“Hey — are you still there?”
I remember those words when I was on a conference call with a client of mine. He was telling me a story about something that greatly impacted his business, but I didn’t hear a word of it because I dozed off at my desk. Panicked, I decided to play it off as if I heard everything.
“Yeah, of course. I’m very excited to work with you,” I said confidently. Then he replied with something that scared the absolute crap out of me.
“So, what did I say then?” He snapped.
I knew I couldn’t fake it any longer, and I had to come clean. Sheepishly, I told him that I didn’t actually hear him and apologized profusely. Unfortunately for me, that was the end of our business relationship. “If you can’t listen to my needs over an introductory phone call, how can I expect you to solve my company’s problems?”
I couldn’t argue with him. I lost the gig and a sizeable amount of money that came along with it, just because I couldn’t keep my eyes open during a business call. But why? It wasn’t like I binged every episode of “Tiger King” the night before. It’s because I suffer from nocturia which results in frequent urination during nighttime hours. There are times when I wake up to urinate up to eight times in one night, and the night before this important business call, I ended up waking up seven times. When it was all said and done, I probably slept no longer than 30 minutes straight during the course of the entire night.
To be clear, I knew how important that meeting was. Gigs like this pay my mortgage and put food on my table. But even though I knew how high the stakes were, I couldn’t fight the fatigue. My body shut down and a potential client walked away thinking that I was unprofessional. What was my course of action at that point? Could I call him back and tell the truth that I woke up so many times to pee the night before that I was exhausted? That probably wouldn’t go over very well — not to mention, did I really want a potential business partner to hear such intimate details of my life? I ended up just taking the loss by saying nothing, but I vowed to never let that happen again. Something needed to change, and fast.
The following week, I set up an appointment with my urologist who told me that my issue is relatively common for someone in their mid-40s like me. First, he told me to stop drinking fluids before bedtime. Duh. I’ve been doing that for years, thanks. Then he prescribed some meds that usually solve the problem, but they didn’t work. Finally, he had to insert a scope into my bladder to inspect it. Needless to say, you can probably imagine how that scope was inserted, and it was easily one of the most unpleasant experiences of my adult life. Again, nothing was found and the problem continued.
My mental health suffered immensely as I tried to stay strong for my kids, but I couldn’t be the dad they needed because I was so tired all of the time. I would nap during the day, and it seemed like I needed shots of caffeine once an hour to remain functional whenever I was awake. I knew that wasn’t healthy. All I wanted was to sleep for 6-8 hours straight without waking up. Was that asking too much?
Finally everything changed when a friend recommended ProstateMD from 1MD.org. Granted, I was completely skeptical because I tried almost every solution under the sun and nothing worked. How could some over-the-counter supplement possibly be effective? But since I was desperate, I figured I’d give it a shot — and I’m very glad that I did. Now that I’m two months in, the amount of times I wake up in the middle of the night have been cut in half, and I have way more energy for work and play. It’s not hyperbolic to say that this was nothing short of a miracle and I feel like a new man.
As always, you should consult your doctor to help solve your nocturia problem if you suffer from it — but this product from 1MD worked wonders for me. If there is a moral to this story, it’s that there is always a solution to every problem, and sometimes those solutions are very simple ones.