For the second time in two weeks, my body has told me I need some time away, and it’s twice affected my travel plans.
Hospitalized, Stuck
A couple of weeks ago I was in Florida and found a familiar pain that I haven’t felt in the better part of a decade. It seemed as though a kidney stone was making its way through my system but as similar pain can come from a number of other maladies, some of which far more serious than passing a stone, I still went to the hospital for a professional opinion and a scan.
The scan confirmed a stone was on its way and while I am not particularly prone to kidney stones, this one was trapped in a tough spot. I was sent home with some medication to help with the pain and to pass it. Despite narcotics layered with ibuprofen, the pain was unbearable 36 hours later and under the advisement of medical staff, I returned to the hospital where they admitted me. If the stone would not pass in the next 24 hours, they’d need to perform an operation. Luckily, that wasn’t necessary, I left the hospital the following day in the afternoon.
We hosted a dinner that night, though I remained tender, and then drove 17 hours home to Pittsburgh which was probably not the best decision.
Down For The Count In Omaha
A week later, I was preparing to depart for a family trip to Omaha, Nebraska where I grew up. I had a slight sinus infection but nothing out of the norm, my kids had it too but they were able to shake it. Congestion during the flights to Omaha left one ear popped nearly the whole week and while I’d normally quickly recover from a sinus infection, this one had me flat on my back sleeping 12-16 hours a day while my family visited with friends and relatives.
After a few days of it not getting better, I went to a doctor again, this time diagnosed with both sinusitis and an ear infection. A prescription was written and followed but 48 hours later and things still hadn’t improved. I couldn’t chance my ear drum rupturing so we will be, once again driving back, this time a brisk 14 hours with my wife at the wheel.
I Need To Take Time For Myself
It’s been an eventful summer to this point, busy with meetings, lots of business activity, late nights, early mornings, and I have not allowed myself to rest. For the first time in my adult life, this has been a problem. My body and health are failing me even in the simplest of sinus infections, something that I have dealt with extensively since childhood, is now insurmountable.
I need to take time for myself, time to heal, and time to renew my strength. I need to cancel some meetings, take a lighter load, and sleep. I need to delegate more and do a little less.
My challenges have reminded me that if I don’t prioritize a slower pace, my body will make sure that I rest whether it’s convenient or not. It’s a much easier life to just take care of myself than try to repair myself.
Hope you’re feeling a bit better!
This is a wise article . Rest and avoiding “pushing” the body is a wise resolution . That’s step one .
Step two : I can recommend the need for jokes and laughter , and dismissal of seriousness as much as possible . Seriousness never solved any problem , while jokes and laughter can be shared with others anywhere .
Sell the business, invest the money, find some volunteer opportunities, enjoy your family & friends and never work another day in your life.
Best advice for anyone over 45 that has been successful. Tomorrow is never guaranteed and it’s not how long you live, but how you lived.
Your health will come around quickly when you throw the stress out the window.
Noting that if you have young kids retiring from a paid job may mean more stress! I know from experience!
sorry to hear this, Kyle.
hope you are able to find the underlying causes – if there are any – and keep doing what you like with a different lifestyle.
Wishing you an early and full recovery and wisdom in navigating life.
These may be warning signs that you should take more Covid precautions, such as vaccination yearly (twice a year starting your late 50’s), wearin̈g masks. Also, soon you might benefit from RSV vaccine. Check for occult blood in stool as an indicator of colon cancer.
Make a will and do some estate planning.
Covid? Colon Cancer? This must be the liberal Derek, not the intellectual one.
For a stone and an earache?
Horrible takes. But the will and estate planning is a good idea for everyone.
I had kidney stones several times and don’t recommend that pain to anyone. It is one if the worst anyone can have. My body has taken a turn to worse this year. Lots of lower back pain that won’t go away. My quadriceps tendon on the junction with both knees are destroyed. Had to take several shots to get a bit better but the back needs something more invasive and I am not ready to it. Have lost 20lbs and now at the lowest weight since when I was a teenager. Working from home has been a blessing and for the first time in 15 years I won’t reach Diamond status with Delta and that is great. All my international trips are now only in business class so I can rest instead of suffering in a coach seat. Getting old sucks but the alternative is worse.
I’m sorry for both what you and Kyle have gone through. Glad you are on the mend.
Thanks Matthew
Suggest Mayo ( near you ? ) for medical opinions .
@Alert: thanks for that. Yes, Mayo is awesome but I am well covered here. Quad tendons are just worn out. Probably way too much squats at gym and other things so had hyaluronic acid injections with a sports medicine doctor and it helped a lot but long drives or long flights with knees bent kills me. As for the lower back, no surgical but some sort of ablation radio frequency where you kill the nerve that is transmitting the pain signals to brain. Not a big fan of injections on my spine so have been working with chiropractor and personal trainer to alleviate the pain.
Ablation? I’m hearing a lot about that and I have a consult in 2 weeks with a pain doctor for pain in my arthritic right knee. I had both a cortisone shot which didn’t work and then a gel shot that didn’t work, so my orthopedic doc suggested a consult for a knee ablation.
Who here has had an ablation?
Check this website. My doctor recommended me to read it. He said he has a patient who is almost 90yo that every 3 or 4 years goes back to another ablation. Apparently the nerve you “kill” with the procedure regenerates so you have to do it again.
https://www.spine-health.com/treatment/injections/radiofrequency-ablation-rfa
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=kidney+stone&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=3
study RECENT history, and you’ll know the cause of kidney stones
Often our immune system is overlooked. Rest, eating healthy foods and reducing stress should be a top priority. And it’s more difficult to recover good health than maintain it.
Kyle, listen to your body. Sinus infections are notoriously stubborn and can have a depressingly long recovery time. All the best to you.
Why were shock wave lithotripsy or ureteroscopy not done immediately if the stone was large? What did ENT give as a diagnosis to explain frequent sinus infections? Sending you home with prostrating pain is a recipe for a stroke given the sustained high blood pressure.
Strange all this happened just as I was wondering how you manage to do all you do. You DO need some rest!
Free Chi!
It’s too late for me Dave – He’s banished me.
I thought they had cool utrasonic equipment that could break up the stone. That’s it, I just not going to have one. Best of health, Kyle.
DIET and EXERCISE play a major part in kidney stones. Mainly, good hydration by drinking Lemon water is the first thing you should do when you get up. And hydrate, drink water throughout the day. If you ride in airplanes (or cars) a lot, you need to exercise, by just walking for half an hour almost daily, Some people are more prone to kidney stones than others. Take care of your kidneys!
Hey, Kyle,
First, I am very sorry for what you are experiencing. This is just hard. Period. I will just toss this out only because I relate, knowing absolutely ZILCH and admitting as much. The sinus infection side… not sure if you have ever explored this, but I had similar experiences. I happen to be asthmatic, too, and the short version of a longer story is that it turned out the air quality of where I was recently living for a new job was exacerbating it. I started researching–things like the American Lung Associating State of the Air Report, etc. My sinus infection that previously would heal right up with antibiotics and a Medrol dosepack, suddenly would not, and I would have bronchitis and even occasionally pneumonia.
I mention this only because Pittsburgh is one of the places known for having AQI problems. I love your city and think it is beautiful! No shade intended. The issues go back to the mills and pollution, there and in eastern Ohio. This year you ranked 16th (worst), but of course there is a debate. Not even trying to argue one way or another. Some of air pollution is common sense… wildfires make the air worse. Duh, right? But when the AQI is poor for long times, and it is the result is certain triggers PM2.5 for example, it will be harder to heal. Is that WHY you or me or anyone isn’t? Correlation does NOT automatically equal causation. But it’s always worth examining. It meant a massive life upheaval for me. But since that time, I have not had a single sustained respiratory illness fro the first time in years. (Article FWIW: https://www.alleghenyfront.org/american-lung-association-air-quality-pittsburgh-fail/)