A two-day hospital stay for a man as healthy as a horse

At the risk of burying the lead (lede for my journalism friends) of this story, which I actually started writing last weekend, I’m going to start this week’s journal in the middle.

The "easy" hike group at Pantano Wash

About the time I was starting to write the next blog post last weekend I had a nagging issue that was causing me some concern. On my hike with Mahlon I noticed a real problem breathing. I usually huff and puff, but I rarely have such difficulty that I have to stop and catch my breath. So there was that.

Then there was a nagging slight chest ache that ran through my left shoulder that simply would not go away. About ten years ago I had an atrial fibrillation episode that landed me in the hospital for five days.

So on Tuesday, instead of going hiking, I went to the Urgent Care place to see if they could figure out what was going on. What happened next was a whirlwind of medical tests that culminated with a two-day stay at the Tucson Medical Center where it was determined, tah dah, that I’m just fine.

The Urgent Care thought they noticed that I had an enlarged heart and something about a hardened aorta on a chest x-ray and that’s when all heck broke loose on Thursday.

There is a slightly enlarged ventricle, but it presents no problem at this time. All my numbers are good and a series of tests all turned up negative.

To my friends and family, I apologize for not letting you in on this little episode, but it really seemed like it was a mountain out of an ant hill but in the end I am happy to know my ticker is functioning well and that I have no restrictions on my activities. If there had been something important to let you know about Joan was poised and ready to do so.

Joan said it is now confirmed I have the heart of a 12-year-old boy. The brains and manners too.

We had lots of people in the park praying for us.

I will be more faithful getting my allergy shots and using my asthma inhalers in the future as my lack of consistency in using the asthma products probably led to this event.

Spending a night in the hospital is not how I want to spend my winter time in Tucson and as most of you know there is nothing so unrestful and annoying as being laid up and fussed over. So now back to the post as I was originally writing it last weekend.

While our friends and family back east are buried in snow, Tucson set a record high temperature on Saturday of 81. That’s actually a little too hot for Joan and according to the local weather guys, we were the warmest (even higher than Phoenix which is unusual) in the nation.

Just because

We took Friday off from all our activities, except that Joan spent the morning at her Bible class continuing her work to grow older and wiser. We spent a quiet day and because the dinner show sold out before we even arrived here, we spent a quiet evening at home watching television last night.

On Saturday, we spent our morning walking up and down the resort streets looking for Michigan license plates and dropping off fliers for the Michigan Party that I said I wasn’t going to be part of. So far not being a part of the Michigan Party means I have designed and printed the fliers and announcements and walked a couple miles looking for Michigan residents.

Seriously, we met a lot of nice Michigan folks on our walk and all want to come to the party. We only covered about 1/10 of the park so a lot more walking and talking to do.

This afternoon I spent some time working on the USS Cogswell newsletter, which I am now editor of, and talking to old shipmates and writing stories about them. It is very much fun connecting with my old Navy buddies and hearing great stories.

How about this story: My friend and shipmate from 1966 related this tale to me. In 1967, between cruises he went home to Minnesota and while there applied for an $1,800 loan so he could buy a new Volkswagen when he returned to California after his leave.

He obtained the loan and headed to a VW dealer in Vallejo (that’s where I got off the Cogswell in 1967) and negotiated a deal for the bug for $1,865. The dealer asked whether he was paying cash or financing the car.

“I want to put some money down and finance the rest,” Gary told the dealer.

“How much do you want to put down and how much do you want to finance?,” the dealer asked.

“I want to put $1,800 down and finance the $65,” Gary said. “I never saw anyone so mad as that salesman when he had to fill out all the finance paperwork just so I could make three $15 payments and a final $20 payment.”

There were many laughs during our conversation, but that one was the biggest. The newsletter is due by the middle of next month, but with Elin coming here the first week in February I’d like to have most of it done before she gets here.

For dinner we basically cleaned out the leftovers in the fridge, which meant more yummy crock pot lasagna and salad.

This Meet Me at Maynard's Griffen reminds us of Thing 4

Saturday night was spent watching television and listening to the storm news from back east. On Sunday we went to church and it was Unity Sunday which means they take a roll of states and Canadian provinces at the beginning of services. The Canadian count is way down, probably due to the very poor exchange rate (Canada-wise) on the dollar. The Canadians here said many of their countrymen are delaying visits because they are only getting 70 cents on the dollar here.

In the afternoon, we watched the playoff games and had a quiet night at home. I’ve also been working on my Navy newsletter, calling old shipmates and doing interviews for stories on them and their lives.

On Monday, I went on the “easy” hike which was down Pantano Wash about 15 minutes from our resort. It was a nice hike with nice folks.

I’ve already told you that Tuesday was spent at the Urgent Care, but before they discovered my “problem” I returned home and we attended our Tuesday night potluck.

It was on Wednesday I got the news about the chest x-ray and the need to go to the ER. Stubborn me I decided I would wait a day so we could attend “December ‘63” a Frankie Valli tribute group that we already had tickets for. If I’m going to check out, I want to check out on a high note and this concert was certainly that. Great music, great performers and a wonderful time.

On Thursday morning, because I was on deck for the Men’s Bible Study I went ahead and led the group and then promptly headed to Tucson Medical Center with Joan to follow up on the “enlarged heart.”

The next two days were a blur of tests, nurses, doctors and eventually discharge.

With a clean bill of health and after fasting for two days with little or no food or drink, I told Joan we are stopping at Jack In The Box and I’m getting a Jumbo Jack and fries, which I did to celebrate my release.

Hey, if I’m going to be accused of clogging my arteries, I’m going to give them a reason. We never do fast food, so it was a real treat.

We arrived home about 7 p.m. and I promptly took a shower and we headed to the Albert Galli dance in the ballroom, but only stayed about 90 minutes as both of us were exhausted from two days with no sleep or food.

A Tucson sunset

Saturday was a quiet day although we did take a little walk and distributed more “Michigan Party” fliers to folks in the park. We are methodically making our way through this massive place to make sure we catch most of the Michiganders living here in the winter.

Except for church at the resort, we had another quiet day around the trailer and I continued work on my Navy newsletter.

Church was fun as they were celebrating 30 years of services at the park. The original developer of the park was on hand and we got to meet him at the reception. Joan came home and made us a wonderful pork roast for dinner.

Sorry for the dearth of photos this week, but I failed to take the camera to the hospital which would have made for some very interesting camera fodder.

(Don't know if it is still there, but this morning following my posting of this journal there was an ad for "The Four Signs of a Heart Attack" right below this post.)