Rainy Sundays...

  A warm weird Sunday morning in December.  Rainy, but 55 degrees.  It's 5 AM and I am up because I was in bed again last night at 7:30...exhausted from spending the better part of an otherwise beautiful day in the ER at our local hospital. On Friday night, once again, I was experiencing slight chest pains and was having shortness of breath episodes. Not bad, but enough that it had me so tired I was in bed again at 7 PM and slept for over 2 hours before getting up and staying up awhile.  On Saturday morning, when I got up looking like hell, the Irishman said "Enough." and made me go to the hospital.  I know he was worried about me, and thinks that I don't think I'm worth taking care of...but it isn't that at all. I very much think I'm worth taking care of, lol.  I just don't always think that doctors are the ones who can do it.

  I swear to you...the pains never subsided, though they lessened some. Naturally, even though we got there and were one of maybe 3 people in the whole place, we apparently opened some cosmic floodgate, and within an hour there were 4 major emergencies and maybe 20 other people filing through the emergency room.  We were there for almost 8 hours.  

  The good news is...the ekg showed a very healthy normal heart, banishing any fears I had that  my genetic anomalies were worming their way out of my genes and into my reality.  That is something always in the back of my mind, since both parents had heart disease and their parents too. (Side note: my mother died at 55 and my father died at 60). In 33 days, I will have lived to the ripe old age of 59...so I'm closing in on being a winner in this race.  The blood work they did showed every single thing they test falling right smack in the middle of their range. (I've always been super good at taking tests, even when I BS my way through things). *grin*   My blood pressure was high, 169/78, but for heavens sake, I was in the hospital ER , surrounded by dead and dying people.  Plus, my knee hurts so bad, I'm sure that is part of the deal.  

  My dear Irish husband sat through the entire ordeal with me, holding my hand, making jokes and generally annoying the nursing staff.  

  The upshot of this is that there is something wrong, hence the SOB and pain, but they don't know what.  The charming old doctor, (who, it turns out was raised on a farm near here, and sounds just like an old Marlon Brando) says he thinks I should go and have a complete thyroid workup, and wrote an order for such.  I think I should go to my regular doc and have him write me a prescription for Zantac again, as I'm thinking maybe the anti-inflammatories  that I take for my knee are wreaking havoc on my digestive system and maybe this is all a bad case of acid reflux rearing its ugly head again.  After I got hurt, back in 2001, I was on so much medication (pain meds, A-I, bladder meds, and muscle relaxers, that I nearly died from the acid reflux they caused. lol  (You have to understand that I am not a pill taker, and at that point I had been sober for 11 years with nothing stronger than an occasional; aspirin in my system--so it was kind of a chemical holocaust in my gut).  At any rate, they put me on Nexiuum for a year, which solved the problem.   And I will have the thyroid workup done as well, just because.

  I felt very foolish yesterday for taking up space in a busy ER, wasting money I could easily spend on something else, and being so afraid of having heart problems. And I really was afraid that I had had a small heart attack the night before Thanksgiving. Because here's the deal: I have lived a very different lifestyle than my predecessors. I have never smoked. I have eaten healthy food, lots of whole grains, since the early 70's.  I eat little red meat. I am not a nervous, crazy person.  I live a pretty quiet comfortable life.  And I know all this has to balance out whatever genetic evil lurks within, to some degree. And I don't care what a study from some University says about attitude not making a difference. I know better.  I know it matters, and a LOT.

  So...there you have it.

  On a brighter note, lol, last night I slept from 7:30 until 4:30 this morning.  HOLY CRAP BATMAN !!!!  And this morning my back hurt so bad I could barely get my butt out of bed. And I was sweating like the mayor at election time. I felt like I must have slept the sleep of the dead and not changed positions all night. lol

   We went to the movies on Friday, a matinee, and I was appalled at what it cost (went to the movie in the city).  Our little small town movies are 4 dollar matinees, and a popcorn combo for like 5.50.  In the city, it was 6.50 for the matinees (each, people!!!!)  and almost 11 for 1 medium popcorn and a large drink.  We shall certainly confine our movie going to our little theaters from now on...just on general principle. AND they had bagged up the popcorn ahead of time, and put it under a light, so it sucked. Nothing worse than cold old movie popcorn. I am a shameless popcorn afficionado, and if I could take my own, I would.  Anyway, we saw the new Adam Sandler movie, Jack and Jill. It was a hoot, with a wonderful performance by Al Pacino. 

   Not sure what's on my docket today in the hours before I go to MissB's, but it might include taking it slow and easy today. A tiny bit of straightening the house and maybe finally giving Roxie the bath I've been meaning to do for a week.  Maybe. I'm already starting to yawn and thinking of lying down a bit....there are all kinds of sappy Hallmark and Lifetime movies on tv about the holidays and miracles and god-knows-what-all. Maybe I'll get another cup of coffee and lie around like  a bum and just ease into this new, healthy hearted day.  lol  I don't watch a lot of television, except when I'm [rarely] sick...then I indulge myself in the stuff.

  Hope everyone is having a great weekend. No sign of snow here, lots of rain though.  Looked at the weather channel a minute, since the Irishman is driving up north about 2.5 hours from here. I see that some of you are getting mucho snow...you can keep it, thanks!  lol 

    Namaste.