I hate summer. I do. I hate it with a passion. Really, though, I just hate the weather.
Like so many others with chronic illness, my symptoms flare in hot and/or humid weather. That means I feel worse when the weather turns. Air conditioning helps. It doesn’t prevent or fix the problem, but it does cushion it a bit. So I spend a lot of time indoors with air conditioning.
But that’s incredibly limiting. I haven’t left my apartment in 2 days. Before that, I hadn’t left in 2 days. I used to stay home for days at a time because I felt like shit. That sucked. This simply sucks in a different way. I feel decent enough that I’d like to get outside. And at the very least I’d like to get some fresh air. When I feel lousy in October and can’t leave the house, at least I can open a window!
But now if I open a window the air is thick and stale and unpleasant to breathe. So I keep them shut. I go from my apartment to my car to a building to my car to my apartment and feel like I haven’t really gotten any fresh air at all. And really, I haven’t.
I shouldn’t complain. I’m really very lucky. This is the least horrible I’ve felt in a summer in many years. And at least I have air conditioning in part of my apartment! I am super grateful for that!!
Still, I’m frustrated. I miss going outside. I had been working hard to exercise more and I was taking walks just about every day. Now, I’ve probably taken 2 walks in the past month.
I’m counting down. I figure the weather should improve enough that I can open windows and go outside again in about 2 months. 2 months. 2 long months. In the meantime, I’m texting with my friend with chronic illness, who are also trapped indoors. Maybe I should invite them over. At least then we could be trapped together.
Chronic Rants 