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About my health problems

I think most of you already heard, either through one Marco (MKI) or the other (lavish) that I got some health problems and I’m currently hospitalised.

On the night of August 13th I had a crisis of acute pancreatitis; strangely enough, this disease is usually tied with alcohol abuse and targets people in the 35–50 years range: I’m 21 and I never drink. As additional complication, the pancreatitis caused the formation of water in the lungs; luckily I avoided surgery for that too.

It certainly wasn’t a pleasant experience, especially since after the first week (when I was mostly frenzy with fever), I passed 16 days in the Intensive Care Unit. While the staff was most friendly, the place isn’t cheery at all: in this hospital it seems more like a bunker and the other patients were basically unconscious: I was the only one able to talk normally.

At least at the ICU I was able to read sometimes, and thanks to a friend of mine (Hi Andrea), who lent me his iPod, I was able to listen to some music, especially when I had the respiratory aid on. Unfortunately I couldn’t keep a cellphone, and obviously not a computer, and visitors could only come two at a time during in the evening (and one in the early afternoon, but that slot was reserved for my mother). I seen someone I didn’t see in years (hey Manuel), and someone who I never met in real life before (yo Barba).

Anyway, back to my health, now I’ll have one or two extra weeks (if I’m lucky), then I should be able to come back home, where I should keep down for about a month, but I’ll still be able to do some easy task, and I should be able to get Enterprise back up. I’ll have some pills to take to integrate the functionality of what remains of my pancreas, and most likely I’ll be diabetic afterward, but that’s something a lot of people already cope with, I’ll just need to learn to cope with that too.

Thanks to everybody who wished me good luck with the problem, really thanks everybody. I can’t say that this won’t interfere with my work with Gentoo, but I can tell I won’t give up entirely.

If you were tense waiting to see how I was, well, now you know I am better, if not exactly well, and I’m getting better and better every day now.

And for who wonders: at least in Italy, hospitals aren’t either as House, MD nor Scrubs hospitals. (On the other hand, the Umberto I, Mestre’s hospital, was built in the ‘60s, which would explain the decadent look; of course some maintenance wouldn’t hurt.

Finally, the LED lamps arrived, they are nice to see (I saw them as my mother brought them to me to see), and my family says that they do some nice light for the bathroom mirror.

Comments 29
  1. Diego,Glad to hear you are alright / going to be better. We were really worried about you. Don’t give the Gentoo stuff a second thought, just take care of yourself!Keep up the good attitude, man, and let us know how you’re doing. 🙂

  2. it’s good you’re not letting this keep you down … if you did, i’d have to fly out there and smack you upside the head myselfglad to have you back sometime, you’re invaluable

  3. Glad to hear you’ll be soon out of the hospital, get all the rest you can, and get well/better!And thanks for the update on your health 😉

  4. I knew about you when I started reading Planet Gentoo, and as user I really appreciate your work. Also, reading your posts was always instructing and/or funny to read. It is great to hear you are getting better, so please be patient and I hope you will be fine soon after a good rest.

  5. Please don’t get better too fast because I’ll come to the hospital next monday 😛

  6. Best wishes to you, I hope you’ll be back on your feet soon.Glad to hear that the problems have been taken care of and that from now on it can start to get better.Good to read from you, I was really starting to get worried.

  7. Hope you’re feeling better, your experience sounds pretty terrible. Don’t sweat the Gentoo stuff, focus on your health.

  8. Did they discover a cause for your pancreatitis?You aren’t the first young person in my web of friends with it – and I saw a science paper recently noting an increase of cirrhosis-like (Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease) and pancreatitic problems amongst the ‘yuppie’ group that is eating a lot more rich/trendy food that previous generations.

  9. Glad to hear you’re doing better, as all the fellas point out, focus in your health first that’s the most important thing.Use your Gentoo time as something to get you relaxed and distracted, don’t worry about it till you’re fine.Take care & get well!

  10. I didn’t know about this. You’re putting on a very brave face. Stay strong and get well soon. (-:

  11. Welcome back Diego! Thank goodness you’ll be alright. Hang in there and take your time getting well.I’m glad you finally got your lamps *grin*We’ll catch up some more when you get better. (-:

  12. Ouch! I wasn’t aware of what was happening to you. Anyway, good luck and get well soon. Take it easy 🙂

  13. “Help needed: After a series of hardware failures…”Bet you didn’t expect /this/ kind of hardware failure! There’s nothing like the failure of human hardware to remind one just how fortunate they have been!Certainly, you’ve been missed. I’m /very/ glad to see an update, and that it’s not the proverbial “hit by a bus” or the like! Welcome back, and it sounds trite but… Get well soon!Duncan

  14. Ouch… this news slipped under the radar for me.ICU wards aren’t exactly the most cheery places to stay, and I for one, would get bored out of my brain being stuck in one for any extended period of time.My grandfather spent many months in one towards the end of his life — at one point he swore he was underground: the room he was in had no windows, and thus, he never saw the sun. By the end of it, sure he was alive, but I wouldn’t call his situation “living”.I really do hope you’ll pull through okay. I hear diabetes can be a real prick at times, but one can still have a decent quality of life.My best wishes are with you at this time. I hope they’re looking after you well in there.Regards,Stuart Longland

  15. Hi flameeyes,i am shocked to hear about your situation. great to hear that things are turning for the better…hang in there, keep up the spirit and get well soon.regardsbangert

  16. First I have heard about this. Haven’t been on the Planet in awhile.Take you time and get well, no rushing back to work until your well. Glad to see your spirits are still fine.Disclaimer. I’m not a doctor or play one on tv. But my brother is a doctor.

  17. Dude, maybe you should start drinking.I mean, if you already have liver problems, maybe you should enjoy the benefits, too ;o)WRT to LEDs- what kind of LEDs did you get ?Are they garden vairety of simple white LED or something powerful, meant for room illumination ?

  18. Oh, yes, and all usuall congrats&crap for surviving.That help offer still stands as far as I’m concerned- I you need something and I can get it, I will.I don’t have any spare disk at the moment, so I can’t help you with your farragut (or whatever it is) problems and I’m kind of tight with $$$ lately, so I didn’t answer to your HDD-related request, but things can change…

  19. Tell your pancreas that it should’ve waited another few months before surrendering: the new hospital should open this autumn IIRC.Get well soon!

  20. Yeah, the infamous “new hospital”; I’ll write about that, too. Standing here for about a month now, I heard the phrase “Oh, but you’ll see with the new hospital” enough times to write an essay on it.

  21. get well soon. oh, and hospitals in austria don’t look like those in american soap operas either… 😉

  22. I wish you good luck! and I hope you recover from this as soom as posible without too much pain.;-)

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