You gimme fever

If you felt tired, warm but chilly, achy, and your head and throat hurt, and you took your temperature and it was 99.5, would you say you had a fever?

Since my normal daytime temperature is 97.3, I'll say I did. It started yesterday afternoon. I could not get warm, even though my skin was hot to the touch. I finally took a long, hot shower, which helped some. I took my temperature and was surprised that it was 98.3, but didn't think too much about it. As the afternoon wore on, though, I felt worse and worse. By the time the dinner dishes were loaded in the dirty-dish storage compartment [aka dishwasher], my temperature was 99, and by the time Jeopardy was over it was 99.5.

I slept for three hours and woke up in a cold sweat. My temperature was down to 96.7. When I get sick, I don't mess around. I feel bad for a few hours and get over it. May it always be so.

It was several years ago when I first learned that low body temperature might be an indicator of thyroid disease which, as every fat person knows, makes one resistant to losing weight. I'm not going to link to any information about it, because I don't believe the information is credible. Suffice it to say that I pursued that angle for far too long, spending too much time and money on labwork, doctors' visits and dreams of easy weight loss through chemistry. Not, mind you, the chemistry of weight-loss drugs – that would come later. But the chemistry of thyroid medication.

Fortunately, I didn't hurt myself. [Taking thyroid medication unnecessarily can lead to serious problems.] I wasted a few years looking for the easy way out of Fat Hell. The fact is, my normal body temperature is on the low side of normal. [I think that would be a good title for a book.] That might mean that my metabolism works at a slower pace than yours does.

I think I've proven, since January 1, 2006, that I can do something about my weight that doesn't involve drugs and isn't dependent on having the classic 98.6 'normal' body temperature. I can lose weight at a slow, steady pace when I eat reasonable amounts of high-quality carbs with low-fat protein, hoist a few dumbbells and work up a sweat on a regular basis.

Simple, huh? But not easy.