Thursday, February 3, 2011

I'm Still Here

Well, it's been longer than I had hoped since my last post. My activity had to slow down just about everywhere for awhile because of a few problems. Let me explain by telling you what happened on my last short hike. This should be a lesson for anyone to watch your health closely before doing any outdoor activity.

Most of you already know that I've been struggling to get back to my old everyday self since a car accident some months ago. I was thinking exactly that when I was finally able to go hiking two days in a row. That first day felt a little tedious for some reason, but I didn't think much about it at the time. I was just happy that I had been out.

I was a little disappointed when I got home because my camera didn't cooperate that day, giving me some very bad pictures. It turned out that I had some of the settings wrong from some previous experimentation. If you think the pictures I have in this post look bleak, you should see the bad ones. So I decided that more pictures was good enough reason to go back out a second day.

I wasn't sure I wanted to go out again, but I felt okay before I left so off I went. But when I pulled my truck into the parking lot of the nature park I could sense there was something wrong. I felt tired and my heart just wasn't into the whole thing this time. That's when I wisely decided I'd make this trip a little short. I'd see how it went when I got out there.

You long time readers know that I was out at these places all winter long last year with no problem. But this time it just felt colder to me than I thought it should. I walked only about 2/3 of the way through the park and decided I should go ahead and turn back. I just couldn't shake that tired feeling.

Then about halfway out I began to feel strange. All of a sudden I couldn't catch my breath and I was beginning to get very dizzy. I decided to stop so I wouldn't fall over. So I leaned against a snow covered park bench for a few minutes. I began to feel a little better so I methodically, but quickly, made my way out of the park to the warmth of my truck. There were no further incidents that day.

I decided when I got home that I would wait at least a few more days before I went out again. I thought maybe it was from breathing in too much cold air though. But then that evening came another problem. Another dizzy spell, but this time I was in the house. Not good. This hasn't happened since right after the car accident.

That wasn't the end, or the worst. I woke up in the middle of that night feeling a pain in my chest. It felt full, like there was air trapped in there. This has happened to me in the past, long before I ever started really enjoying nature. It was just stress before, but this hurt worse than ever before. I thought this was probably the same, but it did hurt quite a bit more. I waited there in my bed for a few minutes, and the pain began to lessen. I went back to sleep.

The next day I still felt a little bit of pain. It now felt like those old days when I felt a similar pain from stress. I had another scheduled doctor's appointment in a few weeks so I decided to do something then. The pain stayed with me off and on the whole time. Even though I was lucky, I should have gone to the doctor much sooner.

Well, yesterday was finally my appointment. Upon hearing my story, the doctor ordered an immediate test on my heart to make sure things weren't worse. Luckily the test results came out fine. I have to say I was a little worried. The chest pain turned out to be stress caused by all the problems from the accident.

I let stress get to me very easily, which is why I began my love of nature. Nature soothes that stress for me. I used to have similar problems until I found places to go and be alone with nature. But I haven't been able to do much of that for awhile now. This has not been a fun time for me at all.

So that's my story. Even though I was lucky, and my health has been monitored very well recently, for the most part, this should remind everyone to be careful before doing any outdoor activity. Check with a doctor. I'm not that old, and I'm reasonably healthy other than a bump on the head, but I still have problems sometimes.

And now that I got that out of my system, I hope I can move onto more cheerful things for my next post. See you then.

Nature Center Magazine - Your starting place for nature!

24 comments:

  1. Take your time and be easy on yourself, Ratty. There are going to be good days and bad, even though you felt good before. You've been through a lot and it takes a long time to heal--we are fragile creatures after all.

    I hope you are feeling better today, my friend.

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  2. Oh Ratty, I hope those troubles just disappear for you, and you're totally and completely well again.

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  3. This is SO wrong! You can't do the thing that relieves your stress because it makes your head hurt which increases the stress. Someone has to find out what is wrong with your head, soon! This recovery is going very slowly. I hope you get answers soon. In the interim, you need some quiet and lovely park very close to home where you could sit on a bench and soak in some calm.

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  4. Oh, Ratty,please take care. I feel concern because you do go out there alone. I trust you take a cell phone with you but I am not sure whether you actually have cell service in the places you go for your photography and trekking. You need to, at the very least, be able to call 911, should you need them. I know it is a frustration to take so long in getting well. We want a bandaid to fix things up so we can get back to our pre-injury well being as soon as possible!

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  5. Glad it wasn't any worse...your body WILL talk to you. Take care of yourself and in time you will be able to spend more time in the woods. By the way, I love your pictures...keep them coming when you feel like getting back out in nature! Please be safe Ratty! :)

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  6. Ratty, you are worse than us cats, trying to ignore your pain and go on as if everything is normal. Especially after your accident, and not being up to speed, you need to take anything that might be troublesome to a human vet asap! Do take care of yourself.

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  7. I'm glad you're OK Ratty but I must admit to being a little cross with you for leaving it until your next scheduled appointment. You should have gone to the doctor straight away....you were lucky it wasn't anything worse this time...but also on top of that, because you were getting stressed about what 'might' being wrong whilst waiting for your appointment you weren't helping the matter at all. So next time Please go to the doctors....STRAIGHT AWAY!!!!!

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  8. Hi Ratty, dropping ec here. Good to hear that your ok and no damage about your health. You need to take extra care of your health especially you are came from an accident.

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  9. Hey Ratty!
    Very sorry to hear all this! It's bad enough to be sick, and then anxiety can make matters ten times worse. And I believe we are born with a certain amount of anxiety. We just can't help it when it's triggered. It sounds like yours measures up to full blown panic attacks.
    Be careful, be safe. Take good care. I hope as the days go by and spring finally settles in that you regain good health.
    Peace!

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  10. We have to work more to get you back on your feet. It must be driving you crazy to be inside so long.

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  11. That must have been a scary experience. Looking forward to your next post.

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  12. I am not you, so I cannot understand fully how you are feeling.

    But my wish is with you, all the best to you.

    Nature is the best medicine.

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  13. How scary that must have been. Do take care of yourself. I know it must be frustrating not doing the things you love most as often as you like. I'm glad to hear that the tests came back fine.

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  14. I am so glad that your tests turned out okay Ratty. You can't take chances like that by waiting. Hope you can get out more real soon. Take care. It's been so cold. Hope Spring hurries up.

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  15. Take your time and try to enjoy the journey as best you can. Sometimes healing from a major injury takes much longer than expected and seems to be two steps forward and one step back. That's OK, if you believe you will completely recover you will. I'm sure we are all pulling for you.

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  16. Definitely want to have a method of communication available to contact emergency medical services. It's nice to get rid of all the gadgets and really go back to nature, but just keeping a cell phone on you can mean the difference between life and death in the wilds.

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  17. Ratty, you know you should always take chest pains seriously!

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  18. I am sorry, but glad to know you are well enough now to share your lesson, like you, nature soothes stress away, that is the reason why I always seek and long for it otherwise, maybe, i will walk with a heavy heart everyday from work's stresses.

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  19. I am sorry you had to go through all that because of that bad accident. I am just glad your are a lot better now. Take everything easy and take good care of your health. The chest pains could be something more serious.

    I'll be praying for your speedy recovery.

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  20. Take a really good care Ratty. It may be frustrating but you might need to take it slow a little bit with the adventurous stuffs.
    P.S. Love your sky wallpaper.

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  21. someday you'll be normal like before..take time..it's normal..anticipating for your next post

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  22. I have to agree with Sparkle. You need to be sure to go to the human vet and get taken care of. We sure hope you will take it easy now. Maybe go outside for shorter trips. Please don't worry about the posts. We can all wait and be just as happy. Take care.

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  23. Howdy Ratty,
    came across your blog through Linkreferral.
    Now what I'm reading here while my first time visiting your blog doesn't sound good at all and I hope you will take it easy and get on your feet again so you can enjoy the great outdoor activities again like you used to. I know how hard it is since I'm right now stuck in the house most of time myself too due to health reasons. Once I will be allowed to get back in the yak and on the water again I already now know very well, I will have to take it slow and gradually increase the length of my trips.
    I wish you all the best and hope for you to get well soon.

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