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Good evening Root Down…
I hope this finds each of you well and thriving. As you know, April 2023 didn’t begin like any April before in my 51 years. At 3:30 AM on April 1, I began experiencing abdominal pain like I’d never felt. Leading up to this night, I had been having “unusual discomfort” in my lower right abdomen for about a week. I wrote it off to muscle soreness due to exercise as my appendix was the farthest thing from my mind at the time. But, as the week was ending, I began thinking appendix. Anyone who knows me knows that I am not one for doctor’s visits. But, this time, this “mental toughness” (or stubbornness in this case) was detrimental.
After the onset of intense pain, I asked Misty to call 911. They arrived but couldn’t give me anything to relieve the pain. After what seemed like a 4 hr trip to the emergency room in Habersham, I finally received pain medication and was able to somewhat relax while scans showed an increasing size to my appendix…on the verge of a rupture. Habersham didn’t have a surgeon on staff. So, I elected to get into my car and have Misty transport me to Gainesville. There, the pain meds continued while I waited in triage for surgery. About 12 hrs after the onset, I went into surgery. During the surgery, it was determined my appendix had ruptured prior to entering the OR. That meant instead of just an appendix removal, they had to go through an intense procedure to remove infection that had spread throughout my body.
I wasn’t aware of this until several hours after I awoke in recovery. After days of pain medications, IV’s and antibiotics, I began to realize what lie in front of me was going to be much more than a typical appendectomy recovery. Finally released to come home, I remained on heavy antibiotics and pain meds just to remain somewhat comfortable. I slept constantly as fevers remained an issue. And, just a walk from bedroom to kitchen was exhausting. Finally off pain medications and antibiotics, I began getting my cognitive back in order. But, it was very difficult to eat or drink as the antibiotics, though did their job in fighting my infections, totally wrecked my gut of any healthy microbial population I had worked hard to attain up to that point. A mix of calories used to heal and a lack of appetite led to a 25lb. weight loss over the next several days primarily of catabolized muscle…proving once again that something I had worked hard for for so long erased in a matter of a few days.
As I stated, my cognitive had been somewhat regained. So, I began to research recovery following the trauma of my sickness and surgical procedures used to eradicate the infection. 6 to 8 weeks was the finding…enter the OBSTACLE. Now, I will approach this OBSTACLE the way I would any other…through it and not around it. Ideally, I want to shorten that recovery time. And, I am improving day to day and starting to slowly put weight back on. Daily improvements are my goal at the moment.
I want you all to know my story and realize it may be some time before I’m near having enough energy to coach you all again. So, I want this to inspire you to stay healthy and overcome your OBSTACLES as I will mine. It makes us better people.
I want to say a huge “thank you” for all the thoughts and prayers that have gone up for me. I want to say “thank you” for watching over the gym and ensuring the community stays intact. I also want to extend a debt of gratitude to those of you who gathered and raised money on my behalf. These monies were of great help in keeping the gym going by assisting in bills and and other Root Down expenses. “Thank you” for the visits, texts, reading materials and a chair that kept me “comfortable” for days. Thank you Misty for your wonderful care and patience through all of this. You have been amazing!
I will return maybe not stronger than ever. But, I’ll get there too. In the meantime, keep working hard, overcome your OBSTACLE…no matter how big or how small. Daily MetCons will continue to be posted each evening. We’ll remain operating under an Open Gym policy until my return. So, come when you can! Work hard through each MetCon as if I were standing there.
A final note: I ask that you take the much larger portion of any thoughts and prayers you have for me and direct those to my sister. She was recently diagnosed with breast cancer and is facing a mirage of decisions to be made regarding the disease. Her OBSTACLE makes mine quite trivial.
Thank you Root Down. See you all soon!
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Skill
Murph Movement Standard Review
MetCon
Another Murph Prep
5 Rounds for time
- Run 200M
- 10 Pull Ups
- 20 Push-ups
- 30 Air Squats
Score will be total time in MetCon. See you all soon! DOWORK!