Saturday, May 01, 2004
Me and Sleep/ A Public Service Announcement
I have two different types of anemia. This has forced me to always be a very health conscious person and sometimes I realize it is a blessing and a curse at the same time. I have to eat write and make sure I work out and get enough sleep. Unless I get sick (from a virus or bacteria) I stay just fine. If I get sick I normal get a double knock out as my body starts producing more faulty red blood cells than healthy ones (one of my anemias is a hemoglobin deficieny called Thalasemia minor). It makes me very tired. Very very tired. If you have ever had mono I hear it is like that. The best example I can give is that once, walking up a flight of stairs made me so tired I got light headed and had to sit down.
SO When I flake on things cause I have to sleep please please don't get mad at me. People tease me all the time, tell me that I am young and should be able to handle it. This is probably the one thing that makes me feel sorry for myself. And then telling other people just makes them feel sorry for you and I hate that. When I first got to law school I tried to be just like everyone else and ran myself into the ground. I started bruising all over. Spent a few days in bed, and just started over with a more moderate lifestyle.
I am under a lot of stress right now and guess I have pushed my body too hard again cause the last two nights I have really really wanted to go out and I couldn't because my body said, no bitch we're sleeping.
Yesterday I wanted to go to the nuyos open room. I figured If i took a nap from 8:20-9pm I would get refreshed and study until Rich called me to go to the open room around 1:30am. At 8 I sat down to watch part of Tomb Raider and set my alarm clock on my cell phone for 9. I figured if I took the nap on my tiny couch (whicih only seats two) I would be sure to wake up. No, not really, not so much with the waking up. At some point my smart ass body, beat my brain into submission and turned off the alarm on my cell phone (I know this must have happened). When I woke up at ten to the Tomb Raider credits I was utterly confused. My body said sleep sleep. My brain said go wash your dishes. Dishes got washed very slowly. Then I sat down to continue outlining for my copyright exam. I looked at the case in front of me and I swear it felt lke I did not know the language it was written in. I slumped over in my chair. The body had one. I text messaged Rich and by 11 I was back in bed sleeping. I slept soooo deep.
Hopefully I can get some work done.
On a bit of a serious note. Thalasemia minor (aka Cooley's anemia) affects people of African, Mediteranian and Asian decent (though that is a different strain). Women who have Thalasemia minor (sometimes called Thalasemia trait) tend to be affected more than men who just carry the trait. I am sure there are some women who carry the trait and don't know, but since they don't know I have never met them. Men can go their whole lives, be asymptomatic and therefore never find out. This is okay, if you are healthy you don't really need to know you have it UNLESS you want to make babies. Two thalasemia minors can make a baby with Thalasemia Major and that is really really bad. I don't want to get into it, look it up if you want to.
PS People are forever telling me to take iron. My iron deficiency is basically eradicated cause I take care of myself so well. Iron does not help thalasemia since it is genetic.
PPS This is like the birth control post, I don't really want to discuss it in person but put it online just to spread knowledge
I have two different types of anemia. This has forced me to always be a very health conscious person and sometimes I realize it is a blessing and a curse at the same time. I have to eat write and make sure I work out and get enough sleep. Unless I get sick (from a virus or bacteria) I stay just fine. If I get sick I normal get a double knock out as my body starts producing more faulty red blood cells than healthy ones (one of my anemias is a hemoglobin deficieny called Thalasemia minor). It makes me very tired. Very very tired. If you have ever had mono I hear it is like that. The best example I can give is that once, walking up a flight of stairs made me so tired I got light headed and had to sit down.
SO When I flake on things cause I have to sleep please please don't get mad at me. People tease me all the time, tell me that I am young and should be able to handle it. This is probably the one thing that makes me feel sorry for myself. And then telling other people just makes them feel sorry for you and I hate that. When I first got to law school I tried to be just like everyone else and ran myself into the ground. I started bruising all over. Spent a few days in bed, and just started over with a more moderate lifestyle.
I am under a lot of stress right now and guess I have pushed my body too hard again cause the last two nights I have really really wanted to go out and I couldn't because my body said, no bitch we're sleeping.
Yesterday I wanted to go to the nuyos open room. I figured If i took a nap from 8:20-9pm I would get refreshed and study until Rich called me to go to the open room around 1:30am. At 8 I sat down to watch part of Tomb Raider and set my alarm clock on my cell phone for 9. I figured if I took the nap on my tiny couch (whicih only seats two) I would be sure to wake up. No, not really, not so much with the waking up. At some point my smart ass body, beat my brain into submission and turned off the alarm on my cell phone (I know this must have happened). When I woke up at ten to the Tomb Raider credits I was utterly confused. My body said sleep sleep. My brain said go wash your dishes. Dishes got washed very slowly. Then I sat down to continue outlining for my copyright exam. I looked at the case in front of me and I swear it felt lke I did not know the language it was written in. I slumped over in my chair. The body had one. I text messaged Rich and by 11 I was back in bed sleeping. I slept soooo deep.
Hopefully I can get some work done.
On a bit of a serious note. Thalasemia minor (aka Cooley's anemia) affects people of African, Mediteranian and Asian decent (though that is a different strain). Women who have Thalasemia minor (sometimes called Thalasemia trait) tend to be affected more than men who just carry the trait. I am sure there are some women who carry the trait and don't know, but since they don't know I have never met them. Men can go their whole lives, be asymptomatic and therefore never find out. This is okay, if you are healthy you don't really need to know you have it UNLESS you want to make babies. Two thalasemia minors can make a baby with Thalasemia Major and that is really really bad. I don't want to get into it, look it up if you want to.
PS People are forever telling me to take iron. My iron deficiency is basically eradicated cause I take care of myself so well. Iron does not help thalasemia since it is genetic.
PPS This is like the birth control post, I don't really want to discuss it in person but put it online just to spread knowledge
Comments:
Post a Comment
