Energy Crunch

I tire of the dabate about whether someone is a morning person or an evening person. I have always been a morning person. Always. I remember when I was in high school getting up before Mom and quickly finding my way to the hot air register in the living room over which I stood to warm up, letting the warmth billow my nightgown out around me while I waited for the household to stir.

I can't help it, really. I just wake up. Even if I stay up late, I just wake up. Once when my sister Deb returned from her summer in Africa where she worked as a missionary doctor, the two of us stayed up all night talking. She was still on Africa time, but I wasn't. In the morning, she drifted off, but I couldn't. I loved hearing all her adventures, but my body just kept its own regular hours.

Problem is, of course, when you live with people who are evening people. My boys all think they are night people. DJs household runs in that mode. I learned early on that I can't burn the candle at both ends. If I don't get enough sleep, I get sick. While its easy enough to stay up and participate with the late night activities, I simply will wake up at my usual time. Unless I am sick, and then I sleep later.

So I do what I can, then retire and leave the night time excursions to those whose systems can handle it. I have to be more vigilant these days to pay attention to those sorts of details. I don't have much if any reserve energy to draw on, and since I am expending additional energy just to travel and do things I don't normally do, I can't afford to stay up late. And I sure don't want to get sick while the long drive home is pending.

I hope my kids understand. I think they chalk it up to "Mom's getting old." But really, its way more than that. For a long time, I thought my old energy and strength would gradually return. Now I accept that this is a permanent situation. Oh, there are better days and worse days, but I will not go back to anything approaching the high energy of precancer days. Its OK. You learn to manage it.

And I still try things to help out. Next month I am trying a new antioxident all natural supplement that other cancer patients have tried. They report an improvement in energy levels. Here's hoping it helps!

Of course, what's impeding things right now are the drugs I am having to take for the pinched nerve in my shoulder. I suspect if I could get off the pain meds, I'd have more spunk. That will come.

For now, I am making the most of the time I have with my grand daughters, and not fussing about lost opportunities. Perhaps I can find an alternative source of energy that will enable even better activities! Global warming indeed.