Growing up, I heard a lot of adults joke about how they didn’t go to a doctor as a kid unless a bone was broken. There’s also that societal quip that grown men are the worst offenders when it comes to putting off a trip for medical treatment until absolutely necessary. I’ll admit to having helped drive the latter narrative with my own behavior over the years, but I’m here to tell you, doing so can prove costly.

Off and on over the last couple of months, I’ve been dealing with a sudden and very painful “catch,” for lack of a better description, in my left side that seemed to come out of nowhere the way a cramp or muscle spasm might, be very intense for several minutes and then dissipate, leaving me feeling completely normal and dumbfounded as to what was going on. Since it was happening rarely, with weeks sometimes passing between episodes, and it went away so quickly, I kept putting off having it looked at and assumed it was just some fun new level of being over 40 that I would just become accustomed to.

Thankfully, my girlfriend’s mom overheard me talking about it last week after my most recent episode and told me it sounded exactly like what she had experienced with gallstones at around my age. That made a lot of sense and prompted me to finally go see what might be going on. And I’m so glad I did. Within hours of having it checked out last Thursday, I was having emergency surgery in Jackson to remove my spleen after the doctors found two inexplicable aneurysms inside it, one of which had burst. 

My surgeon would later explain the aneurysms could have formed after some sort of blow I took to the side, or during one of several other possible scenarios, and one burst after some similarly strenuous activity. It doesn’t seem we’ll ever know exactly what happened, but he added that had I not come in, there was the real possibility I could have “bled out” internally. Terrifying, right?

Thankfully, after the doctors scanned, x-rayed and otherwise tested pretty much every part of me, it was determined I’m an otherwise healthy guy that just needs to pay more attention to what’s going on with his body. Now I’m down one internal organ (albeit one most adults don’t really need) and working from my couch this week while nursing what’s going to become a seriously impressive scar. And as far as emergency surgeries go, I feel pretty blessed to be in the position I’m in. Between family members who dropped everything to come help take care of me and the kids this week, my fantastic local support and a great group of folks at The Post who banded together to pick up my slack, all that’s left for me to do is take it easy between now and next week when the surgeon removes from my side enough staples to open an office supply store.

My point in telling this story? To really reinforce the notion that we should all, regardless of age or perceived health, pay close attention to what our bodies are telling us. We can so easily get caught up in the things that seem so important at any given moment that we simply push what may seem like minor medical concerns to the backburner. And that’s completely understandable. Our jobs help us take care of our families, which most of us feel is our primary and most important function. It goes without saying of course that we can’t do that well, or at all, if we aren’t healthy, or worse.

There are plenty of crazy ways we can be injured or get sick that are completely beyond our control and are capable of seriously disrupting our lives, but most of us know ourselves well enough to know when something new and concerning is developing with our bodies. My big takeaway from my situation these last couple of weeks is that we should simply make addressing those concerns more of a priority. I’m blessed my situation turned out to be one that was solvable and should only sideline me for a few weeks. But, like my surgeon said, it had the potential to be far more serious.

So, don’t be like me if you’re dealing with some worrisome health question. Get out in front of it and hopefully you’ll be able to spare yourself some time working from your couch while trying to decide what animal you’ll tell people you fought off when they see your new scar at the beach or pool this summer.

Take care of yourselves out there. I promise I’m going to make more of an effort over here.

Blake Bell is the general manager and executive editor of The Vicksburg Post. He can be reached at blake.bell@vicksburgpost.com.