The future teaches you to be alone

I am really frustrated with myself today.

Yesterday I was meant to go to a party at a friend's house and I didn't. I had every intention of going and had been really looking forward to it all week, even making sure the lift to her flat was working ahead of going. That was before I had my, now customary, mid afternoon nap. I woke up really breathless (even more so than normal - my oxygen saturation was 85%) and felt generally a bit rubbish so decided that it was probably for the best if I didn't push things too hard by going through the exertions of getting showered and dressed and going into Glasgow and instead opt for a night just staying in my room watching films.

Now that might seem like a perfectly sensible response to my condition but on reflection this morning I wonder if I was just too scared to push myself. You see the fact I couldn't breathe so well after my nap isn't uncommon. Simply lying down leads to your lungs compressing, and in my case sticking together a bit, so I could fully expect my oxygen sats to be lower than they usually are. They recover over time and I start to feel normal again a wee while after. I did still feel pretty bad but I just can't shake the fact that I should be pushing myself a little bit for as long as I possibly can because not doing things (as per my last post) simply leads to not being able to do do things. I also wonder if the fact it was going to be a night with a lot of strangers in a room with only a few friends affected my decision as having to explain my situation to people has become an incredibly boring aspect of my life now. I'm not sure really but today I really feel like I let myself down by not waiting a while and maybe turning my oxygen up for a while to see if I could recover to go, although if I did turn it up the cylinder wouldn't last as long so it would have meant spending only a short time at the party anyway. I don't really know though because I never tried and that's what really bothers me.

I've got tickets to see The Stone Roses in a fortnight and this is a concert I've been waiting 20 years to see, so I'm not even going to tempt fate and will avoid having my afternoon nap and will take all the painkillers and other drugs I need to make the experience as comfortable as I can. If I can take anything from my failure to push myself last night it's that doing something that you're scared to do is a good way to remind you that you're actually living and not just existing.