Take care of yourselves!

I am not usually one for sharing personal info online, but thinking about Ryan a lot lately (for more than one reason) I felt like I should talk about this.

A couple weeks ago I took a small tumble on the street. Well, okay, face plant. I landed on my hand and immediately knew I had bent some fingers in a manner contrary to my owner's manual. So, a friend graciously drove me to the emergency room.

Once there, standard procedure is to take a patients vitals. My blood pressure clocked in at 270 over 160. If you are not familiar with blood pressure measurements, that is basically the Superman 64 of blood pressures. One a scale of One to The Postman, that is Battlefield Earth.

Long story short, modern medicine is great, I am medicated, normalized, and less terrified than I was 2 weeks ago. On July 3rd I go in for a Sleep Apnea test (the timing of which is not lost on me), and I am going to start living my life differently.

This week, a lot of people are going to be posting videos, gifs, and anecdotes celebrating what Ryan meant to them, and that's great. But I have an additional suggestion: if you've been putting off seeing your doctor, go to them. If you've been putting on some weight, resolve to take it off. Ryan was taken from us all far too soon; but, realize that you are a Ryan to more people in your life than you'll ever know. Please make an effort to stick around as long as possible.

I hear ya duder. I gained about 30 pounds after high school and let myself go a bit. I started trying to finally get in shape about a month ago and I've lost around 11 pounds so far. Staying in shape is such an important thing so many of us take for granted.

I ended 2012 with a kick to the pants via a leg infection. Turns out I'm diabetic. Turns out I've got high blood pressure. Turns out I should probably drop about 60lbs. Have to change my life, the doctor says. I'm terrified of the changes, the hurdles to overcome. I'm overweight, an emotional eater and my awesome corporate job was closing its doors and I had ~10 months of work left ahead of me before a flood of us are looking for work. Depression sunk in.

In 2013, I started to make the changes needed. Diet was first. Then July came about, and Ryan's passing was another one of those "kick in the pants" situations for me. Just as others have posted, I said I'd make more of an effort to clean up my act - I'm almost 30 and need to find what's going to get me out of this cycle of ups and downs.

I started podcasting. It has helped me have a place to feel more confident, to produce something I enjoy and have had some good feedback on. Positivity AND having a new passion about something has given me a light, as something to do through those dark months of being part of a corporate axing and finding new work. I can't thank my friends enough for partaking in that adventure. Even now, with a new job under way I cannot wait to sit around the table and bullshit into microphones for an hour.

I also started working out. Some cardio, some weights, but then I found DDP Yoga, which has been the number one thing the last few months. I've lost 30lbs since February, with a pretty loose diet. I feel better physically than I have in years, after throwing myself into the ground playing tournament paintball for the better part of a decade. I sleep better, my back doesn't hurt and I can actually touch my toes again.

I started typing this out and realize I've written a wall of text. The TLDR is to start taking care of yourselves duders. @HoboZero's point of "realize that you are a Ryan to more people in your life than you'll ever know" is the greatest thing I've read here in a while, and should be a motivator to just be more awesome each day.

@hobozero: A lot of medicines for blood pressure, cholesterol, etc may fix a problem but then cause another one later, so hopefully you don't need the pills after some lifestyle changes.

This is a nice thread, especially this line:

"Ryan was taken from us all far too soon; but, realize that you are a Ryan to more people in your life than you'll ever know."

It really is important to take care of yourselves first and foremost and that can be tough with the busy hustle and bustle of everyday life that we all live nowadays. So duders, get enough sleep, get enough water, and really look after your diet and what's going into your body. Get ahead of your health such that you don't even need to be medicated in the first place.

Sounds like you guys are making some real like changing decisions that is great news to hear.

Thank you for that last line. I really needed to hear that today.

I'm a little over weight, heavy drinker, moderate smoker 22 and often get random stabbing pains as well as constant numbness in different parts of my body sometimes. I've been to my doctor a few times and he just keeps saying stop smoking. I asked him to take my blood pressure a few months ago and he said "you're only 22 you wouldn't have anything like that wrong with you" I went in another time telling him I'd felt numb below my left knee for about 2 weeks. he said it's probably a broken nerve, without examining me at all. I asked if he could do some sort of reaction test, like knee jerk reaction or running a tongue depresser along my leg. He said that wouldn't tell him anything. So I left with nothing. I should probably change doctors right? And stop smoking, but still...

I have a few checks tomorrow in fact. I'm 28 and I keep growing without much weight gain. I grew another inch since last year. Can't be normal.

@pinner458: Yeah, that doctor sounds like an idiot. Get a second opinion. Keep asking lots of questions. Symptoms like numbness and tingling can be hard to diagnose, but you could start eliminating various possibilities.

I was on medicine for high blood pressure in the past and I'm a heavy guy. I've let myself go since high school, well I lost weight, gained weight, lost weight again. It's an ongoing process. I entered college recently and before that I was working out daily, after that I haven't been working out since. I walked a bit here and there, but that's about it. I need to get back on track though. I also have pain in my right knee if I try to walk up stairs, doctor says it's probably my weight. Not fun, but I'm going to get back on track again.

I've started exercising recently. Already feeling better and I can see the effects. I probably should go in for a checkup, though. I'm looking into solving some bad motivational issues, too.

Good lord, man. Your doctor sounds like he has a degree from the university of back alleys.

This includes mental health. Don't be too proud to ask for help. Landing in ER because of something you did because you have mental problems should not be your first indication that maybe you should address them. I lost most of my 20's to depression and anxiety. It didn't have to be that way.

I try to take care of myself. It can be difficult at times, but after some health scares in the past few years (pneumonia, a debilitating bulging disc), I've been trying to do better at monitoring my health than I have in the past. I only have one life; I need to do what I can to make sure that I stay healthy for it.