Cloudy Pee, Cloudy Mind

Yup...actually, not really.

Been a while, I know. So sue me...

...actually don't, I'm poor.

So a lot has taken place over the last few months. I'm dating a beautiful woman with an awesome daughter, and although it's a long distance arrangement for the time being, things are going very well. This plays a key role in this story. I've driven up to Maryland several times to visit my lovely lady and her family, and I was up there again this past weekend. She left for work, and after a quick visit to her at her job, I made my way back down south. After a brief stop in Virginia Beach to meet up with some old coworkers, I was back on the road and making great time. I crossed into North Carolina and that's when things got...fuzzy.

I was feeling a little dizzy and my vision was getting a little cloudy (which felt like dry contacts more than anything), but I was chalking that up to being tired or just needing some more water. So I stopped for gas, relaxed for fifteen to twenty minutes, chugged some water, then continued on my journey. I felt a little better after my rest, but as I drove farther along, it quickly got worse. My vision wasn't getting any better and after a couple of phone calls to my girlfriend, I was having a very tough time verbalizing my thoughts. I thought it would be best to pull over and call for an ambulance. So the paramedics start asking me tons of questions, which is where it becomes tough to explain what exactly was going through my head at the time.

They asked me my name, and I was able to slowly tell them that. Then they asked me my birthdate, and  again the delivery wasn't quick, but I was able to get it out. Here are some examples of questions I couldn't give them answers to:

• What's your mother's name?
• Where do you live?
• Where were you coming from today?
• Do you know where you are now?

They also asked if I was on any medications or took any drugs, both of which were definitely a 'no'. They had a hard time believing me because of my "altered mental status" but there's never a chance in hell I'd risk my health on an idiotic addiction. 

Think about this for a moment though...I remember now the questions that I couldn't answer then. Is that not weird? It's not like the paramedics came back to my hospital room and told me all the things that happened when I was as incoherent as I was. I remember everything I was awake for, but can not explain why I couldn't give them the answers to their questions. That's why I don't say I "forgot" the answers, but rather had a mental block from my thoughts to my words. I knew the answers...I just couldn't spit them out. It was easily one of the worst experiences of my life, and I hope nothing like that ever happens to me again. I'll get back to the diagnosis in a bit.

So I get to the hospital and they have a packed house. Considering it was a hospital in that halfway point between I-95 and the middle of nowhere, it was rather surprising how busy the emergency room was. From the time that I arrived to the time I was given fluids and had a blood/urine sample taken, somewhere between two and three hours had passed. That was a long time to be dizzy, disoriented and becoming more and more nauseous. After taking the samples, they came back with medicine and all they told me was that it would likely put me to sleep very soon, but they didn't tell me what it was for.

Here's where I'll skip the disgusting details and just say that after getting sick multiple times, they ended up admitting me into a room because they had more tests to administer. Shortly after being brought into my room, I was then told that both my girlfriend with a coworker and my mom and stepdad were on their way to see me. It wasn't until the early morning that everyone had arrived, and by then (to my surprise) I was completely coherent and was able to answer all the questions everyone was asking me, but I was just fatigued as all hell. It still didn't make any sense to me how only hours previous, I couldn't verbalize my thoughts at all, yet now I was fine. That day, they did a CAT scan, an MRI, an EEG and kept asking me questions to see where my mental status was at, and everything came up normal (shocking, right? I jest...). Only then did the nurse tell me that I had a bladder infection, which is what the antibiotics were for. Even after that actual diagnosis, the geniuses at this hospital claim it was exhaustion or dehydration that led to my hospital stay. OR?!?! Way to commit! No, definitely neither of those.

So after talking to some family members and doing a little research, here is what I found out:

• Bladder infections in men are not as easy to detect as they are in women. They don't typically hurt men like they do women, plus the only way to tell is when your urine gets noticeably cloudy, which I hadn't honestly analyzed my pee enough to feel concerned about it.
• When left untreated, you can begin experiencing symptoms similar to dementia. That explains my dizziness, confusion and "forgetfulness".
• When medicated, those symptoms almost immediately go away and your mental state pretty much returns back to normal...within reason...

With all of that said/experienced, here's some real life advice for you men out there: pay closer attention than you normally do to how clear your urine is. I'm not talking about clear versus yellow, because that's usually just a matter of sodium, sugar or certain vitamins making a difference. I'm talking about a cloudy look. If you see that, go get checked out by a doctor. It's a scary feeling to know your mom's name and where you live, yet you can't physically say it. Don't let that happen to you.

By the way...I'll try to update this more often. I do miss it...I just hope you do too.

D.