[bertr4nd]

This isn’t exactly the same as a deathbed experience, but about two years ago I had a devastating lumbar disc hernia that landed me in the ER with such pain that I couldn’t stand, or even roll over.

I remember thinking that my biggest regret was that I had prioritized my job over my health. I’d stopped exercising and was overeating because my work was in a bad place and I was trying to scrape together every moment to make progress, and I’m sure that had a deleterious effect on my spine health.

I resolved that going forward I would prioritize my health (and my family) over my job.

I succeeded at maintaining those priorities for a while, and luckily my back healed relatively well. But I’ll admit that job stress ramped back up, and as I felt physically better it was all to easy to shift back into the same old patterns.