North of the Stupid Line » Health

No longer as wise?

Rob — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 15:00:31 +0000

Yesterday, I had three wisdom teeth out. Ouch.

As you can probably tell, I’m looking rather happy (!).

Ill – an update

Rob — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 23:48:00 +0000

Am glad to be able to tell you that I didn’t have swine flu after; my temperature returned to normal yesterday morning.

What I had, I’ve no idea, but I’m well enough to return to work tomorrow.

Ill

Rob — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 22:48:11 +0000

So, I’ve finally succumbed to something I haven’t been for around 4 years: ill.

I have suspected swine flu, as I have a high temperature (was 38.8C but was 38.1C last reading as Panadol kicked in), aches and pains and a bit of a cough.

Tomorrow will be the first day I’ve had sick leave since July 2006 when I suffered a bout of food poisoning at Rachel’s graduation meal.

It will be weird.

I will have to do some work nevertheless as I have an Tribunal claim due tomorrow! (See previous post about the Work Invasion).

Hope I’m better soon.

Stress

Rob — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 17:57:34 +0000

I’m currently experiencing what I think is one of the most stressful weeks ever, courtesy of the fact that I have 113 enquiries and cases to deal with at the moment.

40-50 is what is usually considered “manageable”. I normally have around 60 at any one time.

In comparison, the management side of things is a doddle!

As I am actually feeling the stress (literally) for the first time ever, I’m uncertain how to handle it. So I looked up “stress” on the NHS Choices website to find out more. It seems that there are two sets of symptoms: mental and physical. I don’t think I have any physical symptoms (apart from the usual headaches), so the mental ones are:

anger
depression
anxiety
changes in behaviour
food cravings
lack of appetite
frequent crying
difficulty sleeping
feeling tired
difficulty concentrating

I would say that anger, anxiety and tiredness are my main symptoms. I have cravings for chocolate, but that’s nothing new!

Now. The key is to manage the stress levels. Any tips welcome.

When Rob met an EEG

Rob — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 19:58:10 +0000

Had an EEG today, and thought you would all find this picture rather amusing.

Binge drinking

Rob — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 16:28:05 +0000

What is binge drinking? The British Medical Association describes it as:

heavy drinking over an evening or similar time span – sometimes also referred to as heavy episodic drinking. Binge drinking is often associated with drinking with the intention of becoming intoxicated and, sometimes, with drinking in large groups.

The effects of binge drinking can be as follows:

Binge drinking and severe intoxication can cause muscular incoordination, blurred vision, stupor, hypothermia, convulsions, depressed reflexes, respiratory depression, hypotension and coma. Death can occur from respiratory or circulatory failure or if binge drinkers inhale their own vomit.

It seems that having one binge drinking session in your life can do more harm than regular binge drinking sessions.

Why am I talking about this? I’m a binge drinker, and have been since my university days. However, since I started working, I don’t get the opportunity to go binge drinking as often. This means that when I do get the opportunity, the effects are greater. Take last night for example; I drank about six or seven double Barcardi and Cokes. This morning, I passed out at work for about 15 seconds. That was scary. It’s never happened before.

Note to self: do not binge drink. It’s not worth it.

I’ve decided to change my drinking habits now; I’ve learnt my lesson. I will drink in moderation from now on. It’s not really worth getting so pissed, especially as you just feel terrible the morning after.