"Stress"
The other day I realized I need to be constantly vigilant for things that could throw my physical fitness journey off track. I had been lulled into a false sense of security due to the fact that I was doing so well in controlling the inflammation and pain associated with my rheumatoid arthritis. (See my blog 30 Days To Reclaiming Your Health). To see the big picture I must go back a few days, so bare with me.
A couple of weeks ago it was getting warm enough to turn on the air-conditioning in the house, which I really wasn’t quite ready for anyway. After finally coming to the conclusion it was either a/c or moderate discomfort from the heat I gave in and turned it on. After a couple of hours I noticed it was still not cool in the house and the unit was running constantly. I didn’t want to burn the unit up so I turned it off hoping that maybe it just needed a good cleaning around the unit outside (that had happened before). When my husband came home from work I asked him to take a look. He found a couple of vines growing up the casing and cut them down and then scrubbed the vents really well. We turned the unit on convinced that he had done the trick. After a couple of hours we noticed it was still not cooling but running constantly, so I again turned the unit off. The next day I called the repairman, still hoping it might be something simple. He was there in a couple of hours and started work. After about 30 minutes he came to the door and said the cooling unit was shot and would need to be repaired. He said he would call back with a price and then if I wanted he would order the parts which would take a day or two to come in, figuring it would cost maybe $500 to $800. When I got the call the next day my jaw hit the floor. It was going to be $1400 to fix or $1650 to replace the whole unit. They suggested replacement as the unit was already 15 years old. I swallowed my tongue and said ok replace the unit. I was a little concerned about laying out that much money at the time but didn’t see any help for it as I was getting very tired of sweltering not only all day but at night too.
Okay, now let’s fast forward to the next week. It is 5 am in the morning and I am snoozing away peacefully and coolly I might add, when my husband comes back to the bedroom door and says “Kathy, you might want to get up we need to talk about something.” Needless to say I knew something was bad wrong. I just wanted to throw the covers back over my head and pretend I didn’t hear him, maybe it would just go away. Then he proceeded to tell me that the transmission in his truck was not engaging. He offered to stay home from work and see to the details of getting it towed to the shop. I assured him that I could take care of that for him and he could just take my truck and go on to work as I didn’t have anything scheduled for the day. At this point I had no illisions of it being a cheap and easy fix. So I called the transmission repair shop and asked them to come and get it, which by the way, they were happy to do. When they called back later in the day they said the transmission would have to be rebuilt or replaced. I chose rebuilding as we had had success with that in previous vehicles. The cost was going to be about $1300 plus towing & tax. Now I was really starting to sweat, even with the brand new a/c unit. Not only were we going to have to cover another big hit on our budget I was going to be stuck at home without a vehicle. This meant I was going to have to reschedule any appointments that I had for the week. So I studied and I stewed for most of the day.
That evening I noticed I was getting very stiff and experiencing moderate to severe joint pain. At first, this was very confusing as I had done so well. I had been very careful about my carbohydrate intake since I had the episode I blogged about in “A Lesson Learned”. So I started reviewing my day (inflammation and pain follow quickly on the heals of a causal action). As I looked back on my day I realized that my food intake for the day was fine, the only thing that stood out was the episode with the transmission. The “Aha Moment” followed soon after. I had known that stress was a contributor to inflammation but what I hadn’t realized was that acute stress could have such an impact and so quickly.
So now I am on to another leg of my journey, learning how to combat stress. I guess I could look at yoga, palates, or meditation; but I know the place I need to spend more time is on my knees and in God’s Word.
From my ramblings I hope that you find encourgement and strength to help you on your life journeys. God Bless You!
