Get Well Soon XFlak...

[SylverReZ]

Then....nvm, too

Wait, what the heck was going on?

Post automatically merged: Feb 7, 2023

It's official, I will be going home today, probably within the next 1-3 hours! Praise the Lord! I don't think my back could last another night on this hospital bed, lol

Yipee! I'm happy for you, XFlak.

 

[Blythe93]

Congrats on getting released, stick to the good old comfy bed and healthy food and may your recovery be quick!

Wait, what the heck was going on?

All I see is neverminding. Hehehe

 

[SylverReZ]

All I see is neverminding. Hehehe

Yeah, pretty much.

Aside from that I'm glad that XFlak had a smooth recovery in the end. XFlak, if you're reading this, spend some great time with your family and get some good rest.

 

[XFlak]

Wait, what the heck was going on?

After a particularly difficult period, where I did not sleep for over 48 hours, I shared some feelings that were not in-line with the new positive person I am still trying to become. Rome wasn't built in a day, and my new positive perspective I guess is still under construction.

 

[AfanGotTheWiiOn26December]

Glad that you had good recovery. Get better soon.

 

[AncientBoi]

Welcome back dude. Much love and a healthy recovery at home.

 

[Lostbhoy]

After a particularly difficult period, where I did not sleep for over 48 hours, I shared some feelings that were not in-line with the new positive person I am still trying to become. Rome wasn't built in a day, and my new positive perspective I guess is still under construction.

Hey man, being positive all the time is a drain in itself. You've got stuff going on that's stressfull to say the least! Let it out from time to time, we don't all have to reply or give input (that oart should be highlighted!) but if helps, get it out. Just put a wee disclaimer like rage rant or somethin! We get it!

 

[Purple_Heart]

Sorry to hear that. Had a Bonemarrow (Stemcell) Transplant. Laying a month in Hospital, unable to leave my room for 3 weeks. barely could move. Couldnt even stand properly first 2 weeks and needed help for almost everything... showering eating and more. Couldnt sleep without being put to sleep due to massive pain (even if i got the softest bed due it). it was worse than that, but cant count everything cause it was too much.

 

[niuus]

Hey guys, you all have been so supportive, and many pm's here and in discord have been asking for an update. I may be giving out TMI but I think I'm well past that at this point anyway, and I don't care, u guys are awesome and I'm not ashamed.

I had another tube removed yesterday, and final tube removed today (still hurts where it was though), and the doctor expects to send me home sometime tomorrow/Sunday but he couldn't promise. Still, I'm confident tomorrow is the day, as he has been saying Sunday for the last 3 days in a row now.

I spoke to my 4 boys for the first time on the phone in 10 days earlier today. Omg after we hung up I was balling like a baby but I was strong while talking to them. We're making plans to see the new Mario movie in theaters when it comes out, and generally looking forward to seeing each other again. I f'ing miss helping my 8yr old with his reading and we're gonna start doing that again asap (I'm proud to say I can read Greek at a better level than my 8yr old, lol, at least for now, but I'm even more proud of him).

I will have to self administer abdomen shots for 10 days. And after 10 days my stomach staples should be ready to come out.

At around the 2 month mark they will do a colonoscopy and check for more damage and if more surgery is warranted. If some bowel/tumor needs removal it will be a surgery similar in seriousness to this one and that would happen no sooner than around the 4 month mark.

If another serious surgery is needed then I'll have to keep the colostomy bag for another 4 months (so around the 8 month mark, around October-ish). If I'm all clear then the surgery at the 4 month mark will be minor to remove the colostomy bag. So either way I'm guaranteed some kind of surgery in 4 months at the start of June.

My work has been amazing so far. Without me asking they've given me time off until March (but if I can I may work from home a bit sooner to help the team out during our busy season). After that we'll see. I'm sure I'll be allowed to work from home for awhile, but if it's all the way until October.... That's a long time I hope it won't be an issue. I could in theory return to the office with my colostomy bag, but it would be strange to be sitting at a meeting and hearing/smelling uncontrollable bodily functions. Ppl live full lives with these "shit bags", heck I can in theory even swim with mine, but it's strange. I'm very lucky that for me it should be 4-8 months of it, if I had to live the rest of my life like this it would be very difficult to stay positive.

I also recently learned that what I'm suffering from is a serious case of the same thing Brock Lesnar had, explained here:
https://www.thesportster.com/wwe-brock-lesnar-history-with-diverticulitis-explained/

Now I have some martial arts training and used to teach nunchucks and other weapons, but I'm no Brock, lol. I recently (before illness) lost about 20kg, and in the last 10 days another 5-10kg, but I'm still about 100kg and should probably be down to 90 or 85kg based on my height/build. So yeah, my gut isn't helping my stomach staple situation, but I'm lucky I already started losing some lbs before all this (due to stress and yard work). And I promised my doctor to get to at least 90kg by June for my next surgery, it makes his job easier and obv improves my outlook/health.

This last part might sound crazy, but despite the hard road ahead, and the pain, I am the HAPPIEST I've been in years. I've been so worried and stressed about things outside my control (mostly the asshat I hired to build my home, who stopped working and wants more money even though he's been paid more than the work completed so far, and leaks, and other issues blah blah blah). I have been so depressed, especially since we moved into this construction zone and builders started ignoring us and stopped working back in September. I am legit HAPPY. My toilet and bathtub broke (brand new house remember) a week ago and my wife didn't have the heart to tell me because of all I'm dealing with. But I am so blessed that one of my friends came over, despite being sick with the flu, and fixed it all. They only told me after it was all fixed. I have another friend who's helping me hang curtains in the new house so I can rest without the sun interrupting me. My parents are buying me a new electric recliner so I can be more comfortable (omg my back is killing me now from hospital bed, so bad), and I have friends /family arranging to deliver it and carry it to my room tomorrow before I'm released. I have so much love and support from friends and family and THIS COMMUNITY. I was going down a dark depressed road, I have now changed course, the future is so much brighter. The road may be bumpier with all my issues and pain, but I'm not walking the path alone anymore.... Maybe I never was, but now I don't feel alone. I feel happy and blessed and lucky. So what if my bedroom is missing a wall for now? Or my builder was paid to build me a garage that's nonexistent. That will come in time and will be built by someone new I actually trust. The house is warm, I have a roof over my head and the heads of my kids (which mostly doesn't leak these days ), and everything else will get done in due time. I don't need my shit to be 100% together to be happy anymore (pun intended, lol)

Anyway, this turned out to be way longer and more detailed than expected. I'm sure I could go on but I'm going to stop here cuz it's time to rest, tomorrow is a big day, and I'm going to see my boys again for the first time in 11 days! I'm already planning darth Vader "more machine than man" jokes to tell them, of course followed by the promise that I won't turn evil like Vader did, lol!

Stay positive everyone, be nice to each other, pay it forward, etc. You are all amazing

Get well soon, Mr. Xflak. Some recoveries can be extra tough, but you're pulling through.

 

[Purple_Heart]

Sorry to hear that. Had a Bonemarrow (Stemcell) Transplant. Laying a month in Hospital, unable to leave my room for 3 weeks. barely could move. Couldnt even stand properly first 2 weeks and needed help for almost everything... showering eating and more. Couldnt sleep without being put to sleep due to massive pain (even if i got the softest bed due it). it was worse than that, but cant count everything cause it was too much.

Bonemarrow Transplant is one of the worst things ya can get, but was worth...no more Diabetes.

 

[XFlak]

Bonemarrow Transplant is one of the worst things ya can get, but was worth...no more Diabetes.

Wow man, it goes to show that no matter how rough you have it there's always someone going through something worse. I'm happy it worked out for you, and ridding yourself of diabetes is no small task, you are a Rockstar my man!

 

[XFlak]

I'm not sure if you missed it, but I've been home since Sunday.

Sunday I woke up at maybe 5am in the hospital, went home at noon-ish. Before going home, my wife took me so I could go exercise my rights and voted for the first time since moving to this country. Went home, had a blast, but then proceeded to experience crazy insomnia, which is not uncommon in these situations. In the hospital I didn't get a ton of sleep, but with the help of a nightly sleeping pill I got some. Back at home, I did not have access to any sleeping aids, and didn't sleep at all the first night. However, this was fine as I didn't feel tired, it was more like I was excited like a kid on Xmas eve, and I was thinking about all the things I was going to do the next day (like get a hair cut, which I did). However, when I couldn't sleep the second night and I had been awake over 50 hours I began to lose my mind. Eventually I found some sleep at like 9 or 10 am, only a couple hours, but enough to make me sane again. And the nights since then have been better, ranging from 3-5 hours of sleep a night. It doesn't help that I don't have curtains yet in my bedroom. But I have a friend of at my place right now actually that is helping install them so tonight if I want to sleep in I should be able to without the sunlight being an issue.

On another note, my back is still killing me and I've already seen my chiropractor twice, but every time I see her it gets A LOT better.

Life is good. Recovery is good. I've certainly had ups and downs, but over all, I'm happy to be alive and to have this time off to recover and be with family and friends.

 

[godreborn]

I'm not sure if you missed it, but I've been home since Sunday.

Sunday I woke up at maybe 5am in the hospital, went home at noon-ish. Before going home, my wife took me so I could go exercise my rights and voted for the first time since moving to this country. Went home, had a blast, but then proceeded to experience crazy insomnia, which is not uncommon in these situations. In the hospital I didn't get a ton of sleep, but with the help of a nightly sleeping pill I got some. Back at home, I did not have access to any sleeping aids, and didn't sleep at all the first night. However, this was fine as I didn't feel tired, it was more like I was excited like a kid on Xmas eve, and I was thinking about all the things I was going to do the next day (like get a hair cut, which I did). However, when I couldn't sleep the second night and I had been awake over 50 hours I began to lose my mind. Eventually I found some sleep at like 9 or 10 am, only a couple hours, but enough to make me sane again. And the nights since then have been better, ranging from 3-5 hours of sleep a night. It doesn't help that I don't have curtains yet in my bedroom. But I have a friend of at my place right now actually that is helping install them so tonight if I want to sleep in I should be able to without the sunlight being an issue.

On another note, my back is still killing me and I've already seen my chiropractor twice, but every time I see her it gets A LOT better.

Life is good. Recovery is good. I've certainly had ups and downs, but over all, I'm happy to be alive and to have this time off to recover and be with family and friends.

yeah, I saw that above, but I thout nvm meant you had to stay or something, which is why I responded to it.

 

[CoolMe]

Next Legendary Temper should be @XFlak, just saying..

 

[XFlak]

I didn't even know that was a thing! And I would be honored. I had a friend Clutz something, who was talking about doing a audio interview with me. We developed some questions together but that's as far as I got.

 

[AncientBoi]

I didn't even know that was a thing! And I would be honored. I had a friend Clutz something, who was talking about doing a audio interview with me. We developed some questions together but that's as far as I got.

So how are you today hun. Hopefully good

 

[BrothaJayWilson]

I want to mention before that I ("I" being Gabubu) wanted to create this thread for XFlak. I asked for his permission before doing that btw. "I" in the story below refers to XFlak where parts of our conversations have been collected to give you a sense of what he's going through.

Tuesday the 17th of Jan I started to feel uncomfortable pain everyday but was only extreme once/twice per day. Initially we were thinking it could be hernia. I called my GP Wednesday and Thursday and got an appointment for Monday the 23rd. The doctor was confident it was irritable bowel syndrome but just in case call a lab for an ultrasound appointment to see if it's not something else like hernia or appendix. I book it for Sat Jan 28th because it's the earliest date they have an my GP was confident it was IBS anyway. Starting Monday night the pain got worse, with constant non-stop pain of varying degrees from like a 2/10 up to 8/10. I managed through the pain, even still working from home most days, until Thursday morning when I could not take it anymore and started going to ER after ER, but there weren't enough beds for not-serious cases especially during a partial labour strike. Not to mention surgeons don't generally work Thursday afternoons so we're trying to figure out where to go. Ended up going back to that private lab as there was thankfully a last minute cancelation. It's there that my wife and I are told my appendix is toast and I need immediate surgery. Armed with this information the ERs will finally take me seriously and I end up at another hospital where we have to wait for an doctor to arrive. The doctor finally shows up and they have me walking all over the hospital to get bloodwork and CT scans. After these scans the doctor said it's too dangerous to do the typical appendix removal surgery now and they will treat me with antibiotics instead. Then things took a turn for the worse that Friday when I had emergency surgery, turned out to be a perferated bowel, appendix was fine just buried in a mass of puss. The mass popped and shot puss everywhere, causing so much pain that I could barely breath even after 2 shots of morphine and was literally begging to be put to sleep. After another round of CT scans and another 4.5 hours after the puss mass burst they finally began operating. The surgery took 3.5 hours and I woke up. Will be in hospital for 7-10 days, with no drinks for 2-5 days and a colostomy bag necessary for a minimum of 4 months. I may need more surgery after things clear up in a few months and they can see better what's going on. Could need to remove part of my bowel, or a there could be a tumor to remove (Dr thinks tumor unlikely). Doctor said most likely it's "diverticulitis disease". I recently had a nose/stomach tube and catheter removed, and am slowly being allowed small amounts of water, so while the road is tough so far so good.



P.S.: About ModMii's biggest update it is still in the works and if mods think it belongs elsewhere to plz move accordingly. For more check the ModMii's thread (says XFlak)

Praying for a complete and speedy recovery

 

[XFlak]

I am doing great! Still having some pain here and there, but definitely out of the woods, at least for now. On the long road to recovery I won't know much more for a couple months when things have settled down and they can have a proper look at what's going on and determine the way forward (I won't repeat what was said before, but basically if all goes well I could be back to 100% in 4-months without any more serious surgery, but there's another 8-month option involving yet another serious surgery I am naturally hoping can be avoided)

The hardest part right now has been diet. No doctor is able to help me with diet, they keep saying I need to consult with a dietitian. I am entitled to one under the public healthcare system but in order to get the discounted rates I need to go through the proper referral process which is taking time. So until then, I have been extra careful & conservative with my diet. Yesterday was the first time I allowed myself even the smallest indulgence, and had a cup of hot chocolate. This should hopefully get resolved soon though, and given what I've went through, if this is my biggest issue right now then it's almost not even worth mentioning.

I got my doctor the PERFECT gift! He was trying to make a number of referrals using the public health service website, and he was getting so frustrated because the system doesn't work half the time. At one point he had painstakingly completed a form only to have the site time out on him due to inactivity and he lost all he had done and had to start over. Well, you guys know me, I start telling him it's easy to have a small script that just moves his mouse a bit so he will never go inactive and it will cost nothing. Well, he just looks at me blankly like I just suggest he write Windows OS from scratch or something so then I suggest another low-tech solution, which is to place his mouse overtop of an analog watch so that the moving second hand will trigger mouse movement preventing the site from timing out (TBH I've never actually tried this but have heard it works). He thought this idea was brilliant, but then we look around and it's clear he doesn't have such a watch and even if he did it wouldn't be that convenient to have to remember to put his mouse down in front of his watch every time he needed to answer a question. So you can probably already guess what my gift to him was... I got him this mouse jiggler usb, and he loved the idea so much he actually didn't even refuse it which is what he had been doing up until this point. Anyway, I was very happy to have found the perfect and not very expensive gift for the man that helped save my life, and that the gift will allow him to do his job more effectively and help more people going forward

What else? Yesterday I spent 4-5 hours adding a new drag and drop feature to ModMii (spoiler, something cool will happen if you open a ZIP with ModMii after it's next update). I had fun and felt like my old self hacking away with my laptop open and my wii on. Unfortunately it seems all my wiimotes are breaking down, everytime I invest in replacements they just break faster. They really don't make wiimotes like they used to, and it's tough to find good quality Nintendo brand wiimotes at reasonable prices. If anyone actually knows where I can get good wiimotes (with remote plus built in) that won't break after a week at a decent price please let me know. I'm located in the southern half of Cyprus, and generally amazon.de is the closest but still shipping is generally expensive. Heck if anyone has any spare wiimotes lying around and they'd like to donate to me shoot me a PM, that would be great especially since my kids have been playing wii lately and I need to constantly take batteries out of remotes and put them back in because they become unresponsive, oh and don't get me started un nunchucks, having to remove and reinsert them constantly and games being interrupted by disconnected prompts constantly. So TLDR, if you have spare wiimote+ or nunchucks lying around or know where I can order good quality replacements holla at me plz!

Someone else just reached out asking about doing a ModMii translation, so I am thinking I will create a ModMii: How to translate thread and make it public. With any luck that will be live within 30 min or so after typing out this update.

Last thing, I was having some fun programming all my Air Conditioners in the house to respond to voice commands on my phone, and yesterday took it a step further and got a Nest Mini. My house is now full of a bunch of kids shouting over each other "Hey Google" I'm starting to wonder if it was a mistake, lol!

So that's my update, I am doing well, staying positive, and dare I say I may actually get my butt out of bed and in church a bit more often than my old track record of almost never, lol. Thanks again y'all for the support, it really has been a source of strength for me, you guys are great!

edit: finished! https://gbatemp.net/threads/modmii-how-to-contribute-a-translation.625992/

Post automatically merged: Feb 11, 2023

Next Legendary Temper should be @XFlak, just saying..

Just read this, and dude sounds amazing, but I couldn't help thinking that... well you know me, if I was selected I would have been a lot more wordy, maybe too much in fact. I have so much to say I could probably fill more than 1 week's quota, lol!

 

[PigeonBreath]

Nice update XFlak! Hoping you smash the 100% recovery in 4 months target. That hot chocolate would of been something after all that strict diet. Haha your Doctor's always gonna remember you when he uses his new mouse jiggler lol.

Damn I honestly had 3 WiiMote +'s till only about 2 weeks ago I gave 2 to my nephew & niece, & I'm left with one for me, one of them was my Luigi one too I gotta find a place to buy another 1 or 2 also a nunchuck or 2, woud prefer them brand new but that's harder than I thought ha. & more expensive than I remember them, thats for sure. Was hopin for another Luigi or Zelda WiiMote but only found 2nd hand in my quick search. Will probs have to settle for 2nd hand I guess.

 

[XFlak]

So unfortunately just took a couple steps backward in my recovery. Out of nowhere I had this intense pain whenever I moved, even turning from my back to my side, and coughs made me shout in pain. I called my doc and he said to see him Friday. I called him back an hour later and convinced him to see me today.

Turns out the hole in my abdomen is closing up nicely, but trapped inside was some liquid that was causing the pain. So he snipped the hole a bit larger and it should hopefully drain in the next 2-3 days. But that means as of now I am basically bedridden for 2-3 days, aside from mandatory doctors appointments.

I'm staying positive, but other than lack of sleep this has been my largest setback since getting discharged.