I know I've been quiet on the forums for a little bit, and someone msged me to ask why I recently popped back up.
Well, I figured I'd spill what happened, and tell everyone to take care of themselves, as part of what happened to me:
A while back, everyone in my office was getting hit with illness. People were down with flu symptoms; weakness, vomiting, tiredness, etc.
I got hit with weakness and sleepiness, upset stomach, lots of coughing, and sinus issues, and I wasn't sleeping well. I figured, after 3 weeks off and on of feeling ok, then terrible, then ok, and back to feeling terrible again, that I was going to go see a doctor. So I went in to Urgent Care.
I get to the medical offices, start to walk across the campus, and got winded and short of breath. I stopped, outside, in what everyone else was considering freezing cold, but I was just figuring was "cool for everyone else", since I felt comfortable, temperature wise. Upon entering the Urgent Care office, one of the security guards said, "Are you feeling ok? You look terrible, like you're short of breath. Hold on, I'm going to get a nurse for you."
I was pulled into the back, where they did a blood pressure reading and found it was SKY high. Normal is supposed to be something like 120/80 to 140/90. I was 212/129. I had swelling of the legs, bloating, and it turned out my heart was barely pumping. I had all sorts of excess fluid built up around my lungs and heart, and it was making it incredibly hard for me to breathe; I was on the verge of having a heart attack.
I got diuretics, blood pressure meds, oxygen, and a breathing treatment, and spent nearly a week in the hospital, where I was told I had Congestive Heart Failure, or CHF. My heart was burdened with a bunch of excess fluids, making it hard for me to breathe, and it nearly killed me, at the age of 41.
I've come back out weaker than I was at the end of the year, but I've made progress. I'm on a low sodium diet, starting to exercise, eating better - I've dropped 30 lbs in water weight, and 4 inches on my pants after coming out of the hospital, and have made this my New Year's Resolution - don't die this year from congestive heart failure.
Yes it's serious, and yes, I'm joking around the incident to some extent, but I've found laughter is some of the best medicine out there - you can't OD, and the refills are free.
At any rate, I want to share this with the FT family to let you know that if you don't take care of yourself, you won't be able to fly anymore. Get yourself checked out on a regular basis, keep up on your flu shots, and if you think your loved ones are likely potential "time bombs", have them get checked out. I'm a little young to be having this happen, at the age of 41, but it's a life lesson I want to pass on to everyone else...let yourself get to be like me.
