I’m back home following a whirlwind 3-day visit to Montreal to visit with mom, sis, and my cousin who was in the hospital for heart surgery. By all accounts, it went well and she’s hopefully on the road to a speedy recovery. She’d been complaining of trouble breathing for three weeks now, assuming it was allergies acting up, and didn’t know it was her heart until it was almost too late.
It reminds me of a chat I had with Robert Picardo the last time he was in town. He advised me to get checked for a specific condition that can result in a heart attack called The Widowmaker, presumably so named for obvious reasons. I informed him that I have an annual physical every year (upcoming at month’s end) in which they run a full blood panel, monitor my heart rate while I run on a treadmill, do an EKG, and test everything from my (failing) eyesight to my reflexes (poor). But Bob cautioned that this was not enough and there is a special test that needs to be done specifically for arterial blockages. And, in fact, the more I think about it, the more I’m inclined to rest one of those overall body scans just to see where some five decades of bourbon and desserts and have left me.
I arrived home late this afternoon and my dinner after three days of fried festivities = steel cut Irish oatmeal and blueberries.
Akemi and the dogs were delighted to see me, although Suji was quite vocal about my absence.
To everyone ( no one) wondering, I’m in the process of salvaging my fantasy football season. Following a poor start in both leagues, my Snow Monkeys have scratched and crawled their way up to a 2-4 record despite a very shitty roster in League Accommodation, while a remarkably better team evened its record at 3-3 in A League of Our Own. Tonight, we hit the waiver wire! And every morning is like mini Christmas!
So, circling back to that health care discussion – How’s everyone feeling? Do you go in for your annual physicals and, if so, what do they entail?
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