A Barometer of Health

The sport of disc golf, for me, has become my personal barometer of health.  There was a period of time when I was quite sick, and didn’t fully realize how dangerously ill I was.  It was only because of disc golf that I had a way of gauging when I was sick and when I was well.  Ultimately, it was the inability to play the sport at all that made me realize something was very wrong.

I had been playing disc golf for about a year.  When I first began playing the sport, I would play just a few holes at a time, and eventually worked up to nine holes.  Sometimes, I would skip a difficult or exceedingly long hole because the physical exertion was too much for me.

 

Over time, the nine holes became more manageable and I began taking a “break” after the first nine, and adding another 4 or 5 holes to extend my playing time.  Eventually, I tried paying the full 18 holes.  While I often couldn’t get 18 finished in the short time I had to play after work, weekends were another matter.  I tried my best to complete all 18 holes.

It was at that time when I starting playing handicaps with Danny on Saturday morning.  The first attempt left me nearly exhausted, and I needed to take a nap when I got home.  Eventually it got a little easier.  Sometimes I was really struggling on the last 3 or 4 holes, but I managed to get through it.

However, one day, I was exhausted and breathing extremely hard after just five holes.  I didn’t understand what the difference was.  I had been having chills and fevers during the day, but it always went away with some Tylenol.  After a time I went to the doctor who said I had a urinary tract infection.  A course of antibiotics, and I was good to go, and good to play 18 holes again.  Or so I thought.

The problem was, I wasn’t actually healthy.  Shortly after finishing the course of antibiotics, the fatigue and exhaustion returned.  After a month or two I again was unable to complete even 9 holes of disc golf.  So, back to the doctor I went. 

This cycle repeated itself time after time.  For two years I struggled with the fatigue and fevers.  I felt as if I wasn’t making any progress. 

Many, many days I went out to my car during my lunch break and took a nap just to get through the afternoon.  Sometimes I feared I might fall asleep driving on the way home.

However, it was always when I was unable to play even 9 holes of disc golf that I knew something was very wrong and headed back to the doctor.

At some point, I just couldn’t fight the fight any more.  I went back to the doctor once again and insisted that some other testing be done.  He sent me for a CT scan, and that’s when things really started getting interesting……  (More tomorrow)