keep moving

Had colonoscopy last Friday. I'd been dealing with off-and-on post-nasal dripcough, nothing serious, for some time before that. Got home, largely did okay, but by morning I was coughing and miserable and uggh and wound up with a fever. Haven't gone into the doctor's in person but when I did an e-visit and described my symptoms (including things being green that are not supposed to be green I got a prescription for amoxicillin and 'come in for an in-person exam if this doesn't make the symptoms go away'.

So, sinus infection, as far as I can tell.

I am deeply grateful for the fact that my office is WFH on Mondays and Fridays and for the fact that the office is closed tomorrow. I am in that state of recovery where I am no longer feverish and have just enough energy to sit up and do desk stuff and deceive myself into thinking I am in better shape than I actually am. As much as I want to be at the Vets Against Stupid Ass Orange Tin Plated Dictators With Delusions Of Godhood protests tomorrow to back up the veterans, it would not be a good idea for me to push myself that much. I will be sleeping a lot, assuming the cat allows me to do so.

I hate. Hate. Hate. Medical terminology. So much sometimes.

if you have named a sleep disorder something that requires five out of six searchable sources of information to have something on the order of "Despite the name, the condition is harmless" as the SECOND LINE OF THE ARTICLE, then maybe, JUST MAYBE, you should consider renaming the disorder to something a LITTLE less disquieting than Exploding Head Syndrome!

(It's a parasomnia, a type of sleep disorder involving abnormal movements, behaviors, emotions, perceptions, or dreams. Sleepwalking, talking in your sleep, night terrors, etc. are all parasomnias. Exploding head syndrome just happens to have the worst possible name, because the diagnostic cases involved people waking out of a sound sleep from an auditory hallucination of a SUDDEN AND HORRIFYINGLY LOUD NOISE. From what I've read about the condition it's at least several hundred years old- the oldest recognizable description of it is in a 1691 biography of Rene Descartes, with the definition of the disorder dating to the 1870s and the official naming of the condition being done by a neurologist in 1989. No damage, pain, or other serious issues involved, just an incredibly distressing name.)

(... oh, yeah, long story short, I woke up ten minutes before my alarm went off because my brain decided I REALLY needed to hear the sound of somebody hammering on the doorbell as loudly as physically possible. I've had other cases of my brain doing this to me before, with all kinds of different, singular loud noises. It's been months since the last EHS incident, though.)

Had intended to go to the Boston May Day protests today.

Woke up in a pool of my own blood because I'd filled up an overnight pad in less than six hours. Multiple sizable clots. I am on day 7 of this period. If I am still this intense by 11 I am likely just going to park myself here.

I was going to carry a sign saying I COULD MENSTRUATE A BETTER PRESIDENCY THAN THIS anyway.

I hit a thread on /r/radiology that had the same vibe as Things That Never Mean Anything Good In An Obituary. This one was something on the order of 'things you don't want to hear when having an X-ray'. A few of my favorites:

( I picked up an appreciation for the kind of humor many in the medical profession use to keep themselves sane some time ago, but since y'all may not have, I'm putting it behind a cut. )

Medical butt stuff happens tomorrow. Today is Clear Liquids Only Day. The amount of loose-leaf peppermint tea I made so that I could have Clear Liquids with flavor but not caffeine is ... staggering. At least the compost bin will smell minty fresh when the guy comes around to pick it up tomorrow.

1780s racehorses had hearts that weighed around 6 lb
modern horse hearts weigh around 8.5 lb
mega-champion Eclipse (d. 1789) heart weighed 14 lb
Secretariat heart weighed 22 lb
Sham, Secretariat's triple crown rival, had a heart that weighed 18 lb
on average, Arabian horse hearts weigh 0.76% body weight
on average, draft horse hearts weigh 0.6% body weight
on average, thoroughbred hearts weigh 1% body weight
elite Thoroughbred hearts weigh around 1.3-1.4% body weight

assume Dothraki horses are similar to Mongol horses
assume Mongol horses have percentages similar to Arabians because I can't FIND a weight percentage for their hearts
average Mongol horse weighs 500 to 600 lbs
assume stallions weigh maximum
Dothraki horse heart therefore weighs 4.56 lbs
however
Mongol horses are small and adapted to northern steppe conditions rather than the Sea of Grass in Shirtlessville, Essos
Dothraki horses may be larger, with bigger hearts
they would probably have to be in order to carry, you know, Jason Momoa
Momoa weighs 214 lbs / 97 kg
on average a horse is able to carry a rider and tack equivalent to 20% of the horses body weight
US Cavalry recommended assuming that number is the max
assume Khal Drogo weighs 214 lbs + about 6 pounds of weapon
assume Khal Drogo's saddle and gear weigh in at 20 lb total
Khal Drogo's horse needs to be able to carry 240 lb
240 = .2x
x=1200
Khal Drogo's horse's heart may safely be assumed to weigh 9.12 lb

this is a medical writeup including abdominal X-rays on what happened to a man, a very distinctly non-pregnant man, who consumed a cooked 7 pound hamburger in thirty minutes

.... gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

never mind not throwing up, there is no physical way a woman as pregnant as Daenerys could have survived the consumption of that much meat without wrecking an organ or two purely due to SPACING

"There has been one report of an 86-year-old man who experienced serious symptoms after eating two entire bags of menthol cough drops every day for 20 years."

ETA:

( TLDR: The dose makes the poison. Don't eat two bags of cough drops a day for twenty years unless you're prepared for six months recovery time. )

Colonoscopy went okay. Still kinda tired from everything. I'll put up details behind a cut and restricted to my access list tomorrow.

Thought I should let y'all know.

Oh, on a different medical note- the bivalent booster + flu combo has only just TODAY started to ease up on the side effects. Memo to self, next time I have to get a COVID booster of any kind, get it on its own and get it on a Friday afternoon so i can spend the weekend being miserable without inconveniencing anyone.

The tinnitus is worse than usual today. I'm going to spend some time wearing my over-the-ear headphones and listening to the tinnitus neuromodulator at mynoise.net. Sometimes that helps.