Category Archives: Health

Hello! This year’s first entry into this blog regards questions surrounding “rest”.  The questions are featured in “Scrivener’s Friday 5” weekly blog. I usually answer those questions on my “Friday 5 Answers” blog but decided to cross post here as “rest” is also a health issue. Many times we don’t get enough rest, but when we have to we need to rest.

Here are the questions and answers to this week’s Friday 5 topic “rest”.

1. When did you last need a few days of complete rest and nothing else?

Last year I needed a lot of rest while recovering from open heart surgery. I had to slowly ramp myself up back to life by eating healthier and walking more. Today I can say that I am happy to be alive with a new lease on life.

2. How do you keep yourself occupied when you have to be in bed all day and night?

The internet always keeps me occupied whether I am in bed or not. I do use it a lot if I am confined to bed. Luckily we have many ways to access the net beyond desktop and laptop computers. Smart phones and tablets makes it easy to consume internet content while in bed. I tend to read a lot of news websites, tech blogs, do some book reading on Kindle and Google Play books, listening to music, podcasts, audio books and watching videos. There are always the old school standbys such as TV (which I currently don’t have), books, magazines, newspapers, and audio media (record player, CDs, radio). With all that stuff accessible to us who has time to rest? Fortunately some of it actually helps me to fall asleep… anyone for Enya?

Other than consuming media, there is the necessity of food consumption and yes, rest too!

3. Who do you most want to hear from when you have to withdraw to your bed for a few days of rest?

It is tough being a single person when you are down and out and need rest. As a single person you still have to do a lot of core things yourself like eating, cleaning up, shopping, etc. which forces you to get out of bed even if you may have to stay there. So hats off to those individuals who have a reliable and loving spouse, room mate or companion. That all said singles like myself sometimes have to rely on friends or relatives for help, especially if your parents have gone to the great beyond.

4. What adverse effects have you experienced while staying in bed for a few days?

It would depend on the reasons why bed rest was required. The following examples come to mind:

Flu – fever, run, vomiting, tummy aches, feeling lousy, coughing

Heart surgery – pain, weakness, lack of movement, constant sleep interruption while hospitalized, lack of privacy, noise, slow recovery, relapse, coughing, grumpiness, dreariness, etc.

5. When you first notice a few symptoms, are you more likely to shut everything down right away, or try to power through until you don’t have a choice anymore?

Always usually power through until I can’t take it… then boom! Stuck in bed.