I started a series in which I planned to post updates related to addressing my poor state of health. I’ve decided that I will no longer post health updates. I don’t think they are very interesting to my audience, and I want to focus more on business-related topics.
However, I’m not stopping my pursuit of better health; I just suffered a significant setback.
Vacation in the Turks
Things were going pretty well for me. I managed to finish my 30-day YouTube video challenge. We then headed to Turks and Caicos as a family for some much-needed rest and relaxation.
When I returned from Turks, I was recharged, but I realized I needed to get my health under control. If you’ve never been to an all-inclusive resort, then I should tell you that one of the major activities is drinking alcohol. They usually include unlimited access to alcohol almost all day long. That’s what people do there. Drink and eat.
I got home and decided to quit drinking for a while because I had just spent an entire week drinking way too much. I also tried to get other parts of my health together, like diet and exercise. Things started trending in the right direction, and a health scare occurred.
Health Scare – The Setback
A few weeks after I returned from vacation, I started having some stomach problems and flu-like symptoms. I thought I caught some bug from being around so many people and flying.
It got progressively worse to the point that I was lying in bed with severe cold chills and actually shivering, but covering myself with multiple blankets, including heated blankets. I slept almost all day and night, waking up soaking wet with sweat.
Eventually, my wife convinced me to go to the emergency room. I spent a day there getting various tests and blood work. They eventually said it was probably just a virus and sent me home. I continued that night with the same symptoms.
The hospital called me at 2 am to tell me I needed to be admitted to the hospital. I didn’t answer because I was too sick, and it was 2 am… I hadn’t even been checking my phone.
My wife decided to check my phone and noticed a voicemail from the hospital telling me to return to be admitted due to some blood work results. We called the hospital to get more information, and they said it was likely a misdialed call. They had no information about why I was called.
I went to the ER anyway and told them to admit me.
Being Hospitalized for 12 Days
I was admitted, and they tracked down the reason. They thought some bacteria was growing in my blood cultures, but it hadn’t been long enough to see exactly what it was.
They did some more tests, including a failed spinal tap in the ER room in which I was screaming and on the verge of passing out after several tries at hitting the right spot. They eventually sent me to radiology so that they could do an x-ray to find the actual nerve they needed in my spinal column. This was much more pleasant.
They sent me to a room. The majority of the time, I was still cold and sleeping. I discovered that the cold chills were from a high fever (104 F). They treated me with Tylenol but could only give me so much. After that, it was packing my body with ice packs. I avoided covering up even though I would shiver because I needed my body to cool down.
I underwent several tests, including extensive blood work, CT scans, and an MRI. Several doctors peeked into the room, each with no clue what the other was doing. There was a clear lack of communication.
They eventually determined that my appendix needed to be surgically removed. So I was sent to the operating room with a 104 fever because my nurse hooked me up to the Tylenol they requested but did not turn the IV on.
I was pretty scared of the operation, but it went well. Until the pain finally hit me. All of a sudden, I had the most excruciating pain of my life coming from the area where they removed my appendix.
After screaming in pain for about 45 minutes, my nurse finally responded to the page I put out. They did give me morphine, and my pain melted away. I can actually understand why people get addicted to opioids.
After that, I got some oral pain meds for a day or two, but then I told them I wanted to go without them. The pain started to go away. Walking or going to the bathroom was hard, but I managed.
Some coordinator from the hospital was apparently in a hurry to get me out of there and started trying to discuss the discharge process while I could barely walk or stay awake.
Diagnoses: Sepsis
They did diagnose me with Sepsis, a blood infection. They started me on general strong antibiotics. Then, my blood work came back indicating that it originated from Salmonella poisoning. We aren’t entirely sure where I caught the salmonella. It’s possible that I got it in Turks and Caicos. It’s also just as much of a probability that I touched some chicken or didn’t clean my cutting board well enough at home. We have no idea.
Sepsis is actually a pretty serious condition. I think I was in worse shape than I probably realized.
I got connected with an infectious disease doctor. They recommend a different antibiotic that targets this type of infection. They started discussing the discharge process again. They told me I would need to be on IV antibiotics for several months at home and have home health nurses visit me.
I didn’t really like the sound of this, but I was willing to do what I needed. At the same time, we were not happy with the level of care I was receiving. We requested a transfer to two different hospitals with better reputations. The hospital I was at was more of an acute care center, while these other two had specialties in treating this infection.
Transferred to Another Hospital
I actually got some pushback from the doctor when they found out I requested a transfer. I had to wait a day after my request was approved because there was no transport available for the two-hour drive.
The doctor at that hospital approved my transfer, and I was assigned a room. However, the original hospital made no communication effort, and when I arrived, the nurse had no clue who I was or why I was there.
We got that all straightened out. The nurse was very good and clarified to the other hospital that this was unacceptable. She controlled everything and connected me with several different teams at this new hospital.
One thing that happens when you are admitted to the hospital is that they get a list of your meds and sometimes decide to discontinue them during your stay. Unbeknownst to me, they discontinued a psych med that I am on. I had not been getting it for over a week, contributing to my low mood. Not only that, but it’s a risky medicine to restart. I had to work back up to the full dosage at the new hospital.
The doctors at this hospital were very good. Groups of doctors visited me daily and clearly communicated with each other. They all knew the treatment plan. This was vastly different from the other hospital.
Ultimately, they confirmed the diagnoses, but their treatment was much less aggressive. I stayed on IV antibiotics for a few days, then switched to oral antibiotics. I was able to be discharged with only about two weeks of oral antibiotic treatment. This was a relief to me because I didn’t want to walk around with an IV bag for two months.
Getting Home and Back to Work
I was sent home, but I was still pretty tired. The infection was under control, though. During this time, I was battling with the short-term disability company that my company works with. I tried to have my wife deal with them, but they refused to talk to her even though I was almost incapacitated.
They emailed me telling me I had to return to work three days after returning home. The doctor had requested more time off. I worked through that process. It was some stupid clerical error. I was able to extend the leave for about another week.
I did go back to work as normal. I can’t remember exactly how long I was off, but it was probably 3-4 weeks.
Feeling Better Now
I’m pretty much back to normal now. I have some follow-up scans and tests, but I feel okay. So far, all of those tests have been normal.
My diet slipped, and I’ve noticed that long periods of eating poorly cause my joints to ache and become stiff. I also notice an impact on my mood. Not exercising increases that impact.
I’m back at the gym now. It took a few weeks before I could lift weights again, but I’m hitting it hard now. I started training with my gym owner and following his diet advice, but the diet part was not working for me.
I am not going back to a low-carb diet. That’s the only thing that has ever worked for me besides Mounjaro. Eating even only “clean” carbs like rice or sweat potatoes leaves me craving anything sweet or starchy. Mounjaro made me extremely sick, so I stopped taking it, but I did lose a lot of weight. Only to be gained back after stopping it.
Going Forward
I will continue on my path to better health, but I don’t plan on writing about it much. I’ve stuck to not drinking for over 12 weeks now. I just kept it going after I got sick. I don’t really have plans to drink again since I also suffer from a fatty liver disease.
I’m following a low-carb diet, working with a trainer, and intending to do more cardio on my Peloton. I usually find some motivational show on Netflix and do steady-state peddling at a heavy resistance.
At 38 years old, I’ve realized I won’t make it to retirement age if I continue on this path. I want to be here for my family and my 8-year-old son. I really need to make major changes.
I also changed my X.com handle, so you can find me @JohnWardHere now. Spyderman4g63 is my most common handle, but it’s also hard to remember. That happens when you use an AOL screenname you created as a teenager.
I aim to return to posting YouTube videos, blog posts, and X posts. I also made a free Facebook tool that I will probably release. I am working on other apps to help content creators target social media traffic sources like Facebook and Pinterest.
I’ve been having some luck with traffic from Pinterest and working on growing some Facebook pages. I’ll talk more about that in the future.
Take care of yourselves.
