Recuperation

Or, what the heck has been going on

Photo by Shane on Unsplash

Hello H.A.T.T.E.R.s., it’s been a few weeks since I’ve published a new post. My apologies for republishing some older works during the past couple of weeks but August has been a rough month. Without going into too many details, here’s what’s been going on:

• On August 2 I went to my local hospital due to pains in my lower back region. I’ve had kidney stones before and this felt an awful lot like having kidney stones. Surprise, I was diagnosed with having kidney stones blocking both ureters, including a couple of really large stones. Fortunately I was able to have an initial procedure to treat the stones the very same day. My doctor placed a stent in each ureter to keep the fluids moving and home I went.

• On August 11 I had a second procedure to further treat the stones and was sent home again.

• Within a couple of days I started to run a temperature and, for variety, developed extreme chills a couple of days later. Another trip to the hospital. This time I was diagnosed with a UTI but they needed to do some lab analysis to figure out exactly what bug I’d managed to contract. So I spent Aug. 16 - 19 in the hospital getting saline and antibiotics pumped into me. It wasn’t much fun but things improved towards the end of the stay.

• I’ve been home recuperating since the 19th. A new round of antibiotics turned my brain into mush and I wasn’t capable of doing a whole lot. I’ve been off them since Aug. 26th and my brain is getting pretty close to normal again.

• Today (Aug. 29) my stents were removed. Ugh. But good. A new antibiotic for 3 more days.

• If everything stays on plan I’ll be back to work after Labour Day.

So the theme of my life for the month of August has been recuperation. I’ve missed about three weeks of work due to sick leave and planned vacation. It was difficult to concentrate enough to read until this past week but now I’m reading normally. I’ve done virtually no writing except for keeping my journal up to date. I’ve been playing a lot of Minecraft lately since it seemed to be a good fit for my mood and mental capacity.

I haven’t spent this much time away from work in more than 25 years. Virtually everything has been on hold in August while I try to get past this illness (thankfully, I think I’m healing up quite well). Ironically enough, the kidney stones themselves haven’t bothered me so much since getting a couple of laser lithotripsies, it’s been the other stuff that’s been challenging.

So, on the negative side:

• I’ve missed a ton of work at an inconvenient time for a huge work project and it will be difficult to catch up again.

• Very little writing (I guess I’ve already mentioned that!)

• Some general discomfort and other stuff I won’t go into.

• General malaise and self-directed anger at getting kidney stones again and knowing that my sedentary lifestyle and poor diet of the past 3 years was a major contributor to this.

• I missed a high school reunion.

• I feel like I’ve lost some of my sense of taste, although I think this is resolving itself.

But here are some positives:

• Assuming all has gone well my kidney stones should be mostly flushed out of my body, so that can only be positive.

• I’ve lost at least 15 lbs., mainly through some better nutrition choices plus eating less in general. Mind you, I could stand to lose even more weight but it’s nice to be somewhat slimmer.

• I feel motivated to eat better and maybe get back on the exercise bandwagon.

• I probably needed the extra sleep and rest that this interlude has provided, in addition to getting a break from work stress.

• In general I feel like I’ve gone through a kind of reset. Disruption is a chance to put new and better habits in place, after all.

I still have a sequel to the concentric circles post in the works and I feel like I can concentrate and do a good job on it now. Plus I can start moving forward with Generation Lens (more to come on this).

So that’s the latest with me. It’s good to be writing for you again, H.A.T.T.E.R.s. I hope you are all doing well and that you’ll keep sticking around: still have lots to write about.

Allons-y!