For the last six months or so I have been struggling with severe fatigue. It doesn't matter how much I sleep, how often I nap, I'm exhausted and struggle to stay awake and coherent. Thinking things through now takes me significantly longer than it used to, and I struggle to make decisions. This is quite frustrating, even demoralizing, and the fatigue seems to exacerbate my anxiety.
I've talked to three medical professionals about it, and none of them, as yet, know what the problem is. The first one all but dismissed it. The second one ran some tests and referred me to the third one. The third is a sleep specialist who sent me home with a device that measured my respiration, pulse rate, blood oxygen, and movements.
Sleeping with equipment strapped to my body was an interesting experience. It wasn't bulky, but it was there and its presence caused me to struggle to sleep most of the night. It was only after I returned the equipment to the sleep lab that they warned me that if they didn't get good data they would have to repeat the test. If they got good data I will learn the results in one to two weeks, at which point I get to schedule a follow-up.
I really hope they have answers for me and it's treatable, because I'm starting to understand why sleep deprivation is considered by some to be a particularly cruel form of torture, not that I'm anywhere near what people who have gone through that had to deal with.
I've also been dealing with uncomfortably cold hands for a few years now. I had this problem when I was younger but it mostly went away, unless I went out in the winter or handled cold or freezing items, but now it's a near constant issue, and I'm wondering if it's somehow related to my fatigue and anxiety. As it is I keep my rooms warmer than most people prefer—between 75°F and 77°F—and a friend made me some fingerless gloves to wear to try to help. I've also talked to doctors about this and for the most part they don't know what to think of it. One suggested I might have Raynaud syndrome, but my symptoms don't really fit that diagnosis.
I spent some time this week working on my HTML editing macros for Vim. I hadn't touched them for almost 8 years and it was time to finally add HTML 5 compatibility, fix some issues, and so on. I've probably spent too much time tinkering with this, but it was fun and hopefully it's useful to someone out there.
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