May 13, 2006 - Day 4 - Week 6 - No Ice Cream At Night

Technically I am writing as if I am in a different time zone because it is 1:12 am on the 13^th of May.  Normally my reflections upon the day are penned after the day has been completed, or at least a major portion, but tonight is different.

Yesterday I felt like a million bucks.  Need to find a better expression than that.  I do not really know what a million bucks feels like, but suffice it to say it was a great day.  Worked out at the gym, had a breakfast of amaranth grain and applesauce, a vegan organic salad at lunch at the Real Food Daily with my old pal Rita, and a quick bite at 5 before I crossed LA.  My time at the office was productive and my energy level was at its peak.  However, one needs fortification for a Friday night Pacific Palisades to Pasadena journey of some 27 miles.   Harder than Washington crossing the Delaware in winter, some have chosen never to attempt the 405 – 134 freeways on Friday evenings, period. I was prepared for a 1-2 hour crossing.

I joined with new friend Patrick to go hear David Korten speak.  His new book The Great Turning – From Empire to Earth Community sounded intriguing and 31 dollars and an autograph later I was entranced from the first sentence on.   His passionate articulation of the state of the world from his perspective is both sobering and challenging at the same time.  I thought, so what is new in my life.  Korten, prolific and informative, is an important voice for today.

Patrick is an intriguing chap as well.  His grandfather was J. R. Reynolds of tobacco fame.  He travels the country talking about a tobacco free nation.  Our visit in the car made the trip across town palatable, but it was a long day and did not get home until 10:00 pm.

A bit hungry, remembering I am trusting my body to speak to me, I chidingly inquired what was for dinner.  Leftover vegetables, grilled to be sure, tasted pretty good with a little puntenesca tomato sauce, but then the trouble started.  I had two spoonfuls of Graters caramel ice cream. This is no ordinary dairy delight, but the gift of Kristi and John and imported all the way from Cincinnati Ohio.

Pajama’s quickly exchanged for my first slacks and coat event in awhile, I was in bed by 10:33 PM (digital clocks give us an exact time and they drive me crazy).  Immediately I asked Katy to put her hand on my heart which was either in atrial fibrillation, arrhythmia, or tachycardia.  In other words, it was racing and would not stop.  After about an hour I finally dozed off only to awaken at 12:45 AM because I had to go to the bathroom.  Out of the bed as normal, I preceded to get faint immediately and fell to the floor where I lay for 10 minutes.  I am not at the stage where I wear a beeper around my neck or have some form of alert system in place, but wait a minute, was I suffering some form of heart number on top of everything else?

In the middle of the night I sat up on the couch confused as to how this related to either the cancer, chemo therapy, or just plain getting old.  Perhaps I simply over-shot my capabilities and did too much in one day.

Time to email this early morning missive to Dr.’s Piro and Prudente.  Any thoughts, other than the moral I have already learned – only one spoonful of sugar in the form of Graters great ice cream before I go to bed.  PS I have been warned that cold drinks are not good for me in my current condition, maybe it was the cold of the ice cream that started this whole mess.