Sweating & Quivering

It has been an interesting transition back into the real world. So interesting, in fact, that I feel like I have done a pretty good job of neglecting communication with my body. In India, I got very good at checking in with my body to note any changes or cries for help. But being back in the States, surrounded by loads of laundry, piles of labs to grade, and catching -up dinners I have somehow forgotten what it was like to whisper inside and make sure everything was okay.

Until yesterday.

I was sitting in my classroom with the lights off doing some grading. Yesterday was a non-pupil contact day for the students, so I was able to try to gain my barrings again, at least in that aspect of my life. While I sat, I noticed that my lanyard that holds my keys and school identity conveniently around my neck was quivering. It was quivering because my stomach was quivering. Now it is no shocker that my stomach was engaging in spasm... it does so frequently when changing temperatures or sensing pain. However, this time was different. 1) Because there was no pain and 2) because it wasn't stopping. After awhile of gazing, I touched my stomach to see if it would stop shaking only to find that it was sweating profusely! And when I say sweating, I mean WET sweat. To investigate further I concluded that my entire lower back was wet as well. So wet that my t-shirt had been saturated with sweat.

It is a very known fact that people with spinal cord injuries tend to sweat a lot right at their site of injury, which was exactly where I was sweating (L1-L2). The only disconcerting thing was that I hadn't sweat like this since I was in the hospital with a back brace strapped to me. What I mean is that I haven't felt this sensation in over 10 years.

The sweating and quivering continued through most of the day. In fact, I am still a little sweaty writing this post. I'm not sure that it means anything of substance, but it is interesting to say the least.

And for those of you wondering... yes, I touched my stomach to make sure that I hadn't suddenly regained sensation and hadn't noticed yet.