Recapping My Stint In The Hospital & On The IL
Notes from a rough few weeks, saying hello to a wave of new subscribers, exciting new project news, and trying out a couple of things...
What’s the quote I nearly always reference when life throws you a curveball and your best-laid plans go into the toilet?
You know it already…
“If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.”
- Woody Allen
I really should dig out another quote rather than lean on the musings of a polarizing and controversial film director with a more than shady past but, then again, weren’t we taught to always stick with what we know?
Anyway, I digress (what’s new).
I embarked on that incessant preamble for a specific reason, believe it or not. As you probably have noticed, I’ve been a little quiet so far this month - at least I hope you’ve noticed, or else we could have a real problem on our hands.
Before I divulge why, and it is a doozy of a tale if I say so myself, allow me to quickly handle some housekeeping…
Saying Hello
Despite my disappearing act, life has continued to march on - as it always does - and it has thrilled me to discover that The Steele Sports Bar Community has gained a few new members.
Without further ado, please join me in welcoming the following new patrons to the family here at The Steele Sports Bar:
Ahmed Amine
Dan Pierquet
Mic1Ray
Ash Winsden
Steven Hellis
I think I’ll call you the Fab Five! Or maybe the Famous Five. Let me know which you prefer.
Regardless, fab or famous, I’m pumped that all five of you have decided to come along for the journey and become part of what I’m trying to build here. There’s huge things planned for the site in 2024, and your support means the absolute world.
This site, this endeavor, is only possible because of you and your loyal support, and upgrading to a paid subscription will ensure that we remain independent and go from strength-to-strength. Oh, and it will also help to pay the bills and cover things like travel expenses and photo licenses. All that jazz.
The Steele Sports Bar can only grow and be successful thanks to your support. There are no corporate overlords here.
This newsletter is 100000000% reader-supported. If you’re willing and able, please consider becoming a paid subscriber.
By becoming a paid subscriber, you will play a direct role in helping this site grow and become bigger and better. We remain independent because of you.
All funds will go towards keeping this website totally independent, as well as covering bills and other related costs involved in taking the newsletter to the next level.
As always, thank you for so much for your time and investment!
Now, I know I haven’t held up my end of the bargain by being consistent, but now this particular setback is behind me, it is very much foot on the gas time as it pertains to the bright future of this website & newsletter.
There’s so much good and fun stuff coming down the pike and I can’t wait to share it with you all!
Thank you so much again for your loyal and unwavering support. It will never be forgotten.
Now, without further ado, let’s dive right into the reason for my slow start to 2024…
Some Background
Okay, so now I’m acting like a big tease, but the following information will help paint an accurate picture for when I eventually dive into the meaty part of this story.
It will be worth all the meandering. I promise.
So, around two years ago, summertime, I was engulfed by a constant wave of fatigue and general weariness that just wouldn’t let up. No matter what I did, my body just felt like it had been beaten to a pulp by Rocky on steroids. So, Ivan Drago, basically.
At first, I put it down to having just come off a really chaotic and stressful year work wise, where I was averaging 70 + hour weeks without even coming up for air at any point. Plus, I was embarking on a seismic change in both my professional and personal life, there were other family issues bubbling away under the surface and I’m not one to really pause and ease up. As most people would, I just put my body’s slumber down to a lethal mix of all-time stress and chronic lack of rest.
However, my gut was pretty persistent in telling me something wasn’t quite right so I went to see my physician, I underwent a whole battery of tests and I proceeded to do what every sane person does while waiting for the results to come back: I fired up my imagination, hit up WebMD and allowed myself to soak in all kinds of wacky theories pertaining to what could be wrong with me and why each one would lead to my eventual demise.
Spoiler alert; I lived to tell the tale (obviously, although an AI bot could be writing this I guess) but I was told the reason for my fatigue overload could be because of a severe lack of white blood cells. For all non doctors out there, white blood cells are crucial in fighting bacteria, viruses and infections.
For some reason, my body likes to avoid white blood cells like the plague (how ironic given that the plague would probably kill me in my current condition) and that could spell trouble if I ever got sick or caught an infection.
Keep that latter sentence at the forefront of your brain when reading the next section…
Why I’ve Been So Quiet To Start 2024
Okay, time to cut to the chase. Finally.
Earlier this month, I think the weekend that marked the regular season finale in the NFL if I remember correctly, I started to feel unbearable pains in my stomach late one Sunday night.
I was actually trying to write an article about longing for the start of baseball season to arrive - that will come soon, I promise - when I felt the first sharp pain cut into me like a butcher’s knife being twisted deep into my gut.
Those pangs of pain only became more constant and more acute as the night went on.
For once, it wasn’t the Jets reducing me to a flood of tears on a Sunday.
To paint a more accurate picture, at one point I became convinced that ET had somehow managed to climb up through my butt and into my body, before proceeding to play a game of tug of war with my intestines. It would have been less painful - and far more considerate - if he just lit a match up there and set my entire insides on fire.
Maybe he did, because the searing pain would only intensify heading into Monday, to the point I slipped in and out of consciousness the entire day. Save for the slew of moments I needed to rush to the toilet to urgently conduct some business, if you get my drift.
With no idea as to what the hell kind of bloody and messy war was being raged inside my stomach, I prayed and hoped that whatever the cause was would kindly do one by the time Tuesday morning arrived.
Nope. That was one wish I wasn’t granted (along with my wish for Reese Witherspoon to waltz into my life and make an honest man out of me).
Instead, I found myself in the emergency room of my local hospital where I was quickly moved to ward. After hours upon hours of waiting around in-between having blood drained out of me like I was some kind of fodder for vampires, I was eventually told I was too sick to go home. My blood pressure was sky high, I had a fever, I was experiencing pains in my chest (as well as my stomach still) and I was darn lucky if I made it five minutes without doubling down in absolute agony.
Given my rather fragile and pathetic state, I was moved to a makeshift bed in a room that was full to capacity, with the toilet door serving as my only view for the next little while.
It wasn’t a pleasant experience.
The hospital I was staying at was overrun, as is the case with pretty much every other hospital on planet earth right now, and my bed and pillow may as well have been made out of stone. I wasn’t really allowed to eat either, and even the most putrid kind of hospital food seemed appealing after a while.
With doctors unable to work out what was exactly wrong with me, I underwent every kind of test imaginable on my second day in the hospital, as well as having to undergo an ultrasound and a full CT scan.
On a side note, how weird are CT scans, by the way? I honestly felt like I had crapped my pants at one point. It smelt like I had too. Not an experience I want to endure again if I can avoid it.
I was also pretty beaten up on just night one of my stay. The poor nurse couldn’t get the needle to go in my right arm, leading to this battle scar being left:
By the way, that bruise is still hanging on in there like a persistent little bastard a couple of weeks later.
Anyway, after being starved again while waiting for the results, I made the best use of my time by binge watching The Sopranos, Malcolm In The Middle and Modern Family. That’s what you call classic TV. And, if you want to distract yourself from extreme hunger pangs, watching Tony Soprano inhale every single item of food in his path helps. Sarcasm.
I also made sure to continue chipping away at my goal of reading 24 books in 2024. Already three down by the time a wrecking ball was let loose on my body, I quickly dived into a Christmas present - Underboss: Sammy The Bull Gravano’s Story Of Life In The Mafia. Between that and The Sopranos, you could make a safe assumption that I am absolutely obsessed with all things Cosa Nostra.
And you would be a million percent correct.
Sammy, who played a pivotal role in bringing down the all-powerful mafia after ratting against the infamous John Gotti, was as tough as they came and his book offered a compelling insight into just how corrupt, two-faced and deadly the mob really is. I love, love, love reading and if a book is fast paced and can hook you in over and over again, then I can easily finish an average-sized book in a couple of days, as I did with Gravano’s.
Look, when you are laid up in a hospital bed and under strict instructions to rest, you may as well indulge in the things that bring you joy and pleasure. And I certainly did that during my stay.
You got to make the best out of every situation, after all.
Binge watching old classics and reading aside, being stuck in the hospital is never fun, however, and I was starting to go a little stir crazy in my little corner. I had no access to a window, I was squashed up against the door so I had very little peace thanks to the slew of nurses and doctors coming in to check on patients and carrying out regular tests, and don’t even get me started on the incessant bleeping of various machines throughout the night.
It was like being curled up in bed with freaking R2-D2.
Being woken up at 5 a.m. to have my blood pressure taken and yet another needle plunged in my hand wasn’t exactly my idea of a good time either.
Okay, I’m complaining like an old man I know, and I am beyond grateful for the care I received during my stay. My body was being put through the absolute wringer and I felt whipped every second of every single day.
It isn’t fun being sick and stuck in a strange place with nothing to do but lie there, rest and attempt not to overthink too much. That was easier said than done, however. The myriad of possibilities pertaining to what put me in the hospital consumed my every thought, and the constant worry that was engulfing me probably didn’t do my weary body - or mind - any favors.
It didn’t help that, despite the battery of tests and scans that were done, the doctors seemingly had no clear answer as to what exactly allied me. There was no tonic for my peace of mind, but the debilitating pain that had crippled me did eventually ease off, paving the way for me to me discharged, not before being armed with enough pills that could have sank the Titanic. I think I put Michael Jackson’s drug use to shame with the amount of antibiotics I was prescribed to battle whatever strange alien was still putting up a hell of a fight within my body.
After a few days resting at home, I finally got an answer to the million dollar question that had been at the forefront of my mind ever since the mysterious bastard first struck me down.
According to the doctor who so kindly called, the cause of my chronic stomach pain and all the ugly, gruesome side effects that came with it were triggered because of a basic case of food poisoning.
Now, you may be wondering what all the fuss was about give that people deal with food poisoning every single day and are normally able to sweat it / puke it / crap it out at home, but this is where my lack of white blood cells story comes into play.
Because my immune system is an absolute hot, stinking dumpster fire and is more useless than a chocolate stove-top kettle, the basic food poisoning essentially morphed into an aggressive infection that infiltrated both my appendix and bladder, wreaking all kinds of havoc in that general area of the body.
It was a perfect storm of unfortunate circumstances that led to a whole lot of pain, a whole heap of suffering and a boatload of rest and pills being prescribed.
Now, a week or so later, you will be pleased to know that I’m pretty much back to normal. Or as close to normal as a weirdo like me can get, in any case.
However, what has proved to be a real battle has been dragging myself back to the keyboard and doing what I love more than anything.
Writing.
And talking sports of course.
I don’t know what it is but ever since I got out of the hospital, I’ve just been caught in an almighty funk that has been incredibly hard to break out of. And trust me, I’ve literally tried everything to try and induce a surge of productivity at the keyboard. From listening to the head-banging greatness of Rammstein on repeat, to upping my coffee intake (it was already at a stupidly high level, so please pray for me), to going on longer walks to try and get the creative juices flowing, you name it, I’ve tried it.
Then again, our bodies are very good at telling us when to stop and take a breather, and maybe this whole episode was a sign that I needed to take it easy for a minute.
Plus, the last thing I want to do is deliver up a hot steaming pile of slop to you all. You deserve way better than that. I always strive to write with intense love and passion, while giving every single piece I ever write everything I’ve got. The truth is, I haven’t been at my best in any department over the past few weeks, and that probably would have translated into my writing.
Hey, this is hardly a work of art Picasso would be proud of, but it is all about getting back on the horse and it feels damn good to be doing the thing I love most.
To me, writing again is like slipping back into that trusted pair of old slippers that never guide you wrong. They are comfortable, and they know the way home. That’s what writing is to me; a beloved pair of slippers that just make me feel good when I have them on. I have no idea if that makes any sense but, hey, we’re gonna run with it.
Anyway, taking a step away from the laptop has given me a timely and much-needed reminder when it comes to just how special writing and this website is to me. I don’t like not showing up for you all - in fact, it pisses me off - but I’m beyond confident that my writing and the content I’m going to produce from here on out will be better for this mini hiatus I’ve been on.
Having passion in anything you do is crucial, and that fire has been well and truly reignited in me following my spell on the IL.
Now, before I sign off, I have some exciting news, plus I’m going to trial a couple of new features I’m looking to introduce to a weekly newsletter.
New Project In The Works
Okay, I’m being a seductive little tease again, I know, but I wanted to share with you an exciting development in my professional life without going into a whole lot of detail.
Trust me, if I could I would.
However, I can’t just yet although what I can tell you is I’ve had a handful of really exciting and promising meetings regarding a project that belongs on my Mount Rushmore of career goals. For those of you who know me well, you can probably hazard a pretty good guess.
What I will say is that it involves writing - a LOT of writing - and this particular project has been years in the making. I’m currently in the trenches with it right now in terms of laying the foundations and carefully putting a lot of building blocks in place, so hopefully it won’t be too long before I can share something tangible with you all.
But I’m very, very, very, very excited about this and I truly believe this project is what I was put on this earth to do. I’m getting goosebumps from just carrying out the planning process, and I’m going to make sure you all get the exclusive first sneak peek as soon as I’m able to release something more substantial.
Stay tuned.
What I Can’t Stop Listening To This Week
Okay, so I’ve seen this kind of thing in other newsletters on Substack, and I like the idea of incorporating a similar type of thing here.
Now, I’m a staunch Apple Music guy. I don’t have a problem with Spotify, but Apple Music just works better for me. A big part of that is the station of random goodness they curate for each individual.
Case in point; while on one of my long walks this week, my station threw up a random banger in The Spirit Of The Hawk by Rednex. I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve never ever heard of the band or the song before, but I’m glad this slice of heaven finally made its way into my first life.
You just get hooked in from the very first beat and it is one of those songs you just want to run to. Or dance to. Throwing out a few moves in the middle of the street never did anyone any harm.
Anyway, rather than listen to me go on and on, sample the delights of Rednex for yourself:
What I’m Reading Right Now
The Day After Tomorrow By Allan Folsom
I’ve got my Dad to thank for this one. I’m ashamed to admit I had never heard of Allan Folsom before, and this isn’t the kind of book I’d instinctively reach for or go searching for in a bookstore.
However, my Dad picked it up for me and absolutely raved about just how thrilling a read it is.
He wasn’t wrong.
There are very few books that have me hooked from the opening line on the first page and then keep me hooked all the way through, but this novel has so far. I’m about 350 pages in (it is around 600 pages in length) and I can’t put it down. I’m averaging around 60 pages a day at the moment, but all I want to do is read the entire thing in one sitting. It is that compelling. The pace of the book is frantic all the way through, and you will find yourself invested in the main characters more than you ever thought possible.
It has been a long, long time since I was this invested in a work of fiction, and my only complaint is that it’s so damn good I struggle to put it down and get any actual work done. And it absolutely blows my mind that this masterpiece was Fulsom’s first ever novel. Talk about hitting a grand slam in your first ever plate appearance in the big leagues.
If you haven’t had the pleasure of reading The Day After Tomorrow yet, go to your local bookstore or order it off Amazon right now. You won’t regret it. I promise.
I have so much to catch up on so expect plenty of content from me over the weekend, including a smorgasbord of Baseball Hall of Fame stuff.
In the meantime, have a great night and I’ll see y’all on Friday.