  at the same time.  That is particularly true if it has been days
  or weeks or (horrors!) months since I had my proper doses of vitamins,
  minerals, herbs and amino acids.  My body can’t extract the
  B-complex vitamins it needs from ordinary foods.  I have been
  supplement-dependent since childhood. 

  You’d think that by now I’d be used to it and would have worked out
  some routine to deal with it.  If you’d think that, you just don’t
  know me very well.  Routine and I are not friends.  We are
  barely even acquaintances.  My motto is, “Trains run on
  schedules.  I don’t.”  Up to now, when I’d get down to my
  last day of supplement packs, I would start getting things together to
  make up a new batch.  Either that, or I wouldn’t.  I have
  sometimes deliberately let myself run out of pills just because I was
  weary and sick of taking pills.

  Eventually, though, without the pills I become sick in a different and
  more profound way.  This time, I didn’t want to be without my
  pills, but it worked out that way and that situation continued longer
  than was beneficial for me.  A month or two ago (okay, so I don’t
  keep track of things like that–so sue me) I ran out of pills at a very
  bad time.  I was in a severe immune-system flare-up, and there
  were other crises I had to deal with. 

  When
  I got around to trying to get the new pills together, I was unable to
  even make a good start at it.  A “good start” would be getting the
  big stock bottles out of the bin where they’re kept, sorting out those
  I currently need, getting out the 120 small bottles with their
  color-coded caps, and then taking a deep breath and resting before
  beginning the opening-up, emptying and filling of bottles and capping
  them.

  For a few weeks now, I have been trying to get started.  I had
  begun the process the day the bathroom caught on fire. (Mitch, Greyfox
  was factually correct regarding wildfires up north, but the fire I was
  referring to in my last entry was the one in my bathroom.  I
  intend to post pics of the damage sometime soon.)  After several
  false starts that got me basically nowhere, I realized I wasn’t going
  to be able to do the whole job all in one day.  Then I regrouped
  and figured out a way to divide up the task into several days.

   It took three days, but I finally finished it today. 
  Tomorrow, I’ll have my full complement of supplements for the first
  time in months, and maybe someday soon the improved body chemistry will
  allow me to get some work done around here and get back to regular
  blogging. 

  Maybe the improved brain chemistry will allow me to work on the backlog
  of readings.  Maybe, just maybe, the improved brain chemistry will
  help me remember what I learned from this experience, and in about
  three weeks when I begin to run low on this month’s meds, I’ll start
  working on the next batch.   One can hope. 

  

  • 6:47 pm
  • 6 Comments