Knock it off gentlemen!
But thanks for the kind words.
I'm still in landscaping, just delegating work to others a lot more this year so I have extra time to play with audio gear.
Over the course of this year I'd like to slowly back out of landscaping in the field and focus more on audio because I do enjoy it.
I'm behind on packaging more than a day because of a small health issue I had about 1.5 weeks ago. I've always joked with employees and friends that I'm not going to the hospital unless I lose a chunk of flesh bigger than my index finger. So if I ever go to the hospital, it has to be pretty darn bad.
I woke up in the middle of the night about 10 days ago with a slight pain in my lower abdomen. I just assumed I had lifted something wrong and stretched a muscle or had some serious gas pains. Laid back down, it kept getting worse. Around 6:30 I called my lady friend to see how she was feeling because we both ate the same dinner the day before. She was fine but she could tell I wasn't. I told her to go to work and I would lay back down. Within about 30 minutes the pain was so bad that I started to really worry. Called my sister to see if she would come over, no answer. I guess I called her 3 times, then finally left a message that must have sounded like I was in horrible pain and to let my dad know.
I've dealt with bad injuries, but never internal pain this bad. So I ended up calling my lady friend back while she was driving to work and asked her to come over to my house to go to Urgent Care or the doctor, NOT the hospital! At that point I was extremely worried because I could barely stand. I thought maybe my appendix had burst, or maybe a hernia had ripped open or something.
My lady friend arrived and was really shaken up to see me in that kind of pain. By then I was ready for her to take me to the emergency room. Asked her how long it would take to get to the hospital and she guessed 20 minutes. Keep in mind that I had no idea what the pain was, but it was getting bad so fast that I told her I couldn't wait that long. It literally felt like a knife was being twisted in my lower gut and did not let up. Guess what? Yep, 911. Couldn't believe it!
They did 2 scans at the hospital, then a couple small doses of morphine that did nothing. Doctor asked "Scale of 1 to 10, how is your pain?" I said about 8. But my lady friend interrupted and explained that I assume a 10 is when you lop off both legs at the same time.
The doctor shook his head and gave me something that he said was 10x stronger than morphine. Another doctor came in and said there was a 3mm kidney stone lodged between the kidney and the bladder, and another smaller one behind it. They said something about 'blasting' it out due to it's size or giving me something to dilate the tubes and hope it moves along. At that point my dad was there and they told him I would likely pass out either way. They gave me more of that miracle pain killer and I was able to ride it out. Pass out? Nah.
I guess they both finally worked their way into my bladder and I was able to whiz them out at some point without even knowing. Well, there was some blood, but at that point, who cares. Most people seem to think kidney stones hurt when you whiz them out, not so. It's when they go from the kidneys to the bladder instead. Not fun.
By later afternoon I was ready to go package up more stuff, but my lady friend told me I wasn't allowed.