Roman Sainz: 2004

Thursday, December 30, 2004

Mind over matter.

I was thinking.
When I go out on trips with my friends, I usually enjoy it to the limit.
I mean, I could be hiking, then “refresh” myself by swimming in a river (with my clothes and shoes on).
Or wake up early in the morning, get out of the tent, and swim on the cold waters of a lake.
Or go to the Causeway to ride my bike under the rain.

Most people I know, would get sick under those circumstances. To them I usually state “kids do not get sick”, as I remember being a kid on the beach on vacations and staying wet all day (and part of the night), and not getting sick.

On the other hand, I can get sick out of nothing. I can come from work, have lunch in a restaurant, get indigestion, followed by 2 days fiver, and finally so much pain in my articulations, that sent me to the hospital in a wheel chair.

That last one was dramatic for me, and made me think a lot. Other times, I only get a flu or intestinal issues. But there is never something “clear” of what caused it. At least on the surface.

My first conclusion was that as I get stressed out, my blood defenses systems gets affected.
But the last month that I have been not running, or biking or swimming (doctor orders), conducted me to think there may be more.

This last month I have been suffering back pain, knee pain, sleep issues, anxiety, intestinal irregularity, you name it. I even lost ten pounds, phew!, I did not know that coming from work and lay on bed all afternoon, was such a good weight reduction program.

Last night I went to ride my bike, very conservative, just 20km. Today I do not have knee pain.

It seems paradoxical. Either I am becoming crazy (witch is very unlikely, as I would have to be sane in the first place), or the “thinking” about being sick, actually made me sick.

Could it be that my mind is actually so powerful, that in can control the health status of my body?
Or that my body is quite susceptible to my thoughts?
(or both).

The placebo effect does exists. Maybe there is an unnamed opposite effect where the mind (under the effect of bad news) influences negatively.

Monday, December 27, 2004

Merry Xmas

Friday, December 24, 2004

My living room.

Date: December 2, 2004.
Time: 6:37am.
Location: The living room.
Description: The sun rises actually on the opposite side of the house. But a glass covered building creates an interesting shade of the balcony lamp.

Luckily the smells are not registered on pictures, because I think I shot this one before taking a shower.

Monday, November 29, 2004

"Isla Iguana" 28 and 29 of November.

This trip, like most, started early in the morning.
But for me, it actually started the night before, as I had a constant feed of positive an negative feelings about it.
On one hand, there was the ride un the bus, something that I can barely handle for over 30 minutes; on the other hand, there where thoughts of beautiful views, and pictures I could take.

An hour after the bus took off, I had my doped face, I couldn’t think or speak. That was truly a five hour torture for me, and then was lunch at “Las Tablas”. And I was hungry, strange, so I eat twice (two orders) and a cup of coffee. I am not sure if it was the coffee, or because I was off the bus for 30 minutes, but I started to feel somehow better. Back at the bus, for another hour ride to the beach.

We got to the beach “El Arenal”, where the team (15 of us) was divided in two groups, as not all of us would fit in the boat to cross to the Island. The boat would have to go back and forth to take us all there.

I took off with the first group, and all the team backpacks (gezz, more backpacks than people!). Getting on boat to the island took barely 18 minutes, but as we approached and I saw how clear the water was, I just couldn’t wait to get there, I took of my fanny pack (where the camera was) and PLUM, jumped off the boat into the water (with sweater and running shoes on).

As my body cooled of (quickly) and I swam on that “fish tank”, all my dizziness, headache, nausea, magically disappeared. It was the best medicine.

I got off the water to help unload the boat, and right after that, took out my diving mask, and back to the water! Ahhh, another half an hour of beautiful diving. I saw more fishes here, than I have seen on all my SCUBA diving. It was truly like diving on a “fish tank”. I don´t know if these fishes are used to people, but they do not seem to get scared off. I would literally run into them as I was swimming with them. Some of them (thankfully where only the really tiny ones) would be biting me!

The second group arrived, and I got of the water, to take pictures of their arrival, and to setup my camping tent.