Tuesday, November 17, 2009

The toll of too much, a life lesson.

This year has been hectic. I have been flying around the world every month. Teaching Surface developers, working with partners in Europe, attending conferences and meetings in the USA and occasionally getting to Sydney to see my colleagues and family.
In the last 2 weeks I have been in Sydney, Singapore, London, Amsterdam, The Hague, Paris, Lyon, Berlin, London, Washington DC and Seattle. Right now I am supposed to be in Los Angeles for PDC but events on Saturday have slowed me down. I felt tired and jet-lagged on Saturday and so instead of going out into the mountains for a hike (which I often do when in Seattle) I stayed in and watched some tv. Towards the end of the day on Saturday I was still feeling rough but thought nothing of it until I came around lying on the floor with my head covered in blood. I had passed out.
Things were somewhat surreal and not good. My friend took me to the emergency ward and there I learned how to jump the queue, I passed out again. The doctors were great, they got onto getting my blood pressure and pulse (both very low) and taking an ECG, blood tests and head scan (all very good results).
The prognosis, severe dehydration, low potassium, and not enough rest. They pumped 2 liters of liquid into my system at the hospital and prescribed some potassium tablets.
I am now taking a couple of days out to rest before heading down to LA for PDC. I am not going to be running around much at the conference. I will be chilling out and networking this week, I hope to see a bunch of friends and catch up with folks. I will have my video camera with me so if you want to do a quick 5 minute video cast that would be great.