Hey friends,
In the last edition of Coffee + Revelation I mentioned that in my next newsletter I’d discuss Hawkeye Ventures, my holding company. I still plan to cover Hawkeye Ventures in detail, but that won’t happen in this edition.
The aim of this newsletter is to remind you about something super critical which I had forgotten, and subsequently paid a heavy price for forgetting.
About 2 weeks ago while climbing out of bed I felt a lot of tightness in my lower back. Once my feet were planted on the floor I twisted in an attempt to loosen it and felt a small pop. I’d done the same move a hundred times before and the small pop wasn’t anything special but this time it felt different.
I went on with my day but could tell that my back wasn’t happy.
After a trip into Barcelona to get my teeth cleaned, and a few hours sitting in front of the computer at the local coworking space, I was in excruciating pain and could barely stand.
I was staying with my sister at the time and hinted to her that I might need to go to the emergency room. I managed to make it through the night sleeping maybe 3 hours, but by 10am the next morning I couldn’t take it anymore.
I had more or less self diagnosed the issue as a herniated disk. I couldn’t bend, had a bad sciatica and sitting was not an option.
The nice people in the emergency room confirmed my diagnosis and after an x-ray and giving me a long list of pain killers, I was sent on my way. I was told it would take about 1 week for the pain to settle but from my online research I knew I’d need 4 - 6 weeks to recover.
Unfortunately at this point my health only got worse. The stress of the whole situation, and the fact that this happened just days before I was scheduled to leave Spain, created a range of stress-induced issues from extreme insomnia, exploding head syndrome, tinnitus, lack of appetite, high blood pressure, trouble regulating my temperature, and heart palpitations.
Those first few days after the injury were hell. I slept maybe 5 hours in 4 days and barely ate during that time. I wasn’t sure if I was having a bad reaction to the drug cocktail, if it was just from the stress, or if my nervous system was just shot from the constant pain.
I ultimately made the decision to roll the dice and get on the plane to my next destination which was Bucharest, the capital of Romania.
I was ready to leave Spain after a wonderful 3 months, had the flight and airbnb booked already, and did see an improvement in my back (even though I wasn’t sleeping) in the days leading up to my departure.
As I write this post I’m sitting in my airbnb in Bucharest with significantly less pain and all the stress related issues have subsided. I’m on the path to recovery and very confident that within as little as a week from now I’ll be 70% close to where I was before this whole episode.
Why am I telling you about this incident?
I’ve always believed that even in the most negative situations there are lessons to be learnt.
The big lesson I’ve learnt from this incident is that I can no longer live my life the same way. That I must prioritize my health with the same vigor as I give to other areas of my life which are important to me. That I need to build new habits so I’m putting the necessary effort towards my health.
I enjoy working and my lifestyle is such that I spent many hours each week hunched over a computer screen. I don’t plan on changing this anytime soon so I have to adjust and include regular stretching, walking, and strength training into my week.
This whole incident was a reminder that the body is a vehicle for my mind and without care and focused attention, it will break down and rock my entire world.
If you’ve made it this far into this post, I highly recommend that you reflect on your own lifestyle, and if necessary, start today to make your physical health a priority.
Don’t wait like I did for your body to get so vulnerable that you end up with a serious injury that can spiral out of control.
Thanks for reading.
Justin