Browsing Health

Hospital Day…

May24

I spent 10 am to 5 pm on Thursday at a local Portuguese Hospital. It was weirdly a good experience and further cemented my opinion of how bad the American health care system is.

I’ve been having a weird fluttering feeling a few inches below my waistband for about 5 days. It isn’t painful, more like a muscle twitch/spasm. I am pretty sure it started on Saturday with a little flutter for 5 seconds but I can’t really remember. I did a new workout on Monday and that could have pulled something, along with another new workout on Tuesday… but who knows. Anyway, it started lasting longer and I was worried it was Crohn’s disease-related. I haven’t gotten an inflammation test since I was in the USA in late 2019 (with covid I decided I should just avoid the doctor for a while).

My anxiety was so high at that point I needed to go and try to get some answers and make sure it wasn’t serious. So I went to the emergency room as the first appointment I could get with a local gastroenterologist was July 1st (beats back home where the doctor is booked for a full 6 months and I have to ask him to squeeze me in somewhere…). And, Lindsey came with me to help, her Portuguese is much better than the two words I know.

I think we waited 5 minutes to see a doctor in the emergency room, he admitted me to get some tests to see what was going on. I think we waited another 20 minutes and saw the 2nd doctor. We talked to him for a while and he ordered some tests to look at inflammation and some other metrics. It was really nice as he actually talked to me and it was the 2nd longest I’ve ever gotten to talk to a doctor (the other being in Croatia). He wasn’t in a rush to get me out like every American doctor I’ve been to. Then I waited and got two vials of blood pulled, some urine, and then I waited for test results. It took a few hours and everything looked good, but he ordered a 2nd batch of tests as he had an idea it might be a microscopic kidney stone maybe. So I then got an x-ray and ultrasound. All done very promptly and efficiently… it was kinda amazing. Then I stayed there to wait for all the results (I read some really good books which was nice). Everything looks good and they made me a follow-up appointment for mid-June.

The cost? 40 Euros… and health insurance for my entire family in Portugal is around 175 euros a month. My guess is in the United States I would be looking at a bill between $900 to $2,500 dollars to me, plus paying $1,400 a month for shitty insurance that covers nothing before a $6,000 dollar individual detectable.

Friday I had more fluttering, but after Saturday it went away. My guess is a weird muscle pull given how many lunges and side lunges I did but who knows.

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Letter To George Lucas…

July31

I was unpacking a load of boxes, and found this letter I sent to George Lucas in the summer of 1991. I had just turned 10 years old at the time and wanted to know when the Star Wars trilogy would continue. He advised me that he was going to start developing them in 5 to 6 years, which would have been 1996 to 1997.

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2014 Summary… An Interesting Year.

January2

2014 has been a very interesting year… It was one of the most stressful/traumatic years of my life combined with one of the absolute best years of my life.

The Amazing!
I came home for a big college reunion ultimate tournament in October 2013 and met up with an old friend and everything just clicked. She ended up visiting me in Scotland in December and we’ve been together ever since :). We got engaged in October and married on December 21st :). I am incredibly happy and excited to have her in my life!

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What other fun stuff did I do this year?
– Lindsey and I went on an amazing trip to Spain & Portugal in late spring. It was a great break and nice to have some time off. We also had a great trip out to California in the Fall. And, one to New Mexico in March that was fun (although I got a bad sinus infection and was conked out for most of it).
I did a 30 day challenge to live as if I was only making $12 dollars an hour. It was a good experience and you can read more of my thoughts on it above.
– I had a fantastic time at work meetups in Prague, Scotland, Vegas, and Texas. I had such a blast visiting with everyone.
I said goodbye to all my paper books which was tough, but it feels good to not cart those around.
– I learned so much this year about myself and so many other things. One nice things about big challenges is that you learn at a very accelerated rate. I was very fortuntuate that a friend referred me to Vistage as it has been a huge help, and I recommend it to any CEO/BizOwners.

The Challenges!
This year had also had some big challenges.

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Health:
Health problems suck, I hate being limited in what I can do physically, or if anything makes me feel tired and slow. This year has been a doozy in that regard… Short summary: in April I started having some pain in my stomach area, along with being very tired. After many specialists and tests I was told it was either cancer, tumors, or possibly crohn’s disease (not fun to hear). After a bunch more tests I got surgery in late August to get a biopsy. The good news is it isn’t cancer (always nice to hear after such a stressful period). The bad news is the doctors think it is crohn’s disease or possibly IBUprofen damage. I recovered pretty quickly from the surgery and felt a lot better since they removed twelve inches of my small intestine that was inflamed. Unfortunately, I started having some symptoms in early December and tests backed up that I still have some problems. So, I am still working on figuring it out :) . The doctors think it is crohn’s disease which seems to be a pretty made up diagnosis for something they don’t know much about, and they want to start jamming a load of pills down me. I’ve started the paleo autoimmune protocol eating plan, as a lot of people have had great success with it. It’s tough but hopefully over the next 6 months it helps me heal naturally. And I’ve got an appointment with a doctor in a few weeks to learn more about how I can help the pharmaceutical industry financially… This health issue has taken so much time and energy this year.

Sports Injury:
In June, I finally got a proper diagnoses of a sport injury I’ve had for 2.5 years. It turns out I had a torn disc… and I’ve been working to rehab the muscles around it + give it time to heal. I haven’t been able to do anything but walk and a few other things. It was very difficult to eliminate running from my life as it is a major stress reliever. I’ve slowly found some new things, and I am now doing a Yoga more, and a lot of walking & stationary biking. I’ll get a read on how it is healing in a week or so from the MRI results.

Life:
This year has been a very tough year personally and professional. It has brought a lot of challenges, I am hopeful it will improve in 2015.

I pushed way too hard this year when so much other stuff was going on. I moved three times, got engaged, got married, traveled for work or pleasure for at least three months total this year, and many other things. Next time I will be better about cutting out the superfluous stuff to give myself time to breath when having such a challenging year. Live and learn :) !

Overall…
I am very ready for 2015, and glad that I am alive and surviving!

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Then flourish.

2014 = Interesting Year :)

August7

This might be one of the most interesting year’s of my life :). An amazing amount of awesome, some rough, and a lot of challenging. So a little dance for still being alive:

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I’ve been dealing with some unknown health issues since late May. And, at this point I am really hoping there is a parasite clinging to my small intestine :). I should find out in the next couple weeks, and if not that I’ll have to get a fun little biopsy to nail down the problem. Not knowing what is wrong is the worst part of having something wrong :).

On the way home from a doctor appointment today a vulture/buzzard landed on the roof of a nearby building as I waited on a light, and I almost ran into a pink hearse sitting in the front of a church. Hopefully I don’t see The Grim soon :). Hilarious drive home!!!

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This is bwb’s personal blog, so he can share his thoughts with the world, however scary or silly they might be. Plus family and friends can track what I am up to, and where I am in the world.

I am pretty simple. I love Mangos. I love the ocean (although mostly at sunset, as I’m a ginger). I love to travel, eat exotic food, do long bike rides, read, and use my imagination. At some point, I decided it was better to be a pirate captain than an admiral. I am a globalist and see the entire world as my responsibility and playground. And I am married to an amazing woman who makes life even more fun :)! And we are now the proud parents of Calico Jack :).


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