On Being Ill

I'm generally a very healthy person with very few issues. Getting really sick is very unusual for me and certainly not something I really know how to react to. The process has helped me learn a few things about myself.

• I have a pretty high tolerance for pain, but that may be a bad thing. It kept me from going to the hospital the first time I had a problem with my gall bladder and delayed my inevitable trip to the ER.


• I have never been a fan of drugs (legal or illegal) and have really never taken anything more than Advil for most of my adult life. As a result, the pain killing drugs worked really well, but I didn't have any fringe benefits from the heavy doses of drugs. The feelings I got that were not just pain killing, were rather uncomfortable (like the room spinning), so I'm pretty sure there will never be at risk of abuse.


• I'm not very good at sitting around. I'm used to having a pretty full schedule and have had a really hard time taking it easy. I do OK on vacation, but that's with activities planned too.


• Anesthesea does a number on me. I was unable to focus on much of anything for three or four days, so I couldn't even read effectively for a while.