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May 29: I'm a day late with this. I had a series of weird chest pains for about a week a
week ago--but none were close to my heart where angina pains are supposed to be, and I need
to sub, so I did nothing about them. This past week I continued having twinges of the
pains, so--being a worrywart about my health--remained concerned. I intended to get an
appointment with my gp at the end of next week, when my work-year would be over.
Well, yesterday, a little while after I got up, I had a tingling sensation in one of the toes on
my left foot. It was brief but the toes on both feet felt more numbish than usual (they
always feel slightly numbish to me), so I immediately suspected a possible stroke or heart
attack. I had no sub assignment by that time, so considered going to a hospital and finally
getting the problem checked. When I took my blood pressure with a home monitering
device, I got a reading of 155 over 95, quite high for me.
That was enough to get me to the hospital (on my bike). Two sets of x-rays, back and
chest; 24-hour monitering of the heart; the usual blood tests and bp readings (two of the latter of
which were really high, like 200 over 100), an echo-cardiogram (if that's what it's
called); then back home, cleared of everything (so far) but an arthritic lower back I knew
about which probably caused the tingling in my toes. I will later have an MRI for the back
problem, and a stress test, to make sure my heart is okay. I have to take blood pressure
medicine for the first time, too, which I don't at all like. I may be able to get out of that if
the stress test comes out well, and my doctor agrees with me that if I improve my diet, I
can do without it.
There. One of my old-man-entries. (I'm sure all the mileage Geof Huth got out of his
heart trouble caused it, too! I wanted to outdo him, and have so far failed.)
Back on schedule here later today (30 May), I hope.
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