Tick ... tick ... beep ... beep ...
I went to the hospital after work today. Earlier in the day while at work I was lilting to the right; it didn't last long, this feeling that the floor was perpetually lopsided, but enough people seemed concerned that it might be a symptom of something more alarming that I eventually relented and took myself to Burnaby General Hospital to get myself checked out. While I was there, I also mentioned the searing chest pains that I've been experiencing lately.
And so, five hours and multiple puncture wounds later (they can never find my veins, one of my dubious superpowers), the doctor came back and told me that it was .... nothing. No signs of heart attack, no signs of stroke. Nothing. I do have a phone number to get some stress tests done in the next few weeks, just to make certain everything's okay, but other than that, everything is just fine.
Two thoughts:
- If you ever want to sit and question your mortality, hospital emergency rooms are the place to do it. There is nothing like waiting around, not knowing what is wrong, or if anything is wrong at all to get you looking back on your life and the things you have or haven't done with your time here. Time's running out faster than you'd like, and it's always later than you think.
- Thank heavens I live in a country with socialized medicine! God bless Stanley Knowles and Tommy Douglas! Seriously, I saw a picture on-line from one of the recent Tea Party clanmeetings in the States which read Your Health, Your Problem (at least it was spelled properly). This kind of thinking genuinely baffles me; I much prefer living in a country which favours an attitude of "We're all in this together," as opposed to "Every man for himself."
How I'm feeling now: Tired. Relieved. Anxious. It was thankfully a false alarm, but I know it won't be the last time that I'm going to be visiting the doctor for these kinds of problems, especially as I get older. We all die alone, and I'll never be ready for death. On the plus side, I'm even more glad that I managed to go out with friends and a certain gorgeous young lady the night before. Nothing quite like living to put death into perspective.