Mortgaging My Soul, Once Again

So, there has been a lot that has happened in the past couple of days since I've last blogged.  I'll try to go over them quickly as to not take hours writing :)

So, this past Friday Mike, Jess, Travis, Melissa, and her cousin Cathy went to Cedar Point here in Ohio to meet Mike's family.  Last year just Mike and I went and, to my horror, I realized that None of his family likes to do any type of rides.  Out of the 10 people that went from his family, none of them liked doing it.  They went for the shows and the chit-chat.  So, you spend all of that money to do that?  Craziness I tell you.  But, we all had a grand time at Cedar Point this year.  I was burnt on my neck and also my face and was exhausted by the time that we left (we were there from 10am - 5:30ish), but I had a very kick ass time.  The highlight of my day was riding the Top Thrill Dragster, which is their newest ride in the park.  The pictures on the website don't truely express how scary the ride is.  Cathy really wanted to go on the ridge and no one else was willing to go on it with her, so I decided to do it.   Basically you are sitting down and you are instantly shot off at 120MPH (193 KPH) and you go straight for a wee bit and then you go straight up at a 90 degree angle for 240 feet (128 meters).  Then you plumet again at a 90 degree angle going down.  While going up I was screaming "O My God, O My God" over and over and then, on the way down....no words were passing my lips.  I was too busy, literally, screaming like a little girl.  Needless to say, I seriously needed something to drink afterwords :)

Monday and Tuesday aren't really noteworthy at all, nothing really happened.  On Wednesday I woke up and my stomach was feeling really..achey.  So, I took some Pepto and decided to suck it up and go to work.  So, I get to work around 10:30 and was there until around 12:30 and still felt like shit so I went home.  After getting home and chilling out for awhile, I started to feel better, yea me.  So, I woke up this morning and I felt peachy, got to work, was catching up on a lot of stuff on my desk, and then around 2:15 or so I was typing a letter to another insurance agency in Colorado and I got this sharp pain in my left hand side of my torso.  I said out loud, "Oww, the left hand side of my stomach hurts."  And then, my friends, it happened.  If I was standing up at the time I would have fallen over, screaming.  But, instead, my body twisted around and I fell back into my chair, started breathing really hard, and I felt my body twisting almost, like I was having some type of seizure.  Travis, I think, thought that I was joking 'cause a couple of minutes earlier he said that he was leaving early to see the new Nicholas Cage movie "World Trade Center."  But, I think he got the picture when he saw sweat all over my face and me calling the doctor's office.

So, i get the doctor's office and told them what was going on and they wanted me to speak with a nurse.  So, after waiting for a nurse for about a minute or so I get the feeling that I was gonna throw up (like, what, writhing around in pain isn't enough?).  So, Travis was on the other line with a client and I put my line on hold and asked him to hang up with the client and pick up my line so that I can...well, take care of business.  All in all I think we were on hold for the nurse for 5 minutes and actually my doctor picked up the line and spoke to me for a few minutes and told me to rush over there.  So, I was planning on driving myself and Travis just shut down the office and rushed me over to the doctor's office.  He sped and even ran through a red light to get me there as fast as possible.

Upon getting there we were sent right in and the nurse took my blood pressure, weight (fyi, i'm fat hehe), etc etc.  After that the dr came in and spoke with me for a couple of minutes, he said that I either had kidney stones or blocked bowels.  So, he took a urine sample and also x-rays.  Now, during all of this, I'm screaming, throwing myself around in pain, and also cursing quite loudly.  *ahem*.  I wasn't exactly the model patient...but, I tried my best with how I was feeling.  So, the tests came back and I had blood in my urine...sweet.  So, the doctor *FINIALLY* gave me pain pills (vicodine...75 OF THEM!!!!) and I had Travis run to CVS really quick to get the rx filled while I finished up at the office.  While I was waiting for Travis to come pick me up at the office, I'm calling Mike and my mom, telling them what was going on.  And, while speaking with Mike, I just started crying.  Some of it was the pain, but it was also due to the fact that I was really scared, relieved, and exhausted.  With mom I was sobbing a lil' bit but I tried to hold onto my composure for her...I dunno why.  I think it was 'cause I didn't want her to worry about me.

So, we get to the hospital, mom is there to greet us, Mike gets there a couple of minutes later, I get my cat scan done, I'm high with vicodine, all is well in the world.  So, the dr looks at my cat scan, definatly a kidney stone.  But, it looks like it should pass on its own.  So, he told me to a) take lots of the pain meds (mmmm, done!) b) drink lots of water and c) call him tomorrow am to let him know how I'm holding up.  Sweet.  So, afterwords, Mike, mom, and I go to this mexican restaurant near the hospital and we all had a grand ol' time (Travis left about an hour prior to us leaving 'cause of a volleyball game).

 Now...I have to tell you, after all of this happened, I was thinking back on what all happened and I realized that, in my adult life, I've never had to totally depend on someone else.  That is until today.  It's hard to express the emotions that I'm feeling right now, it's almost like this clusterfuck of emotions.  Later this evening Mike and I were discussing this and he asked if I felt humbled by this experience 'cause I was so dependent.  And, I thought about it and I realized that I wasn't at all...which is amazing.  Instead, really the only emotions I feel about the situation were Pride, Thanksfullness, and Love.  Like at the agency, I was in so much pain and fear (as I was worried that my appendix burst or something like that), I had problems concentrating and knowing even what to do.  But Travis took control of the situation, told me I wasn't driving to the clinic, and closed down the agency and busted ass to get me there pretty damned quickly.  Mom and Jess spoke to me on the cell phone for quite a bit and gave me a lot of love and support when I was terrified.  And Mike, as always, was my rock when I was talking to him on the cell, being there for me at the hospital, trying to keep my mind off of everything.  I never felt so powerless beforehand but my family was there to pick me up and take care of me...and that means everything to me.  No my friends...I never once felt humbled.  I felt empowered and truely loved by those around me.  I'm not really sure if I can ever properly repay them for what they did for me today.  Not only did they care for me...they truely made me feel honored to be a part of this family, and why family/close friends are the best resource any man can have.  Period.