Day 8

These last few days (day 5 thru today) have been relentless for me. The small respites I get here a there are like a glimmer of hope that all is well, and then wham all the same symptoms arise again just as strong as ever. That was me last night, tossing from side to side, unable to get in a comfortable position and constantly feeling pain. When the sun was just starting to show, I finally was able to relax and fall into a deep sleep for 2-3 hours. Except I don't know if I would call it "sleep." Dr. Graham told us that this might happen to some of us. He said that is common for fasters to sleep, but remember thinking they were awake, or vice versa. I didn't think much of it when he said this around day 1, but now I know exactly what he was talking about.
I remember feeling extremely conscious of my breathing and my thinking. I remember dreaming and being able to nearly fully control my dreams. I remember feeling so relaxed and blissful that I felt no pain, but whenever I moved or changed positions in bed, all of my symptoms would come rushing back. I would then freeze, relax myself again, and continue "sleeping."

We have an exceptional amount of young fasters this year [nearly all under 40, most in their mid 20's]. It's been kind of an on-going joke that I am the neediest faster in the bunch. This is a list off the top of my head for the things I've requested:
"Could I get a bench in our shower?"
"Could you fill up my water?"
"Could I get ice in it?"
"Could you get me a hot pad to put on my head?"
"Can you take this hot pad away, it wasn't doing anything.."
"More ice?"
"Could I get a walkie talkie to stay in touch with someone?"
"Could I get a bed to lay out on my porch?"
"Could you bring the scale to me, I can't walk over there today."
"Could you dampen this towel for my forehead?"
"Please, more ice?"
Haha Ok, that makes me sound really bad. But I've felt really bad too...and not at all like myself. Ice water has been the god-send that has helped tremendously. For the last 3 days I haven't been able to drink as much as I should because of my throat, and the cold ice water numbs it so that it actually feels good to drink. I'm hoping that by day 10 I will have squashed this throat-thing for good.

I picked up enough strength to make it late to the 1PM lecture today. It was good to see familiar faces of other fasters and interns. Dr. G talked about what to expect in week two, which I'll post tomorrow in my update. Hopefully I manage to sleep through the whole night...we shall see!