The people you meet

 I spent last night in Danbury hospital. Some would blame it on the Superbowl excitement or even being a closet (ahmmm) Pats fan. Most of you don't know me well, but I have been a Redskins fan for forever and despite not really following the game, or caring about who wins, when push comes to shove its either DC or NY. Really? To think some silly pigskin is going to rattle my cage?  HA, you missed something that was very elementary, there was no ICE involved, not any bicycle, nor any running shoe, or even some adventurous feat of athleticism. Don't get me wrong football is a very strenuous sport, but its played that way every day of the week, just like any of the above, it just doesn't rival a scramble up K2. In any case, my hospital visit in a nutshell: I went to bed on Sunday night with a headache. I woke Monday morning at 4 AM with a headache and numbness in my left arm, shoulder and back. I took some aspirin and went back to bed. An hour later I woke up with an even bigger headache and even more pressure so I went to the hospital. I had what they call hypertensive urgency. What an ordeal! I guess there is more to that middle age crap than I gave my mother credit for (ha). 

In some ways I almost think I should write about the cast of characters I met. There was the PA who was so serious we thought his face would crack BUT he shot me up with morphine the minute I got there, then wanted to give me every other pain killer under the sun. Then there was the PA who kept telling me I had to change my lifestyle the cardiologist who I thought was going to give me the same line but almost broke into tears because he felt my pain, working hard at eating right and exercising and being jealous of those who do nothing and sail through life without these problems. He was Russian, wore these really cool shoes, and made me want to ask him to be my training buddy! Of course, there has to be one, there was the nurses assistant who had no sensitivity. How much do you weigh? I tell her, she corrects me. As she is taking my blood pressure she asks "you have high blood pressure?" I answer yes. She says how high? and then snarks something at me as she walks away. Little did I know that there was a friggen scale on the bed. 

Ok so I am home, now what? Nothing more than I was doing already, low sodium, low caffeine, exercise, loose weight… HELLO, sorry sometimes I feel like I am at the bottom of this hole yelling up CAN YOU HEAR ME? Then I secretly think that the doctors who tell me to do the above should be challenged to spending a week with me! Matter of fact they should pay me for food too as we don't eat food that has been processed, nor do I add salt. As for the exercise piece? I wonder if they could handle it?

For now, every morsel, every step into my log book…Join me