Fatigue

I have a new perspective on the phrase 'run through the ringer'. I've heard it used many times and probably have used it myself but I've never used it with the same kind of understanding that I now have.
First, let me remind you (those of you who are old enough to remember) what the 'ringer' is. I remember my grandmother washing clothes in her washing machine. The tub had an agitator in it that turned back and forth swishing the clothes around, pulling them down into the water and shaking the dirt out of them. The tub also had a ringer mounted on top of it. When she believed the clothes were clean, she would pick each piece of clothing up out of the water and put the end of it into the rollers that were turning in opposite direction pulling the piece of clothing into the tightly spaced rollers, squeezing the excess water out of it. She would then let them fall into a fresh tub of clean water and rinse them by hand and put them through the ringer again and then maybe the third time. I watched as the water would just be rung out and that piece of clothing would come out damp, not soggy wet, on the other side.
Now, that is what I think people mean when they say, "I fill like I have been run through the ringer". I knew this all along, but now I know how it feels. My last shot of medicine which I took last Wednesday night took it's tole on me by draining me of my energy like never before. I was just run down, not that I had been doing anything, but that's the way it worked on me this time. Sunday and Monday I felt like the ends of my fingers were feeling the absence of all my strength that had somehow just oozed out of me. My legs felt empty. And I was sleepy most of the day, both days. I feel better today. I even tried to do some push-ups, and I did some too! How many? Look, you're getting me off my subject. I've got to go on with this blog. Anyway, I feel better today and will probably be even stronger tomorrow, but then, tomorrow night after church, I will give myself another shot. I was told that after about two or three months, these symptoms should subside considerably. I sure hope so. If they don't subside I will be 'rung out'.
That symptom is referred to in one of my hep-c books as 'extreme fatigue (tiredness)'. Before I ever began to take this medicine I felt similar to that a lot of times. Maybe you have too! I secretly thought of it as laziness. I'm so glad that I can publicly and loudly profess that I am 'extremely fatigued' and not lazy. Fatigue. Yes! That sounds so much better than 'lazy'.
Maybe tomorrow, I will get around to posting some pictures of my son Jonathan's graduation from Lee University. I am so proud of him. Do you realize that when someone graduates from a four year university today, that they have an education that is probably worth what a masters degree would have been worth in my day of graduation? Well, that's what I think, but no one is paying me for thinking, are they? Jonathan received his bachelor's degree in Computer Information Systems. Oh, how I pray that he will get a job that will pay him well enough that he can repay his college loan, and still have enough money to make a living. He doesn't have time to experience fatigue!