Post by homeskillet on Jul 4, 2008 0:24:02 GMT -5
You all may have realized that I am quite a patterned visitor on this site. I pop on every other day, per the rules of my household. Now, granted, I only missed one day and that generally isn't a big deal, I feel I have to explain why I did. Wednesday I didn't feel good. At 12:30am I was awakened from a pretty deep sleep choking on my stomach acid. Yeah, I know, that's a pretty gross thought, but I suffer from( this name I learned last night) GIRD. I don't know what it stands for for, but it it is basically Acid Reflux syndrome. The burning I had from this particular episode was brutal and I probably spent at least five minutes, trying to clear my throat and chest of the bile that was there. When it was bearable, I took another Zantac and went back to sleep.
I woke the next morning at about ten to 7am. This is when I needed to be walking out the door to make it work on time if I went on foot( which I should), I was too achy to even think about walking. Speaking of thinking, I had the worst headache. It was like I was not only having a hang over, but it was like I was bone dry dehydrated. I had a variety of aches in pains all over my body and I was too nauseous to eat breakfast. Needless to say, I drove to work any way and worked a whole eight hour shift, without so much a complaint to my boss. I did this for multiple reasons. I open and waking up at 7am( 1 hour away from when the store opens) is not enough time to give someone a sick notice. We are also slow and this leaves the part timer out of the loop, so I knew it would be only the boss and I. On top of these reasons, the day was crazy. We weren't terribly busy, but we had to juggle a few different projects and none of our machines were working correctly. This made for a very non-stop work day with nothing think about, but the work on hand. Also, later on when I was about to complain about how bad I felt, my boss got a call about a family emergency and I didn't want to add my news to it.
Now at lunch time I called my wife and told her my symptoms and the one that stood the most for her was the chest pains I kept having. Throughout the day my chest would hurt pretty bad and especially when I breathed in very hard. The pain was all chest, from side to side. My wife suggested, I mean, demanded that I go to the clinic after work. Now this isn't me at. Sure I felt crappy, but I don't need to pay someone $50 to tell me how crappy, but I didn't argue, I agreed. Final last words. So I leave work, drive a good fifteen minutes to the Urgent Care and called my wife, she prepped me. She told me to tell them right away about my shortness of breath and my chest pains. I did this. Right away they had me hooked up to machines and were running some basic tests. They asked about my family history. I won't go into all of the details, but my dad has suffered from a few strokes. After everything was finished the doctor came in and said everything from these basic tests looks fine and it's probably nothing, maybe viral. I am thinking I am in the clear, but then the other shoe drops. The doctor continues with but we do not have the facilities here to determine exactly what is causing the problem and since I am a risk, he couldn't take any chances.I am a risk. I weigh 335 lbs, I am 5'11", I have high blood pressure and cholesterol and I have that wonderful family history. He follows this with, I will have to send you to the ER.
Right. I am already thinking as soon as this guy sends me out I am home. I was not about to go to the ER. That is when he called the ambulance. The ER was basically across the street, so the ambulance ride wasn't that long, but I was scared. I was pretty confident there was nothing wrong, but now I was getting administered to the Hospital Emergency Room. I could quickly tell my going to the Urgent Care became so much more and now my wife had ammo. Needless to say, I was administered in the Hospital for observation. It was an alright night, even though my sleep apnea caused a few alarms to go off. I woke this morning with good news. My heart is fine. Granted it is a little enlarged, but not a problem. After viewing the chest X-Ray( one of those pieces of equipment the Urgent Care lacked), they found that I was suffering from a mild case of pneumonia. So I was released this afternoon. They are going to keep an eye on me. I am supposed to get my sleep apnea in check. They want to make sure what they saw in my lung goes away and that it is not malignant( my mother's piece of the old family history).
So now to the point. This was one very big eye opener. The main reason why I had to go through it was because of the risk factors mentioned above. This revelation, of course, needs full attention. With my wife very upset over the whole ordeal and my own brush with mortality, a lifestyle change is in order. I love playing my games and don't want to stop, but I don't know what is in store for me in the coming future. I am really going to try and balance things so I can play with no problem. I only want to make everyone aware of what I am going through. I may have to spend more time taking care of my living standards and that may cut into this. If it does, I am sorry. I know we all understand real life comes first, but I don't want to muck things up in anyones game. If my absences become an issue, just let me know. I am hoping nothing changes. I in fact am thinking about GMing again and like to do that, but I cant guarantee anything. I have a family that needs me and I have to get better for them. So please bear with me and thanks for understanding, because I am sure you all will.
I woke the next morning at about ten to 7am. This is when I needed to be walking out the door to make it work on time if I went on foot( which I should), I was too achy to even think about walking. Speaking of thinking, I had the worst headache. It was like I was not only having a hang over, but it was like I was bone dry dehydrated. I had a variety of aches in pains all over my body and I was too nauseous to eat breakfast. Needless to say, I drove to work any way and worked a whole eight hour shift, without so much a complaint to my boss. I did this for multiple reasons. I open and waking up at 7am( 1 hour away from when the store opens) is not enough time to give someone a sick notice. We are also slow and this leaves the part timer out of the loop, so I knew it would be only the boss and I. On top of these reasons, the day was crazy. We weren't terribly busy, but we had to juggle a few different projects and none of our machines were working correctly. This made for a very non-stop work day with nothing think about, but the work on hand. Also, later on when I was about to complain about how bad I felt, my boss got a call about a family emergency and I didn't want to add my news to it.
Now at lunch time I called my wife and told her my symptoms and the one that stood the most for her was the chest pains I kept having. Throughout the day my chest would hurt pretty bad and especially when I breathed in very hard. The pain was all chest, from side to side. My wife suggested, I mean, demanded that I go to the clinic after work. Now this isn't me at. Sure I felt crappy, but I don't need to pay someone $50 to tell me how crappy, but I didn't argue, I agreed. Final last words. So I leave work, drive a good fifteen minutes to the Urgent Care and called my wife, she prepped me. She told me to tell them right away about my shortness of breath and my chest pains. I did this. Right away they had me hooked up to machines and were running some basic tests. They asked about my family history. I won't go into all of the details, but my dad has suffered from a few strokes. After everything was finished the doctor came in and said everything from these basic tests looks fine and it's probably nothing, maybe viral. I am thinking I am in the clear, but then the other shoe drops. The doctor continues with but we do not have the facilities here to determine exactly what is causing the problem and since I am a risk, he couldn't take any chances.I am a risk. I weigh 335 lbs, I am 5'11", I have high blood pressure and cholesterol and I have that wonderful family history. He follows this with, I will have to send you to the ER.
Right. I am already thinking as soon as this guy sends me out I am home. I was not about to go to the ER. That is when he called the ambulance. The ER was basically across the street, so the ambulance ride wasn't that long, but I was scared. I was pretty confident there was nothing wrong, but now I was getting administered to the Hospital Emergency Room. I could quickly tell my going to the Urgent Care became so much more and now my wife had ammo. Needless to say, I was administered in the Hospital for observation. It was an alright night, even though my sleep apnea caused a few alarms to go off. I woke this morning with good news. My heart is fine. Granted it is a little enlarged, but not a problem. After viewing the chest X-Ray( one of those pieces of equipment the Urgent Care lacked), they found that I was suffering from a mild case of pneumonia. So I was released this afternoon. They are going to keep an eye on me. I am supposed to get my sleep apnea in check. They want to make sure what they saw in my lung goes away and that it is not malignant( my mother's piece of the old family history).
So now to the point. This was one very big eye opener. The main reason why I had to go through it was because of the risk factors mentioned above. This revelation, of course, needs full attention. With my wife very upset over the whole ordeal and my own brush with mortality, a lifestyle change is in order. I love playing my games and don't want to stop, but I don't know what is in store for me in the coming future. I am really going to try and balance things so I can play with no problem. I only want to make everyone aware of what I am going through. I may have to spend more time taking care of my living standards and that may cut into this. If it does, I am sorry. I know we all understand real life comes first, but I don't want to muck things up in anyones game. If my absences become an issue, just let me know. I am hoping nothing changes. I in fact am thinking about GMing again and like to do that, but I cant guarantee anything. I have a family that needs me and I have to get better for them. So please bear with me and thanks for understanding, because I am sure you all will.
