I spend the morning in my ER room with no sleep at all. Having to get up and take a leak with tubes and wires sticking out of me. And cold, I actually broke a veneer on tooth 7. It fractured and I’m a bit scared a piece may have gotten swallowed. I think it was around 6am they came and took me and the bed I was in upstairs so I could get ready for surgery. I have never put on a surgical gown and it didn’t come with instructions so I had to call for help.

They took me down about 7:15am, I was scheduled for 7:30am but others went first. I was parked in pre-surgery with nothing to do but listed to the activity around me. I was parked in a cubby with the curtin drawn and lights out. Every occasionally someone would peek in on me to check. Across the way, there was a conversation about a colonoscopy, next cubby to me there was a guy, talking to a doctor. I watched the digital clock on the wall tick off the time, 7:45, 8:00 then 8:06 and they opened the curtain and said it was time.

The nurse said she had some ‘champaine for the brain’ and injected it into my line… That was it…

I have a brief recollection of waking up in a warehouse on the bed with a mask on thinking I couldn’t breathe, I faded in and out of consciousness. The next thing I remember I was back in my room and Sandy was there then out again. Woke up and Cortney was there and doctors coming in and talking and me talking but I have no recollection what was said. It was reminicent of a blackout and not fun.

After finally coming to in the afternoon, I didn’t have any energey and they kept pumping drugs and IV’s and giving me pills and taking blood and vitals. Unfortunately because of the environment and the bed and everything else, there would be no sleep for me this night and I sadly watched as my cell phone dropped into the single digits for charge and then die. I had neglected to bring a charger cable and although Sandy would be bringing me one in the morning. This overnight would be spent with only a TV whose channels I didn’t know and the nurses checking on me and my thoughts. Sigh…

So this is a flashback so I remember the next couple of days.

I woke up this morning after a really bad nights sleep. I could tell that I was running a fever because of the chills and insomnia. I had Sandy get me the thermometer but temperature was normal. My stomach didn’t feel right, I wasn’t hungry or thirsty. I just felt yucky. And the pain was steadily increasing throughout the day localized to the abdomen and there was the pain in the lower right quadrant.

So after laying around all day, not eating and not drinking, I decided if nothing else I should at least try to hydrate and had Sandy get me a bottle of water from the fridge. I cracked it open and downed half of it (8oz) in fairly short order and then hell came to visit. The pain washed over me like a wave and I was driven to my knees. All of a sudden I started sweating profusely and was extremely hot.

And that was it, I had pre-investigated where I could go to an emergency room and Medical City Richland Hills it was. So at 10pm on Wednesday we made our way to the emergency room. My first trip to the ER that wasn’t my fault. No accident, no overdose, just a condition.

Got there and were the first in line and they got me right in. I’m not sure of the timing but it was in short order that they took me for a CT scan and what seemed like just minutes it was read and I was on the schedule for surgery in the AM…

I had a visit at 8am this morning, not a great way to start the day, I need crown/caps on two molars way in the back so they basically have to invert you and drill while spraying water down your throat. I think that’s as close to water boarding that I care to get.

I have temporary caps on and it should be two weeks to get the permanent ones. I’ll be happy when they are on and this is behind me. I really need to get that one missing tooth replaced but that will come in time.

Well kill may be an over exaggeration but there were actually documented interactions with the prescription medications I’m on with one of them being fairly serious.

This all came to be because of an update to Samsung Health allowing for medication tracking. I put the 3 maintenance meds I’m on in and thought that would be enough but then (for giggles) decided to put in the supplements I take. One of them being Centrum Silver for males +50. It had some serious interactions with the statin I take and really didn’t agree with the others either. So I dropped the multivitamin and will see how that goes. At least everything else is compatible with one another.

Another gotcha about getting older no one bothered to tell me about.

So my training has hit a bit of a snag in that my left knee is broke…
I don’t mean that literally as there isn’t a real break but mofo it hurts. Over a week ago I may have pushed it a little hard at the track but it didn’t impact the hiking last weekend at cooper lake state park south sulfur unit.

I’m not going to be able to do much training with my knee in as much pain as it is but I’ll take a bit of time off and see if it gets better.

So for whatever reason, I’ve taken up running. Well, it’s kind of a run/walk kind of thing. At the rec center, the track is about 1/12th of a mile which makes a nice walk-one-lap, run-one-lap kind of thing. But my old shoes were getting to be worn out so wanting to get a nice pair of running shoes, I looked up on runners world what the best running shoes are. I had to settle for number 10 on their list as that’s all the Academy close to me had. A pair of Brooks Adrenaline GTS 22.

It also (at $150) represents the most I have ever paid for a pair of shoes in my life. I’d like to report that the shoes are life-changing, making my daily run the highlight of my day and allowing me to run faster and further with less pain and energy. But the truth of the matter is they just feel like a good pair of running shoes and I’d be hard-pressed to say they’re worth $150. Oh well, they work well enough and I’m on my way to being healthier than I’ve been in years. Happy trails y’all.

So one of the things that I’ve been doing to keep stress at a manageable level is to exercise. It started with just walking and then got to lifting weights and lastly, and most recently, situps. Situps are the bane of my existence, I actually bought an inverted bench to help with them.

Well it was just at the rec center but it was 5k and completed in 54:39. Total transparency, I did have to take a nap in the afternoon because of this.

Ok, well, not really. I’m sure Sandy and I have hiked way over 3.1 miles at once in our adventures. But this was the first time in well over 3 decades that I actually set out with the goal to walk a 5k. I went to the rec center and walked 39 laps on the indoor track for a total of 3.1 miles in 56 minutes and 6 seconds…

Ok, that’s slightly off my best time of 18 minutes and 20 seconds but I’m somewhere around 3 times as old as I was then. This is still progress. A scant couple of years ago, I don’t know that I could have made it the 39 laps. That and my time can only get better, LOL. The sad truth is that my ankles were never really meant to be a runner and as I’ve gotten older I just don’t feel like taxing them to see how fast I can go. I’ve very satisfied that they just go:)

As we celebrate another week in the books, I’m excited to say we’ve been doing a great job of moving for at least 30 minutes a day. Today we walked outside but even in the morning, it’s starting to get hot.
One of the really nice things about the rec center is that the walking course on the second floor is cool, I mean to the point where some folks have to wear sweaters for their walk. I think it feels great and if you get a card you can grab some weights and work out your arms while you walk. I have to be a bit careful with that as I overdid it yesterday and I think I bruised a bicep, ouch!
We’re also going to try racquetball sometime as no one is ever on the courts.