The Power of Will Over Biology...

... a topic broached many times in the past betwixt my mind and body whenever my cute little demon child decided he wanted to scream rather than sleep for six hours straight, has been broached again this week.

The debate opened up when my body, spiteful and vengeful, decided to bypass it's long history of minor colds and coughs by kicking off Monday morning with the flu and pinkeye. My body ached worse than the time I had to be Uki to the black belts before a tournament. My eye pulsed, I was coughing and sneezing, but I still felt fairly ok. I worked on the Seniors Guide till 11pm. Amount of sleep Monday night: 4 hours.

Tuesday accelerated the aches and pains with some reduction in the other symptoms. This was my first day back to work, so although I wasn't sniffling and snorting, I was finding myself reluctant to even get out of my chair for coffee. The water from the showerhead that morning hurt my skin, to give some indication of my sensitivity to pain that day. I worked on the Senuirs Guide till 11 pm that night as well. The extent of my illness and lack of energy became apparent when, just as the program I was watching switched to a commercial, I found myself thinking furiously for three minutes, trying to recall what show it was that I had been watching. Only when it came back on (Corner Gas) did I realize how much my memory was suffering. Amount of sleep: 2.5 hours. For 3 hours straight, I lay awake, my mind a spinning, nauseating jumble of WordArt boxes, reminding me of the time I was stuck in my room in Vancouver for two days with a combination of food poisoning and epileptic seizures.

Wednesday decreased the aches and pains, but my coughing was now coming from my lungs, my diaphragm, and somewhere in the depths of my ass, and the thin eveneer walls of my office were protection for no-one. My right eye now felt like it had been coated in maple syrup, both in general feel and visibility. I had to blow my nose every few minutes, I sucked back a Benedryl ES all-In One (1000mg acetomenophen) and two Neo Citrins (1300mg acetomenophen total) before noon, which left me in a semi-daze for the rest of the day. I worked on the Seniors Guide till midnight. Amount of sleep: 4 hours.

Thursday had fewer aches and pains, but my head felt pressurized to about 80 PSI, and the coughing was now enough to hurt my own ears (which had become infected). Work was a struggle, as I was barely able to focus for any lenghts of time on the screen without wondering what I had just been working on, much like the Tuesday television incident. That night, as Steph was snowed in at the farm, I stayed up till midnight working on the Guide, then did her paper route, getting home at 2:10am. I went to bed, fell asleep around 3:30, and woke up at 7:30. Amount of sleep: 4 hours.

Friday. Now. I am dizzy, everything is overbright, and I still have half a day of work ahead of me, and probably another eight to ten hours of working on the Seniors Guide, which has to be out tomorrow. My throat is killing me, my fingers hurt from typing this, and I'm getting tracers whenever I turn around. Tonight, I'm going to go to sleep as soon as Sebastian does, try for 8 hours of sleep, and work on the Guide all day tomorrow.

The debate is still going on, but so far Will has made an excellent case. In spite of lack of sleep, mixing heavy medication, being forced to walk through two days of blizzards, I still manage to cook, clean, put in a full day's work at the office and still work on side projects at home. Body is trying for, at the very least, a tie, where both factions give in, surrender, and shut down, giving both of them, and me caught in the middle, a chance to recuperate. Will, however, is keeping the smack-talk up, which is doing no-one any favors right about now.

Well, it's almost over. Total sleep so far this week: 14.5 hours accross 4 nights = 3 hours 38 minutes per night. Tonight, hopefully, I'll triple that, kill some germs, knock off the Guide the following day, and spend Sunday watching Return of the King over and over and over. Wish me luck.