Baselines.

I'm feeling a bit better! Better enough to feel as though I should go to physio. I guess all the tea, soup, and watching Netflix really paid off. I took it a bit slow on the bike and treadmill as I didn't want to exhaust myself. The physiotherapist asked me if I was feeling back to my baseline. I told her probably not but I have no idea where my baseline is anymore.

As I've said in previous posts, I am super bad at recognizing where I am health-wise as I tend to adapt to however I am currently feeling. Also, my health has been declining so slowly that it makes it really hard to tell. I can say if I feel better or am coughing more or less than yesterday but ask me about a week or month or year ago, and I am usually just guessing. It would be different if I just woke up one day and was short of breath and coughing. Then I could tell you for sure.

About a year ago, I had pneumonia and was being admitted to the hospital so comparing me to a year ago doesn't really work. But a few weeks later when I was discharged, I felt awesome as I was basically a walking antibiotic. So that doesn't really count either. Then when the antibiotics left my system, I went back to feeling how I had before I had pneumonia. Only I felt a bit better as I wasn't working and slept a lot. Would that be my baseline? I feel like there are too many variables as a human to know for sure what your baseline is. I feel worse in the cold, or when its humid, or when I have to wake up early, or if I'm stressed about some life event. Maybe I just have a bunch of different baselines depending on the scenario.

This is why I like objective measurements like x-rays, blood tests, or lung function tests. They can tell me conclusively whether I am better or worse. My objective measurement today was that my oxygen levels were higher than last Wednesday after using the stationary bike. However, I did take it easier today on the bike so obviously there are still too many variable differences. Arg!
Am I the only one who has difficulties answering these subjective questions? Does everyone else feel like they are just making shit up too?