This might be TMI for some of you, but I talk about what the doctor said yesterday and what effect it’s had.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
-
Find me: Updated Links
Recent Comments
- ROBERT EVANS on Day 2754: Day Not Found
- ROBERT EVANS on Day 2753: Untitled For Some Reason
- Nate on Day 2752: Was A Sunny Day
- Robert Willey on Day 2752: Was A Sunny Day
- Robert Evans on Day 2745: Busy Day
The whole beer thing is certainly a disappointment, but look on the bright side, he didn’t try and take you off coffee 🙂
I was recently diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, so I’ve recently had to make some of the same changes. No more Blue Bell ice cream for me either. I’m also trying to get my cholesterol down a bit. At least I now have a better idea what has been kicking my butt the past few months – I’ve definitely been feeling the fatigue that comes with this. I just need to get the glucose level under control.
I’m definitely pulling for you …. I’m sure that a LOT of other people are too. You rock and all we fans want you to be around and enjoying life as much; for as long as possible 🙂
Nathan,
I work both on campus and at home online, I received some good advice years ago that helped me focus on task even with distractions at home from kids, dogs, and door to door solicitors. Maybe you could use some professional advice on focusing your work, but in the meantime I can pass on what helped me.
1. Set in you mind what area of your home is concidered office space. Isolate that space as much as possible. It may sound silly but even a sign “Office” helps.
2. Dress for work even if it is casual dress, no sweats or slippers.
3. Turn down the doorbell so that it is just audible but can be ignored like a secretaries phone.
4. Take a break but get off the computer for the break.
5. Allow yourself internet fun outside of office hours.
6. Leave for lunch even if it is a walk around the block leave the area.
It took me several month’s to get my mind rapped around a home office but it eventually worked. I’m lucky in that I can close a door and ignore the outside world, when I close that door I am in my office and at work. Some days are far more productive than others but most days are productive.
Hope you find something that helps.
Set up your word processor to automatically open when you boot/login. That way, it’s there, nagging at you, even if you need to minimize it for a few to take care of things – your eyes will see it in the system tray.
Nate,
Gentle suggestions. (1) Avoid the stupid pills unless they are absolutely, medically required. Depression is often situational rather than medical. (2) Break yourself out of your own cycle (whatever that might be). One thing that I find which works well is to get away from one’s house for a few hours. Sit in a quiet corner of your local coffeehouse with a warm cuppa and your laptop in front of you. It might help. (3) Think about how to live life. Apparently you juggled it all more or less successfully when you were holding down a full time job. Now you have even more time, but the equation isn’t working? Examine what might have changed in your approach.
Please – don’t call them “stupid pills”. Slowly, medical researchers are getting a handle on the organic causes of some types of depression, and the pills can’t help if they’re not taken. Under the current level of understanding, psychoactive drugs are highly variable, and don’t affect all the same way – what is a “stupid pill” for one, is the miracle of light once more for another.
He’s been working on the situational – I expect his doctor has been helping him with that. Now, it’s time to give the doctor’s advice a shot, and take enough time for it to work and settle in properly – another bad habit people have with psychoactives is trying them for a couple of days, not liking the effects, and quitting them, when it takes a couple of weeks to sometimes a couple of months to get them properly balanced out in the bloodstream.
Tara,
I stand corrected. I am using the word ‘stupid’ to indicate unnecessary or ‘less-than-worthwhile’ rather than to indicate that they will (necessarily) bring about a state of stupidity, but you do bring up some valid points with which I agree. Yes, the effects are highly variable, but the side effects are definitely no fun. Too, I am not trying to second-guess Nate’s physician, but am merely expressing a deep suspicion of this general class of drugs. They may work a treat for some patients, but the sad truth is that few physicians have first hand experience with the psychoactive drugs they (sometimes too freely) prescribe. By ‘first hand experience’, I mean having actually taken a course of the drug themselves so as to understand the powerful effects these medications can have on the mind and body. Were it otherwise, they might be perhaps a wee bit more circumspect in advising their use. [Note: I do realize when I express this opinion that it would be medically inadvisable for a doctor to take these himself/herself without actually ‘needing’ them, so gaining the sort of experience I indicated would difficult, indeed.]
Tara, I agree. There is no telling what the whole medical situation is, and I have to trust Nate & his hopefully competent doctor to work out the proper treatment.
Depending on what Nathan’s glucose situation is, I know that diabetes can either be a cause or aggravate depression. The fatigue that can accompany it can be a big productivity killer too. And that’s not even taking into account what else might be going on medically and/or emotionally.
Hang in there Nathan, I’m hoping that as you get your health situation managed as best you can that you will feel better both physically & emotionally. And if it helps you write more and faster, then all the better for us fans. But while we really like the stories, we want YOU to do well and be around for a very long time.
I’m telling you, I’ve never been able to sleep, EVER, until I tried listening to nature sounds. I could not shut off my mind and so I would just lay in bed for up to an hour every night. I hated sleeping. Now I fall asleep within a couple minutes with the sounds of ocean waves crashing from an iPod synced alarm clock on my dresser. I’m not sure if it’s the calming effect the sound creates in me, or that the sound gives my mind something else to focus on than all the things I didn’t get done during the day, but I’ve never slept better. It might be something to try. It sure has made bedtime better for me. I’ve gone from hating going to sleep to enjoying it.