Wednesday, February 15, 2017

The Second Day

As mentioned in my earlier post, I had quite a terrible sleep last night.  I don't think it had anything to do with the salt/water protocol - I think my brain is just on overdrive.  We also have an oil company doing some drilling not to far away, and I always seem to be able to hear the motors running, which makes it difficult to fall back asleep in the middle of the night.  However, there is nothing I can do about it (although honestly, sometimes I imagine myself sneaking through the fences in the dead of night and shutting the whole thing down!), and it's been going on for around three years now, so I just have to get used to it.

I was up at 5 for the morning commute to gymnastics, and while I didn't feel great, I definitely felt better than yesterday, even with the broken sleep.  I measured out my salt and rubbed it over my gums, trying to let it absorb as much as possible before swallowing.  Again, like yesterday, there seemed to be a brief moment of clarity as my system consumed the salt.  I drank the 500 ml of water a little easier than yesterday morning, and headed off to yoga after gymnastics drop off.  And no, I didn't have to interrupt my yoga class by going to the bathroom, after all of the worries I had about that.  I think I will even be okay to do the protocol on a Sunday morning when I need to be on the platform for 18 uninterrupted minutes.

I have always had an irrational fear (if fear is really the right word) of needing to go to the bathroom but not being able to.  Since I had major surgery over 5 years ago, my bladder is not as resilient as it used to be, and the discomfort of a full bladder is far worse than before.  Of course, it could also be a function of getting older, but either way, when my bladder starts filling, it seems to fill up fast, and there is nothing I can do about it.  And so I have suffered these past number of years, purposely dehydrating myself before a road trip, never drinking on a Sunday morning (because I can't just hop off the stage in the middle of a worship set and leave the band to fend for itself!), and wondering how I could ever drink the "gallon of water a day" that seems to be what all of the "health experts" recommend.  My experience with a gallon of water a day is that I spend all day in the bathroom and then I feel sick by the evening, likely due to my electrolyte balance being off as a result of so many trips to the bathroom.

And so maybe I have found a solution...we will see.  I plan to do three protocols again today, keeping it simple for now.

I didn't manage to get in my second protocol until around 2:30, but it's definitely getting easier to take in 1/8 tsp of salt.  I think tomorrow I might try 4 protocols - I'm feeling quite thirsty and would really like to bump my water intake, but don't want to do it without the salt.

Being Valentine's Day, I went out for a drink with my significant other and watched a bit of the hockey game - that was around 730, and then I came home at had my final protocol around 9.  That might have been a little too much liquid for that late at night, but I still wasn't in the bathroom too often after about 10:30.

Day 3 will have water protocol only - we'll see if things return to day 1 levels.

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