Didnt know whether to post this here or not, but i know its a male dominated hobby and probably more younger guys playing than older and is probably more aimed at them cause we older guys are typically a stubborn breed and tend to ignore till tomorrow, but what if tomorrow is too late? Go to the Doctors, simple, if you feel ill, weak, a little off, just Go!!! Cause if you are anything like me, 50 years old, pretty stubborn when it comes to the doctors and the soft stuff like it. ITS NOT A SIGN OF WEAKNESS TO GO. I didnt, i had been feeling weak and lethargic on and off for most of last year, it would come in bouts every 4-6 weeks, weak and lacking in energy, time off work, wash rinse and repeat. Till the beginning of December that is. I had been feeling rough but couldnt really afford to take any more time off work, they wernt happy about what i had already lost plus the time of year christmas coming and all that. The last week at work i felt like shit but persevered, got thru the weekend ok, went in Monday morning feeling fine, mid day i was feeling like shit could hardly walk, had to go home. Went and slept for a couple of hours but was getting worse and worse, woke in absolute agony, my stomach was swollen, i had a proper little pot belly. Got myself to the local walk-in centre to see a medic. He wasnt impressed, instant emergency ambulance, blue lights and morphine for the pain, straight to hospital, went for a scan, I wasnt too sure what was going on, then on to antibiotics for the first night and straight to surgery next day. Turns out, i have something called diverticular disease, which can lead to problems with your large intestine (your bowel) where small bulges develop in your bowel wall. This happened to me, not only that but one had perforated my bowel leading to an abcess that had burst and sepsis\septicemia infection setting in, deadly, another 12 hrs and i would of been beyond help, i had one choice, operate, i could try antibiotics but time for them was running out and if they failed i would probably die. Yeah, if i hadnt been such a man and gone to the doctors at some point..........you see where thats going! Anyway, yeah, surgery, i had part of my bowel removed and am currently having to use a stoma (colostomy bag) for the near future while waiting on a reversal. A big hole in the left side of my stomach where i now do a number 2 from, a 9 inch scar down my stomach from the surgery and 32 staples, 12 days in hospital, 8 days with 0 food at all, water and pills, water and fucking pills, add to that 4 weeks of being terribly immobile and in absolute agony at times, unable to cough or sneeze without fear of giving myself a hernia, and then theres the loss of earnings, quite possibly up to 3 months off work for the initial operation, then if the reversal is given the go ahead another 6-8 weeks in recovery for that. Go to the fucking doctors If i had gone to the doctors i have no doubt i would of had tests of a kind to find the root cause of my lethargy, which in turn would hopefully of shown the disease up leading to a change of lifestyle\diet and to me not irritating it and the flare up which caused the abcess. You dont need to reply, im not after anything, just think about it, not going to the doctors nearly killed me, going to the out of hours doctor saved my life in rather a hurried fashion. Yeah, wtf, serious shit, like thats ever gonna happen to me, duh, hello, i am that man. Go to the doctors, its that simple.
Blimey... Not even sure what to say except 1) glad you're still around, 2) wishing you all the best for your recovery and 3) you're right, you should of gone to the doctors a lot earlier, silly old man.
Glad to hear your still alive. Hope it all works out. I just turned 60. I'm the same as you, hate going. BUT I did get a check up for my 60th, and got a clean bill of health. A few months before that, I had similar symptoms. I actually dis-like hospitals so much that I go to a naturalpathic physician. They tend to prescribe dietary changes and Chinese herbs. He's never failed to help get me well. So I went to see him after a week or so, upon threats of mental pain from my wife god love her. He did some muscle testing and some other stuff. Put me on a couple of things and told me to check back in a few days. I went back not feel any better. So he did more testing. Looked at me for a second and said "you need to go to the hospital". I of course immediately pulled out my YA BUTS and he couldn't be swayed. I hadn't been to the "DOCTORS" in close to 10 years. Turns out I had a very bad urinary tract infection. And if left untreated would be fatal. I was bed ridden for three weeks. What is it with older (not old, old is a state of mind). people and digestive shit!?! So anyway just agreeing with you. Sometimes you gotta go to the doctor. Get better soon. I'm holding that vision for you.
Bad News ans good news, when I get up. Good news is, you are here. Wish you a quick and full recovery.
the most shocking part of your post is that you are 50 Only joking, that is some pretty serious shiit. Glad you are on the mend, us blokes are a pretty stubborn lot. I have had some bad problems with my feet for the last 6 years, with burning pain, numbness, discolouration on my lower legs. It turns out I have some varicose vein issues that I am getting treated in a month, hope it fixes it but has taken me 6 years to be serious about doing something about it due to denial and the cost of laser therapy.
Glad you're still with us NLO, and you're absolutely right about us guys needing to drop the whole strong stoic grin and push through the pain. Slowly finding my own way back to normality after having been on sick leave for over half a year now for trying to be my own island. Wishing you a swift recovery mate.
My wife successfully made me go to the doctor finally (next month) as , yeah, since my fourties it's generally not getting better - the general intrusions of getting older feeling your bones, little booboos here and there (*fuck*) know what I mean (becoming 56 this year), there's no workaround for this, except to adapt your lifestyle to it...I always been the casual kinda guy, thankful for having done martial arts in my youth and always manage to have longer periods, living more healthy, good nutrition and such, but for the last three years I was really lazy - and this is somethuing you definetely feel with every year passing by now. So thanks for the reminder and Best Wishes for you (still not lifting of at Heavens Gate ) Good Luck !
Wasnt sure whether to post this or not I didnt want it to sound needy or attention seeking. After reading some of the replies im glad i did, they reinforce the point i was trying to make, kinda crazy that we will do this to ourselves assuming that things will sort themselves out, glad i shared, thanks for the positive replies and the sharing guys, at least im not alone in the idiot stakes Christian, it was worth posting it just to see this Hens teeth come to mind
This is another thing, I got what you meant but the reality is it is hard to race, like you wouldnt believe. Recovering from the initial op was hard, but trying to get back to daily life you dont realise how much you rely on your stomach muscles, turning in your seat, laughing, standing up from seated the list is endless, you would think after 7 weeks you would be close to pre op condition but the reality is nowhere near. Trying to drive or race is kinda limited to short sessions, the stress and strain whilst braking or turning is crazy, another unappreciated thing your body does for you, I have to set the load cell to low same with ffb even then steering and braking are a challenge.
What about full recovery ... guaranteed ? Really I know what you are talking about regarding going to the doctor. Still can hear my doc asking why I am always coming that late...I am a fool.
Full recovery, idk, hopefully, they told me three to four months before i would be back to normal, i was pretty fit naturally and do tend to recover from injury and illness quite well. The only concern for me is having the reversal done, having a colostomy bag for the short term is an inconvenience i can live with, if it turns into a long term thing im not sure how that is going to sit with me mentally or how i will handle it. However the future pans out, whatever it brings good or bad, there is one thing that is for sure......................If i had gone to the doctors sooner i wouldnt be in this mess now! Sorry, had to put it in there
Thought id revisit this thread seeing as its over a year since the initial op and OP, plus it is still a valid point, go to the fucking doctors! The initial post, GO TO THE DOCTORS, ffs yes, just do it, there were reasons i didnt, some quite disturbing mostly out of my hands, but if i had i wouldnt have been here typing this monsterous wall of text up. I wouldnt have lost 10 months off work out of the last 18. The pain, physical and mental, its chronic, first 2 maybe 3 months, it hurt to move, sitting twisting moving, my whole insides had been shifted and were now settling back down, sickly feeling, horrible. Mentally for 7-8 months i killed it, this little bag of shit isnt gonna stop me doing anything, up the football, down the pub, days out, it got in the way of nothing, its part of me, its there for all to see and i could do nothing about it but get on with it! Until it does start to affect you Well, a colostomy bag is shit I mean literally shit, if its not full of shit its bloated and full of wind making the side of your stomach look like you have a tennis ball hanging out of it all happening underneath your top! It can be painful, upsetting, frustrating, most of all its limiting, so many things i have wanted to do over the last year and this little bag has stopped so much happening, kind of contradicting what i typed earlier, but as time went on it started to be a ballache. You can have drunken fun in the pub with a smelly colostomy bag disgusting but funny as fuck! Drunk, in a pub, peer pressure and a really smelly bag attached to your side, use your imagination, drunken folks crawling out the pub on their knees, litterally going thru the doors at ground level to avoid the smell, not my proudest moment but peers and beers. As soon as my insides had settled down i felt great, i mean really good the best i had in years, there was obviously something underlying making me feel like shit and not going to the doctors had given it time to nearly kill me, sad but true. Anyway, moving on....had my reversal last November another week in hospital, more time off work, but oh my, the relief, waking up and not having an awful bag attached to your side, crazy shit the things you take for granted, doing a poo, i mean really, how can anyone get any pleasure out of that, try not being able to for 12 months First time in hospital the nurse knew instantly by the look on my face, looked like id won the lottery and to be honest i dont think i would get the same pleasure if i had. Back to work tomorrow, nervy as fuck, but feeling great in ok physical condition put shitloads of weight sat around doing nothing Dont know how that will go, the day i got the letter for the reversal op was the day i was giving my notice in, the letter changed everything, but the job is still as it was so one day at a time, there are more important things in life than a shit job with ok money, a great job with shit money is one but a great job with great money is better again But no horrible smelly colostomy bag, i mean, if only i had gone to the doctors. Probably too much waffle here but thought id update it, its good to share as they say. And if it makes someone think and go to the doctors then all the better. There you have it, 18mths of pain, misery, drunken fun and more pain. GO TO THE FUCKING DOCTORS No matter how trivial you think it is, it could save your life.