4 ms·
This exact scenario happened to me a few years back. I had just jumped onto a team in the middle of an enormous shift in product and put the nagging, on-and-off
by bryne 15y ago
This exact scenario happened to me a few years back. I had just jumped onto a team in the middle of an enormous shift in product and put the nagging, on-and-off pain on the back burner with some aspirin and made a dentist's appointment a few days out.
After I woke up on Wednesday with the worst headache of my life looking just like that first photo, I went to my oral surgeon, who sent me in for emergency surgery immediately. I spent a night in the ICU and three days recovering. He explained that I had developed a serious abscess that had spilled into my palate and threatened to close my windpipe completely, and that if I hadn't come in I probably wouldn't have made it to the weekend.
It was an extremely sobering look at my priorities and good luck. I was young, and health insurance hadn't been a priority - had I been bootstrapping or freelancing instead of a part of a team with the good sense to get a group health insurance policy, I might have dug myself into about $40,000 in debt, or worse - hesitated to go to the doctor's for even longer.
Don't fuck around with your health. I dodged a bullet. It's tempting to push these responsibilities off like any other, but like other commentors said, it runs directly contrary to your duty to be healthy and present for your team. Dead entrepreneurs make no products.
- InclinedPlane 15y agoNot to derail this thread, but out of curiosity why did you choose to take aspirin for the pain? Given that there are more effective OTC pain medications out there.
- gacba 15y agoI'll add one more similar story to this. My friend, who is a serial entrepreneur/CTO/founder, was on his first big company back in the late 90s. He was brought in by a friend/consulting partner and was very jazzed to be working on an exciting predictive analytics application to detect churn in mobile subscribers. So much so, that he lived the company. He ate poorly, didn't exercise, was grossly overweight, drank excessively and worked obsessively. His gallbladder couldn't take it and nearly burst. It was so swollen by the time he went to the doctor, they were scared it would go any minute. He had emergency surgery and could have easily died. That was as big as wakeup call as they get. He got the message loud and clear, lost weight, started exercising, ate better. Got much healthier and recovered shortly thereafter. Living for the startup is stupid. As byrne said, "Dead entrepreneurs make no products".
- jrockway 15y agoI'll continue adding to these stories :) I had an uncle who was just a normal guy, not overweight, didn't drink excessively, etc. He complained of occasional stomach pain, but didn't feel like going to the doctor. Eventually it got worse and he saw a doctor. Turns out he had stage 4 cancer and was dead in two weeks. Ignoring your body rarely ends well.