Heartbreakers

It's starting to look like there are peculiar cardiac issues arising at The Institute.  Last year Mr. Beagles had some blockage blasted away in lieu of stents and very soon Uncle Ken will get stents of his own.  Kind of nice living so close to a world-class medical facility, isn't it?  But the term "urgent care" facility is new to me; how does that work?  I had Mr. Google look it up for me but it looks like those facilities are unevenly distributed with a couple near the ivory towers of Marina City.  Did you walk there or take a cab and was the trip to the ER via ambulance?  None of my business, just curious how these situations get handled.

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I'm in the middle of a coronary adventure of my own with a couple of "procedures" in the near future.  Couple of weeks ago I woke up in the middle of the night unable to breathe, very scary, gasping for air.  Took some aspirin, dialed 911, got dressed, packed minimal necessities and waited but not long.  No sirens; the responders were in ninja stealth mode and they wheeled me out with some oxygen.  Quick trip to what used to be Swedish Covenant Hospital two miles away and their ER pit crew went to work.  Lot of action for a while they wired me up with monitoring sensors, IV hook ups, a little nitroglycerine pill under the tongue but still could barely breathe so they slapped a  high pressure oxygen gadget on my face and I settled down a bit.  Definitely a heart attack, or so they say (I believe it), and indications of internal bleeding of unknown origin or just severe anemia.  A baffler to be sure, or in medical parlance, "idiopathic."  Anyhow, tests were in order and I ended up spending a week there; not as bad as I thought and the food was more than tolerable.  Had an angiogram, the one that goes through the right arm, which indicated serious blockage with the coronary arteries, too clogged for blasting or stents.  Time to make reservations at the Triple Bypass Resort.  Got my first colonoscopy too, with some not-so-good news.  Not to be an alarmist but there's something that's got to come out, rhymes with "dancer."  Could be worse; it's small and not spreading but the heart stuff has to come first.  So 2026 is turning out to be the Year of the Long Knives for The Old Dog.

In retrospect there are things that I should have paid more attention to, and didn't.  Any shortness of breath I attributed to a previous diagnosis of mild emphysema, weakness in my legs due to lack of exercise, that sort of thing.  It could be one of those "guy things" where you only seek medical attention at the very last moment and I just squeaked by.  Whew!  That was close!  No complaints about the hospital stay; I felt like I was treated like a king.  Solid information from the nurses and doctors as I picked their brains, nothing held back, no waffling, and I took copious notes.  So I feel fine, maybe better than fine, as I deal with a new reality.  And the beat goes on...