Surgery In 48 Hours
And I need assistance through July.
About 48 hours from now I depart for a surgery that’s going to have me moving slowly for much of July, which I described in Sidelined By Surgery on June 18th, right after I learned the scheduled date. I need just a little bit of an assist to get through July, details are at the end if you don’t want to wade through the minutia.
The issue is the aneurysms that come as a side dish with having polycystic kidneys. This is purely a mechanical thing, akin to the surgery I had nine years ago for this stuff, but as a result I am going to not be eating much the first week of July.
I thought it best to have a go at this not eating business before I was full of pain meds, so at midnight on the 20th I simply stopped eating for a 42 hour period. Then I went another 24 hours and had a window of eating. Then another 24. The about 20. When I did eat it was light and fats/protein focused. Notice what’s happened here in terms of wake/sleep times - those are normal adult hours(!)
Then on Thursday night I ate like I normally would in terms of carbs … and lost pretty much all of Friday wandering in a fog bank. I got back on the fasting saddle and things cleared up by Sunday.
This is what my life has been like in terms of sleep schedule for the last many years - this piece of performance art I have titled UNEMPLOYABLE. I’ve been able to cognitively work like a normal adult since the start of this Substack in August of 2023, but I simply don’t fit anywhere but self employed with this ridiculous schedule I keep.
Once I’ve healed from surgery I’ll have greater latitude in terms of blood pressure, since I won’t worry that I’m going to pop. That puts narcolepsy medication that’s currently off limits within reach. And I expect to be able to go much harder on exercise than I have been …
I have about half of the symptoms of narcolepsy type 2, including one of the really telling ones - sleep paralysis. But this stuff is all tied to microbiome troubles that arose from the long course of oral antibiotics needed to treat Lyme disease during the 2008 - 2010 time frame. I have been supplementing heavily in terms of neurotransmitters for the last several years and it’s part of why things got so much better in late 2023 - being short on dopamine is the very definition of “not fun”.
Things have gotten steadily better for me since I arrived in California ten years ago. Regular access to medical care and being able to walk all twelve months has been wonderful. But if I can have a normal adult schedule simply by only eating between 1800 - 2200 daily, and I’m not having to maneuver being on Xywav to do it?? Let me be clear on this:
I would do absolutely ANYTHING in order to get back into the workforce full time.
I grew up on a working farm and I have that farm boy work ethic. It has been incredibly painful on a personal and professional level being unable to take care of things like a normal adult. If all that’s needed to put me back in business is this 20:4 or OMAD protocol, I’m on it.
Needs:
I got $150 of the $300 I need in Amazon and a bit of cash back when I posted Sidelined By Surgery. I’m good for about the first week of July, but then things get … challenging. I am going to be on the train for follow ups, I’ll need ridesharing to get to/from the station, every trip adds up to about $35 - $40 assuming I tip the driver, which I do.
The founder plan for this Substack is $255, but it’s set to permit you to enter whatever you want, down to a dollar more than the $55 annual subscription cost. If I get more than the minimum I would …
Tint my windows to beat the heat.
Renew LinkedIn Premium for job search.
Expand Claude Pro to Claude Max.
Evaluate ArangoGraph hosting service.
Upgrade to PyCharm Pro.
Even small amounts help here. Thanks in advance if you’re able to assist, even those little monthly subscriptions add up over time.
