2010

Sun, Apr 4

<00:50 EEST> On Thursday I woke up with an immense full-body stiffness like I had never experienced before. I blamed the past day or two of sitting indoors and working on my Chinese presentation, and thought that day's planned outdoor and social activities would ease up things. For one thing, I was unable to focus on any academic work, with a headache and all; that is something I rarely have to suffer, even if I occasionally have the usual back and neck issues of a computer geek.

During the day, my condition was not even slightly improved, though it must be noted that there was not much free and relaxed movement involved. I felt a mild, persistent fever coming on, and my attention span was waning further. In the evening, a little yoga done slowly and carefully, followed by a hot shower, eased up most of the stiffness, but I did not feel quite OK yet. During the night I finally went through the classical fewer cycle, shivering in an inescapable cold, followed by sailing the seas of sweat, those plentiful ponds of perspiration.

Good Friday morning was spent in the bed, catching up with the lost sleep. I woke up at 13:45 and spent the day mostly indoors, with a constant mild fewer and a slight headache, much like the day before. A short walk outdoors felt relaxing, and that night's sleep was much better. It was not perfect, and I could still feel the slight uneasy chill on occasion, but since waking up on Saturday, I have felt completely healthy.

While muscle and joint stiffness is a common symptom of flu, I had none of the typical respiratory issues, only fever. So thus far this seems like a stiffness-induced fever. Or maybe just a cosmic April Fool's gag tied into Good Friday, which in Finnish is known as 'the long Friday' in a more apt description of suffering.

In an interesting synchrony, the case of Simon Singh vs. chiropractors has moved forward. The present resolution is a win for science, which I agree with, while looking forward to further evidence one way or the other. It appears that chiropractic cannot solve all medical conditions — which is the kind of hubris you can hear from any specialist, though it all does come down to physics ;) But especially after my recent case, I cannot help wondering about all possible connections within the immensely complex system that is the human body.

For example, one explanation is that my immune system was temporarily weakened by the general stiffness — perhaps it launches a response similar to inflamed joints, or something else — and I caught a bug that my body could ordinarily beat easily. In that case, the fever could be cured by something like chiropractic, or yoga :) Of course, there are many fevers with no such connection to muscles and joints, but it's not like the mainstream Western medicine always works, either.