In Sickness or In Health 2

I try to live the same way as I do everyday putting my mind above the flu and fever, but since my reaction is so slow and I can't make sense of familiar things until 'later', I thought I give the bicycle a miss and took a bus. So there I was at the bus stop, which turned out to be waiting, and waiting... Why do I have such bad luck? Sick and yet having to wait unusually long for the bus?!!

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When the bus came, I just shrugged it off and thought "May be one of the buses broke down, be patient". However, the same long wait for the bus applies on the return trip. Then did I realise, it wasn't a longer wait than ordinary, but just my perception of time, which has instantly transformed the moment the flu hit me last Monday. The bus did not take so long. It just felt so long.

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From here, I learn that that it seems that we have two types of feelings - one that is highly reliant on the well-being of our physical bodies, such as how long it takes for the bus to come or how long the person is using the only loo in the building when you have a tummy ache; the other type of feeling is independent of anything, such as the need to stay up late to wait for your daughter to come back from late night partying.

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I am still recovering from flu. I think I am doing quite well in staying above all the giddyness and physical ailments. But then, I am only fighting flu and fever. Two days ago, my young 19 year old Vacuum State reader told me that she has a junior (even younger! :) ) who has contracted cancer but is still amazingly cheerful and positive. I take my hats off to this young girl - she is only 18!

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This morning, I got an email from a friend who put me to this talk by a neuroanatomist who was down with stroke and experienced her brain deterioriating rapidly in the initial moments of the haemorrhage. It is an amazing 18 minute video. I won't say I have been anywhere close to a stroke, but surprisingly I can relate very closely to some of the mental-perception issues that she described. :)

Click here