Fighting Edema With Video Games

At 34, I'm getting a little too old for video games. However, when I purchased a big-screen HDTV to "comfort" me during my recovery this summer, I felt that the temptation of getting an XBox 360 was just too much. When you are stuck on a couch for several hours a day, I figured that playing games could be a nice diversion from watching Judge Judy and the nightly news.

Of course, I've learned that things never turn out exactly how you plan them to be, and for most of my recovery I was too tired for anything. It was hard to focus on watching TV, much less kill zombies or save the world on my XBox. Sadly, my new game system was collecting dust.

As I started to feel better, I began to feel bad that I spent $300 on a console that I never play. So, I decided to not squander my investment and start playing some games. The other week I decided to buy Gears of War, one of the newer games that has become extremely popular for this system. It's got a nice concept -- you are a solider fighting aliens who have invaded your home planet, and can kill them with a variety of different types of weaponry. My favorite is a machine gun that has a chainsaw built into its end. But I digress.

I have come to really, really like this game, and have been spending a lot of time playing online in multiplayer games. It's a very stressful game, with guns and bombs blasting everywhere, and of course, there's the worry that someone will sneak up behind you and take their chainsaw-gun and cut you in two. As you can see, it's great stuff.

I've noticed my adrenaline rushes through my body, and my blood pressure goes through the roof when I play the game. Since I naturally have low blood pressure, this boost really gets the juices flowing. I think that the increase in blood pressure is preventing the collection of fluid in my legs, thereby reducing my edema. So, I guess would could say that in my case, video game playing is therapeutic.

Before you dismiss my claims that alien bashing is clinicially helpful, here's some food for thought -- I've played Gears of War for an hour or so a day for the last few days, and I haven't taken any water pills since Friday. Stick that one in your pipe (or chainsaw-tipped machine gun, if you prefer).

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Monday begins the first of three days at BUSM for my three-month evaluation. The three-month eval isn't really meaningful, since it is too early to draw any conclusions from tests this early in the recovery. I expect nothing more than blood tests and some face time with doctors as a result of tomorrow's visit, but I'll post any significant news if it comes in.