Posts tagged with personal
I had surgery on Wednesday morning to remove a 1.3cm kidney stone from my upper left ureter.
Everything went well and the whole thing was extremely quick. I arrived at the hospital at 6am and was on my way home at 10am. Kinda crazy.
In order to keep my ureter from swelling shut, a 6x26 double-J stent that goes from my bladder into my kidney was placed. I go back on June 10th to have the stent removed.
I cannot wait until all of this is finally over and done with.
Back at the end of August last year, my doctor sent me for some x-rays on my ribs (I broke two back in 2023 and was still having some issues) and they noticed a kidney stone on the x-ray.
She referred me to urology and the urologist said since it was just sitting in the middle of my kidney1 and wasn’t causing me any problems and nobody even knew it was there (or for how long), we’d just leave it alone unless it became a problem.
Continuing on from last fall’s bunch of medical bullshit, I had a 6-month follow-up CT today that Cardio & Thoracic surgery ordered back at the end of October. I haven’t heard anything from any of my doctors yet, but I got the results back this afternoon.
Nothing new with the ribs – same problems as before. What’s new is they’re now trying to call the extended gap between my 7th & 8th rib (coincidentally, the exact ribs I broke and where my lung hemorrhages out) a “congenital variant.” Congenital variant my ass – my lung didn’t do that before I broke the ribs. I’m not Ben fucking Matlock1, but it’s hard to believe those two things aren’t related. But what the hell do I know, right?2
This past year was… something, that’s for sure. Some good stuff, some exhausting stuff, and a lot of learning things the hard way. I’m grateful for the people who made it better. The rest was mostly just showing up and surviving.
Here’s to hoping the next one is a little calmer, a little healthier, and comes with fewer surprises.
We’re going over to my mom’s house around noon for a gift exchange and Christmas dinner. My brother and his family will be there too, and it’ll be great to spend time with everyone – something we don’t do often enough. After that, we’re heading down to Reading to Melissa’s mom’s for the same. I’m running on like 3 hours of sleep – wish me luck.
I hope you have a great day and get to spend it with your people ❤
One of my exes used to call today my “dark day”. So, in honor of my dad, the site theme is going dark today. It will return to its regular purple-y goodness tomorrow.
Tell your friends and family that you love them. You never know when it’ll be the last time you can.
Ed. note: I originally wrote and published this 13 years ago in 2012. It’s now been 16 years since he passed and it still seems like just yesterday.
I found this ancient relic in the hall closet the other day. It’s the only copy I have left, and I’ve been carting it around with me for 25ish years.
Lots of memories and great times wrapped up in this book. Those were definitely some crazy days in the late 90s/early 2000s Bay Area tech scene for sure.
We’re keeping things simple this year – just Melissa and I and her kids. Instead of going nuts with a whole turkey that we’d never eat all of, we grabbed a turkey breast and all the fixins from Costco. Perfect for dinner and a few days of leftovers. We did the same thing last year, and if I remember right, everything was gone by the end of the weekend so I’m expecting the same this year.
I hope you’re having a great, relaxing day with your people. Happy Thanksgiving!
I had another appointment with Cardiac and Thoracic Surgery this morning.
After my last appointment, I was really hopeful I’d finally get some answers about what’s going on. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.
The doctor I saw today checked me out, poked at me a while, and that was about it. He said he wants another CT scan in six months to make sure the big lump on my ribs and “the protrusion” that pops out when I lie down aren’t a tumor. He also said it’s my lung that herniates out when I cough, sneeze, or exhale hard – but he doesn’t know why.
No shit, bro. I don’t either. That’s why I’m fucking here.
As I mentioned in my last weekly recap post, my insurance denied the MRI that my doctor ordered on my ribs, so she referred me to Cardiac and Thoracic Surgery for a consult/eval. I had that appointment yesterday.
The doctor I saw was great. He was straightforward and actually listened. After checking me out, he said, “I believe you. A lot of the cases they send me are bullshit, but this isn’t. I absolutely believe there’s something here.”
Unfortunately, that’s about where the good news ends. He thinks my previously broken rib – or ribs – are separating when I cough, sneeze, or exhale hard, causing something (we don’t yet know what) to herniate out and result in this loveliness.
One evening back in April 2023, shortly after I stopped working for the day and was letting the dog out to do his business, I coughed. I felt like I had some mucus in my chest that I was trying to clear out, so I coughed again – hard – and instantly dropped to my knees in the worst pain I’ve ever experienced.
I’m turning 51 on July 28th so I decided to buy myself a Switch 2 console and a copy of Donkey Kong Bananza for my birthday (shush, it’s as good an excuse as any 😂).
I haven’t spent a whole lot of time with it since I just picked it up tonight, but I’m really enjoying it so far. The bigger screen makes the upgrade from the OLED Switch 100% worthwhile to me, and I definitely see myself playing it more often because of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0H2fH3K044
I haven’t really mentioned it, but after seeing Lou’s post earlier, I started thinking about it. Anyway, I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes a month ago today.
