More Sick Leave Ponderings

It's Week Three post-hospital. Today I resumed a mission of re-organization. It started at first of the month, with paying bills, and taming down the stack of accumulated papers, correspondence, and other junk mail. I have only entered my office space maybe only three times since the middle of November, and now I'm trying to deal with the runaway state of entropy and chaos that has struck the place. I also went to the office of the Canadian Lung Association today to see if there were other options they had available to expedite a faster course of recovery for me. They had nothing new to share with me in terms of more strategies to use other than what I'm already doing. I was just given reminders: to be patient, to note that I am making progress (even if it's coming slowly), to avoid reviewing recovery information on the Internet (too much conflicting/bad information), and to just be thankful that I managed to survive this ordeal.

I've realized that this has so far been the longest time I've ever been off work, surpassing by a couple of weeks or so the longest stretch of vacation days I've ever had. The following random thoughts have been occupying my mind. I have no gumption to elaborate on them better, so I will just list them in a rough outline:

1. Discovering how badly in which impaired breathing affects my ability to mentally focus: I'm trying to commit to writing exercises (at least around 500 words a day, including this entry) but it just isn't flowing like it should. I usually can noodle out four star logic problems in a puzzle magazine without many errors or much backtracking, but now I'm having trouble keeping a bead on the clues of one and two star problems. I usually dominate in Jeopardy, now I'm zonking out midway through the show. I'm learning directly by comparison just how quality thinking is heavily dependent on getting oxygen. I never realized until now about just how much energy is really needed to just to be able to physically speak and sustain even a short conversation. I recently discovered that through my online chats that thinking, speaking and writing in a foreign language somehow deceptively uses about four times more energy than for me to speak English, and it wears me out quickly.
2. Discovering the hard way how ignorant I've been about how potentially harmful cold air is: The shock of sucking in air from a -42 wind chill outside with buggered up lungs is a bit of a jolt.
3. Wondering ahead to the retirement years: If I'm managing this poorly with the malaise and boredom of being this inactive and away from work or anything else useful right now, what the hell am I going to be like if I actually reach some age when I've really become some kind of feeble old man?
4. Thinking that I really need a meaningful new hobby/creative pastime: I haven't figured out yet what kind of low-impact, non-physical pastime I could do that serves as a satisfying substitute for running, hiking, biking, and skiing. It has to be one that's cheap to do and doesn't require me further straining my eyes by staring at screens or dealing with an intense amount of visual detail. From Wednesday, I can say that pissing around with wiring and trying to reconfigure network connections lacks some appeal, so electronics is out. Making more wine or beer is pointless because I'm well-stocked, lacking the storage room for it, and I can't regularly imbibe now due to the medications. Cooking without an appetite is uninspiring and seems like a waste of time also.
5. Discovering a changing attitude toward having company: Introversion usually suits me. It used to be such that I never had a problem being my own best company and to relish in any quiet moment of solitude I could get. Now the prolonged period of isolation and disengagement from the public due to both this condition and the past cruddy weather is starting to dull my wits and senses a bit. It seems that as I regain more ability to have longer conversations, the more willing I am to have some company. I never used to be as needy to be social this way.