April 2

 Slept a lot the night before.

Didn't make me feel rested.

Despite that, yesterday started alright. I can do stuff. What shall I do. Chill for a bit.

Then the common pattern kicked in. By midday ish I felt.. tired. Went and had a nap, felt better.

By late afternoon I felt ill. Queasy. Shit.

I bounced in and out of bed, couldn't quite sleep, felt green around the gills, just meh.

An inauspicious start to my period of rest. Ho hum.

On the plus side, I am not feeling horribly sad.. at the moment. So. I've got that going for me.

It's early morning and I feel like I've been dragged through a hedge backwards. The thought has crossed my mind if I am suffering from IBS because I am suspecting a few food triggers and the timing of such is eh, suspicious. On reading about it, my symptoms fit, and hooplah, CFS and IBS often go hand in hand, a known thing, but they are not sure why.

Perhaps it's just another facet to the slow car crash that is my health.

On Friday evening I ate some jalapenos. Which I love.And to be fair, I hesitated. I think. These might cause me issues now.

By Saturday afternoon I felt shit.

I have started to notice the same thing with of all things Black Pepper.

I am not certain it's a causation thing yet. It could just be a coincidence.

But I triggered a while ago after eating chicken stew. Which I have eaten many times before with no ill effect. What ? Random ? That particular chicken stew had much more black pepper in and was slightly fiery.

Then I triggered eating a salad at some point, which again, no problems before. What. The. Hell.

Black pepper croutons.

Hmm.

If it's true I also seem to .. slightly trigger... on weird things. Too much.. dairy. Too much sugar ( which isn't a great deal at all ).

I don't know. Not enough concrete evidence, could just be coincedental.

It's not that any of it gives me the shits or otherwise. Nope. Nada. All fine. 

The anecdotal story of the guy that compared symptoms to me last year also rattles around my head, where he said he had a very similar set of symptoms that ended towards the end turned into a year and a half of gastro issues.

Eh well. Easy thing to do. Avoid the pepper and jalapenos. Be mindful of what I eat. I think if it is that it's a bit complicated because it can trigger then be "unhappy" for a few days and give you false positives on foods you're usually ok with.

Athena has been creaking around the house. Very stiff. Very slow. Super old lady. She struggled getting out on the roof yesterday. Ho hum. Such a beautiful good girl though. I had to sort some stuff out in the car and let her tag along. I don't have to put her on a lead or anything. She sticks with me. Sticks her nose into what I am doing. Orbits around me. Explores the street a little - but not too far. Is careful of the road. Just. An amazing mutt. I am pretty much doing everything with her at the moment. I can absolutely trust her, she knows her training, and at this age, her impetuous nature is tamed right down. She's the model companion, and there is absolutely a sense of peace and happiness when she is out and about with me. I feel a bit more complete. Rare.

I think you have to live with a dog for sometime to realise who they are. They are amazing creatures. Smart. Crazy on the ball emotionally. They are proven to be better body language readers than we are of ourselves. Positive lovebugs. Some people will never experience it. I think. They miss out on a fundamental experience of being human. Really. I think dogs are in our caveman dna, speaking to an older, simple, more us version of us away from all the concrete boxes and screens and bullshit. Good for the soul.

It is one of the minor secrets to human life I think. I certainly put it up there in the major lessons category. A major lesson. A minor secret to life.

Stumbled across this video the other day. Funny. Also shows you how smart and understanding doggos are. The range of emotions and feedback is amazing. From trust. To suspicion. The looks of incredulity. You DIDNT just do that ?! To bullshit calling boofing. Then to outright lack of trust, to ehh ok. It's like a good natured person.