Tuesday, August 24, 2010

January 2010 - A Life-Altering Month


I was looking through old PDF files on my personal laptop computer and found the attached copy of the invoice for the cruise that Dorine and I took in January with Mike and Judy ______. (See photo above of Dorine and me in Bridgetown, Barbados.) It's rather ironic to think back on (a) how much I looked forward to the trip to the Caribbean and (b) how much I enjoyed myself while I was there, then to compare those feelings with my fervent wish now that we'd never gone, which would almost certainly mean that I wouldn't have acquired chronic, life-altering problems with "disembarkation syndrome." I still hold out hope that one day soon my equilibrium will return to normal and that I won't feel sick every afternoon and evening, but every time thus far that I've imagined some improvement, it has turned out to be just that -- my imagination.

Perhaps I feel too sorry for myself; after all, I have relatives, much younger than I, who have worse health problems with longer-term implications. But to think that all this came about simply because I chose to run on a shipboard treadmill on Friday, January 15, while we were on the open sea, is almost more than I can bear. If I'd had the slightest inkling of what it would do to me, I'd have sworn off the treadmill for the entire week -- but a fat lot of difference it makes now.