1 month later

I bought my new bike last night, a 1997 Goldwing SE.
After not riding for a month, it's great to be back in the saddle.

My lil Pearl

Yaaaaaaaaaargh!
Here there be monsters.

Had someone ask for some pics.... so I'm putting 'em up here.

Sorry for the delay...

It's not that I haven't been doing anything, it's just that nothing has been "blogworthy".
My trip to Vegas is covered on PagesofTravel.com, and Facebook.
But today, yes today, we had a blogworthy story.

Out to lunch with my coworkers, we got on the topic of South Park.
"Is that still on?" I asked.
"Yeah, their like on their 14 season or something." Dave replied.
"Wow! I've been watching that since 5th grade!" Dave continued.
"Yeah, I had just graduated high school when that started." said Pete.
"I was already through one marraige." says I.

Damn, I'm old.

STRESSED!

After yesterday's ordeal, my assignment for today was to get a stress test scheduled. Which I did as soon as I could.
I went to the office, and left at lunchtime.
When I got to cardiology, David took me to my room.
He was very friendly and informative. He walked me through the whole process, and put up with my nervious humor.
I got hooked up to the EKG machine, and had my blood pressure taken.
Then I was on the bed where Brenda would do the sonogram.
Since the sound waves have a hard time seeing through bone, she had to jam the thingamajigger in between the ribs, and twist it this way and that.
After a few minutes of that. She decided that I needed "the tracer". Which meant I had to have an IV for them to shoot this stuff into my bloodstream so that the image would be better.
So in comes Allen, the nurse. He asks me if I prefer to have it in my hand or my arm. I tell him "I prefer to get stuck once. Whatever you think is best!"
These people were good with my humor.
So I get stuck in pretty much the same spot I had the IV yesterday, and Brenda is back to jamming me in the ribs.
But the image is still not what they want, so they swap out the machine for the one that goes "BING!" and we're in business.
So it's treadmill time. They start you out at 1.5mph at 10 degrees of incline. Every three minutes the machine goes up 1mph and 2 degrees.
I'm doing good. Getting more of a work out than I have in a while. I still worked through. But when I got to 8.5 minutes I was worried about the jump from 3.5 to 4.5mph, and the 16 degree incline. I told them so.
They needed 30 seconds for the tracer to work through before I get off the treadmill. So they'd inject it at 9 minutes and have me jog hard for 30 seconds, before stopping.
At 9:30, they hit the stop button, and I drop onto the bed and roll over for the sonogram.
Brenda gets the shot she wants, while jamming me in the ribs.
But before I know it, we're done.
I sit up and they start removing the wires and sticky pads.
"I'm feeling nauseous." I tell them as I start to realize it.
"Lie down!" David says, "Put your knees up!"
I do so, and Allen gets me some juice and crackers.
It took a few minutes to recover. David took my blood pressure, 90 over 70. Not so good.
I finally get the stuff off of me, and get dressed. Allen is not happy with my color, and asks me to wait another 10 minutes in the lobby.
So I do, and I finally get the ok to go.

It'll be 7-10 days before I hear anything.

"Fire one across her bow!!!"

I woke up this morning with a tightness in my chest. Not really a "pain" but a tightness. I didn't think much of it as I got ready for work, and headed in to the office. It didn't get worse, but it did get noticeably noticeable. It would not go away. This lead to worry.
As many know, I was diagnosed with high cholesterol last June. (And in August, the Dr.'s office was kind enough to let me in on the secret.)
So as the day progressed, and the "pain" didn't dissipate, I got increasingly concerned.
I called the Dr.'s office after lunch. I consulted with the Triage Nurse, who then consulted with the Dr. The Nurse came back to say that the Dr. recommended that I go to the ER to be evaluated.

I finished up the work I was working on at the time (at work) and headed to the hospital.
I mention "tightness in the chest" to the lady at reception, and the next thing I know I'm in a wheelchair (sans foot rests) and carted into the triage nurse's office to get EKG'd.

"We're gonna have to shave." she says when I lift up my shirt, "Would you like a smiley face?"
"How about a heart for Valentine's Day?"

She's hooking me up to a dozen wires while I think about the hospital in Idiocracy, and an orderly shoves a thermometer in my mouth. I get moved around and land in a room. My anxiety is high.

The first thing the Nurse does after hooking me up to the Matrix again, and asking the same 20 questions the Triage Nurse does, is hook me up to oxygen. There's something about that oxygen that tells me "Dude. It ain't good."

Then I'm fit for an IV "just in case" and dude pulls 4 bottles of blood out of the connection for the tests.

After a while, I'm carted down to Radiology, and get my chest Xrayed.

Then I'm waiting some more (thanks to the iPod touch and Blackberry for keeping me busy), until finally the Dr comes in.

My Xray looks good. My blood work is back, and it's good. We don't know what the problem is. But they want me to come back tomorrow for a stress test.

The official diagnosis is hyperchoesteremia, which is an abnormal content of cholesterol in my blood cells and plasma.

On my way home, Lenny called to see what I was doing in the ER. (Facebook status updates are your friend).

"I think the Big Guy is sending me a warning. 'Fire one across the bow!'
I better listen before He sinks me."

Sorry it's been quiet...

I've been waxing nostalgic on Facebook. I'm amazed by how easy it is to get in touch with people I haven't seen in 20+ years. One of the great things that happens, is that other people can post pictures of you, and then "tag" you in that pic. You then get notified when that happens, and you can see some picture of you from way back when.

This story is the story of such a pic.

I showed it to my wife, Shelle, and said "I forgive everyone in Jr. High for calling me 'Big Nose'"

"Why's that?"

"Cuz I had a big nose!"

"What do you mean had?"

I love my wife.