Too much too soon

I woke up this morning feeling good. Well, as good as I could feel at 5:00 in the morning ... I was sleepy, but I didn't feel much pain at all.

I got up and decided to start my day because I knew there was no way I'd be getting back to sleep. I thought I'd tackle the HUGE stacks of paper in my office - all related to my PhD research. I needed to streamline my material and get rid of papers that were up to 4 years old and no longer necessary.

After a few hours of sitting at my desk I decided to move to the living room and continue my work there -- a few trips back and forth from the living room to my home office (to get more papers, a stapler, more post-its etc.) ... I seemed to be extra-clumsy and kept dropping things, which meant that I had to keep bending to pick them up ... I realized I was definitely feeling less pain as my movements were not as slow as the previous day ...

I cleaned a little, cooked a little, organized a little ... and by 3:00 p.m. I was EXHAUSTED. Exhausted to the point of dizziness and nausea. I wasn't in pain, but I was definitely in extreme discomfort.

It got worse over the hours ...

A group of friends were scheduled to come and visit me later in the evening. In hindsight, I probably should have cancelled, but I hadn't seen them in almost a month so I stuck to the plan. By the time they left, just before 11 p.m., I was in so much pain and discomfort I could barely breathe.

I would have never thought that just moving back and forth between two rooms and picking up a few things would have this effect ... but it did.

I guess the doctor was right - I still need to take it easy.