Something felt off. I could not tell what it was. My thoughts raced. My chest periodically grew tight. Waking up in the morning, it looked like a tornado swept through my bed. My tossing and turning at night tore my bed apart. During the day though, my body felt like a giant dumbbell, dragging my lifeless corpse through the day. This raised quite the conundrum. Nothing out of the ordinary occurred.
Work was a tiny bit more stressful than usual, but nothing terrible. Things were great with family and friends. Finances were in order. Only my body felt out of tune.
By process of elimination, I decided to see if something biological was going on. I called my doctor, and she advised me to get some blood work done. Begrudgingly, I got stuck by one of Dracula’s assistants a few days later.
The following Monday the doctor’s office called me back. “Hi! We were just calling to let you know the results of your recent blood test. Your testosterone levels dropped to 160.”
Well, that might explain it. For those of you who do not know, low testosterone levels can greatly impact someone’s physiology. It directly affects mood, energy level, and other everyday bodily functions. The average levels are between 270 and 1070. My levels pushed 550 about a month prior, but I also took medication at the time for my low levels. My doctor took me off the medication because she wanted to see if my body could produce the testosterone on its own. I found out the unfortunate way that it cannot.
A day or two passes. I wake up ready to take on the day. As I stretch and begin to roll over, a sharp, knife-like pain shoots down my left side. Oh shit. That did not feel right. I manuever my body in such a way to prop myself up. There was no moving around fast that morning. I sadly dealt with this before. Good ol’ sciatica. Twisting the wrong way in my sleep could lead to a week’s worth of back pain.
Pushing onward, I make it through the day with a handful of Tylenol and a heating pad. I barely slept since I could not find a comfortable sleeping position. The pain lingered into the next morning. I make it through round two, but later that night, my stomach starts rumbling.
I lay down in bed hoping it was something I ate. I attempt to sleep. To no avail, it got worse overnight. To say the least, my stomach sounded and acted like it had week old Taco Bell. I ended up calling out of work. I tried letting it pass, figuring it might be a 24-hour virus. That was wishful thinking.
I admit that only a few years earlier that I would have been stubborn about going to the doctors for something like this. I used to say to myself, “Oh, it’ll pass” or “I’ll be ok.” My internal monologue spoke much differently now.
I was going on day four of this nonsense. I rightfully so got worried. I thought I might have that Bud Light virus going around. I had no excuse to not go to the doctor. I called them up. They squeezed me in and gave me some meds.
Thankfully, I am feeling better. That’s because I listened to my body. It is important to focus on mental and spiritual health. However, we must take care of this vessel. We only get one. It will carry us through our lifelong journey. Tune into it once in a while, and you might be able to pick up the message it is trying to tell you.
-The Caring Counselor