As previously mentioned, I went and saw my primary care doctor on Friday. He didn’t really have any concrete ideas about the fatigue. He ordered a few basic blood tests to see if I’m anemic (I’m not), or hypothyroid (I’m not), or have any kind of unusual muscle damage (I don’t). In spite of that, he was somewhat equivocal on whether or not I should go back to work in the unit. He felt that I probably could go back to work but it would also be understandable if I stayed on light duty for a while longer, without a great deal of specificity on what “a while longer” might mean.
Being that I appear to be almost completely incapable of making this decision, and have been required to do so more times than I care to think about for school, I decided to make thing as complicated as possible and create an evidence table for whether or not I should go back to work. I’m leaving out any judgement on the quality of the evidence because I don’t think anyone I interact with on even a semi-regular basis has much to show in the way of an impact factor.
| SOURCE | SUMMARY OF EVIDENCE | CONCLUSION |
| Friends and family | Stay the f*** home, doofus | Stay on light duty |
| Critical care management | We’d like to have you back but take whatever time you need | Indeterminate, leans return to work |
| Employee health management | We want you to get better of course, but we really need the help | Indeterminate, leans stay on light duty |
| Mental health provider | You’ve been through a great deal recently and there is nothing wrong with staying on light duty if you feel like you need to | Stay on light duty |
| Urologist | Nothing we did should be making you fatigued at this point | Return to work |
| Primary care provider | You could go back to work, but you really are being treated for a legitimate medical issue so you can certainly stay on light duty if you need to | Indeterminate |
| My brain | There isn’t anything wrong with you, stop malingering, STFU & GBTW | Return to work |
With it laid out like that, the conclusion is pretty clear; I should listen to my brain because it appears to have the loudest and most annoying voice.
Okay, not really. But I reserve the right to feel like a slacker for staying home.
Might I offer a complete layman’s theory?
Maybe the fact that you stopped running balls-out for a mere instance—under the unimpeachable mandate of a slew of doctors and the looming shadow of the C-word—gave your body a chance to think to itself, “wait, we’re taking a rest break? Like, and it’s totally, unquestionably legit? OH THANK YOU GOD.” And promptly collapsed into a snoring heap on the floor of your medulla oblongata. Leaving your forebrain to witter on about duty and obligation and selfishness…in response to which your body grunts, turns over, lets out a little fart and goes back to sleep.
Your adrenal glands—which have been running a sprint but treating it like a marathon for a decade or more—try to kick in again, but having stopped moving for a second are down for the count with the Great-Grandpappy of all Charlie Horses. All they can do is writhe and moan and beg for more Gatorade.
Hit the snooze button, Dude. Give the body just a little more sack time. It’s been there for you through thick and thin, it deserves a nap.
Um, yeah. Kinda what he said. Only really, EXACTLY what he said.