Tag Archives: surgery

Glad that’s over.

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I had a rough patch last year. My wife just recently shared this photo she took at the time. It hit me kind of hard.

Me in a hospital bed in September or October 2023.

I was in & out of the hospital for about 3 weeks in a month due to an infection from & complications with a drain from diverticulitis. I had my sigmoid colon and part of my rectum removed, with robot-assisted orthoscopic surgery. Recovery was rough while I was in it, but relatively quick looking back.

The local hospital staff was fantastic taking care of me, the surgeon is the greatest, I was consulted by an infectious diseases doctor on the regular, and my PCP was very helpful throughout.

Medical care and insurance get a bad rap, but because of the medical care, I am still here. It hit me recently too that this is what killed Peter Steele. When this picture was taken, I was coming down from rigors that I got after a simple procedure to remove a drain. They called the rapid response team to medicate me, pack me in ice, & do what they could to help me combat a 105° fever.

This put my wife through a lot of emotional stress. Luckily my job & her job were fantastic with the time off. The kids had questions about if I was ever coming home.

Early on, my boss & a co-worker rallied to bring a cooler full of frozen food & rotisserie chickens to lighten the burden & home. Lots of friends, family, & neighbors reached out with gift cards, food, & support. I can’t thank everyone enough for donations to a GoFundMe or something that must have been out there to help with medical bills. I will pay it forward, and the help is wholeheartedly appreciated. I am humbled by the support & care for our family.

I’m not posting this to lament or for sympathy. It’s mainly just to mentally close it out, as a reminder to be thankful for absolutely everything that I have. It was most likely the impetus for me to finally try out publishing a maze book, putting my stuff on some merchandise, and drawing a maze for my surgeon.

Make every day count. Get small medical stuff checked out before it becomes big stuff. Be there for your people.

Guts! – The Maze

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So, recently, I have had some bouts of shenanigans in & out of the hospital with infections and complications stemming from Diverticulitis.

So, I drew up a maze inspired by recent events for the surgeon, scanned & colored it, got it printed at 12″x18″, signed it, and got a frame for it. I’ll give him some dry-erase markers, too.

One week out, I feel like I’m in good hands. He had a lot of neat funny stuff in his office. And apparently, Wednesdays are cool because he gets to use a robot to assist.

I thought about getting him some RedBubble merch from my store, but this seemed quicker. (The acrylic block and notebook looked neat.)

This may make book #2 as a bonus maze.

Think he’ll like it?

Get yourself one on a coffee mug so you can see your immediate future!

Thanks for taking the time to read! Check out my first maze book on Amazon, or get yourself some of my maze merch from TeePublic or RedBubble. I’m trying to see how far I can take this thing… and I gots to pay me some medical bills! I get about a dollar per book or shirt since this is all print-on-demand.

https://www.tiktok.com/@aixelsyd13/video/7281038627876949290