that was weird

Okay. So. Last night, sitting at home, suddenly had a wave of something like nausea. Sat still for a while and it passed.

Then I got achy, to the point where finding a comfortable sleep-position was hard.

Then, this morning, working at my desk, I was still achy. And then my back started hurting badly enough I thought, "Crud, could I be getting a kidney stone?"

And then my right side started aching in concert with the shoulder and I thought, "Oh crud, is my gallbladder going? Am I going to wind up in surgery for my birthday?" I also felt kind of overheated.

When I stood up, the pain went away. (This desk chair though. It needs to be replaced but I guess that's on me because of budget cuts. But it's 15 years old, been used nearly every day of that time, and I'm not a tiny skinny willow of a person, AND I fidget in my chair). Part of it could be just a bad, non-ergonomic set up. (I want a Varidesk even though my current desk configuration wouldn't work with it. I think being able to stand to work at times might help with my aches and pains)

And now, I feel mostly better. My back and shoulders still hurt, but they usually do when I'm stressed and hunched over the computer. (And my ability to spell/type has gone all to heck all of a sudden; I keep making typos and having to fix them. And in class I "lost my words" a couple times and had to stop and think hard about what I was going to say next).

Allergies? Can allergies cause aches? Or, could it be some little 24 hour bug that blew through but because I'm otherwise so robust, couldn't find a place to settle and make me sick?

I will say I think I'm going to lay off the mashed cauliflower for tonight....just in case my body doesn't tolerate it as well as I thought.

ETA:

I flipped over my desk chair and to my horror, found that the metal had fatigued and almost nothing was holding the seat in place. I am now sitting in the "visitor chair," which is far more comfortable (because it's not worn out). I may ask my chair if there are any spare chairs (heh) around. If not, maybe I just splurge on a new one and put a name plate on it indicating it's mine - because the old chair needs to go away, it's no longer safe.


Also, I suppose some of this could be Stupid (peri?)Menopause playing havoc with my body. I ruefully joked the other day that apparently my body finally learned how to count to 28, after I had what I suspect was Mittelschmerz in what would be the exact middle (14 days in) of the cycle.

I dunno. Growing old is a hell of a trip.

Edited to add more: after about 10 minutes in the "visitor chair," my pains are almost gone, so that old chair was NOT good. I probably better see what needs to be done to dispose of it - it's unsafe and also ergonomically bad.


***

Still later: at home, post workout. AMAZED at how much better I feel - I guess that old chair was making me hunch up and was inflaming my bad shoulder and my hip bursitis, and maybe making my insides gripe me, too....at one point today I was wondering if I could be brewing a kidney stone (vague lower back pain) and then I was worried about my gallbladder (though the pain was a little too high and too midline for that).

Our excellent custodian (really, we get awesome support staff, especially considering how poorly they're paid) is going to haul it off for me and he said he had another one squirreled away somewhere that could replace it. So I put it out in the hall and then showed my colleague T. how the metal had fatigued and broken. He grabbed the chair and tried to sit in it and was like "Holy cow, that's UNCOMFORTABLE" so I know it wasn't all in my mind....I think it's because I tend to sit with one leg cocked up under me (I should not) or at times, tried to sit cross-legged in the chair (also should not) and that probably wore on it more. Also, I'm just too big of a woman and probably most chairs are made for a 140 pound or so person and I'm a good bit more than that....though also, fifteen years of nearly-daily use for multiple hours a day is probably a long life for an office chair, and these weren't exactly Herman Millers either.

My one bad hip is still bothering me a little but that may take a while to improve. It's pretty wicked hot here right now for February or I'd try putting heat on it.