Hit to the wallet more than anything else.

#1 Son, age 23, had a weird "episode" i guess you could call it, just over a week ago.  His heart started beating very, very rapidly, and he was short of breath and dizzy.  This happened in the evening, and he hadn't been doing anything in particular to precipitate it.  It was on a day off, so it wasn't a particularly strenuous day.

He spoke to the doctor on the phone, and was reassured that he would be fine.  Over the next several days, though, he had numbness in his extremities, sometimes some shortness of breath for no reason, and rapid heartbeat on occasion.  He was simply planning to get a check-up soon.

Then, yesterday morning, he had a dream right before he woke up.  In the dream, he was running, breathing hard, and had chest pain.  He also dreamed he put his left hand in the thorn bush, and was pulling thorns out of it.

He woke up with shortness of breath, his left arm numb and painful, and with a rapid heartbeat and chest pain.  It scared him enough that he came and got me to take him to the ER.

After all, it's drilled into us that with those symptoms, you don't waste time asking questions, you just get up and "git goin'.

They were efficient when we got there, i'll give them that.  You say the words "chest pain" and next thing you are getting an EKG, even before they take any other vitals.

He was poked and prodded and x-rayed and we spend about 3-4 hours in there all together, to find out that they can't figure the cause, but it can't be anything major.  His heart is fine, his blood work is fine, his lungs look okay, and for heaven's sake, make that appointment for a full physical and let our regular doctor figure out what's up.  That's his job.

This one was precautionary i know, but it's a hit to the wallet more than an enlightened exercise, as part of the full physical is an EKG, as well as a spirometry test (to check lung capacity), an ankle brachial index assessment (to make sure you don't have blocked arteries in any of your limbs), and all of that blood work, plus more.  All included.



Today is:

Anniversary of Snick-Snacker's Right Foot -- Fairy Calendar

Crayfish Premiere -- Sweden (crayfish may be sold and served in restaurants, the day after the season opens)

Day of Battle between Horus and Set; Aset gains the Horns of Hathor -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Festival of Aventine Diana / Nemoralia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (commemoration of the dedication of her temple; celebrated between now and the 15th, and rededicated as the Festival of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin after Christianization)

Festival of Xocotl Huetzi -- Ancient Aztec Calendar (first fruits of harvest festival; date approximate, but two weeks around the end of August)

Independence Day -- Central African Republic(1960)

International Left-Hander's Day -- sponsored by Lefthanders International

International Tango Festival and World Championship -- Buenos Aires, Argentina (through the 26th)

Lao Issara -- Laos (Day of the Free Laos)

Lesser Festival of Flora -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Mae West Birthday Gala -- New York, NY, US

National Filet Mignon Day

Obon -- Buddhist (celebration to revere the ancestors; celebrated at different times even within Japan, but usually the biggest dates are in mid-August)

Perseids Meteor Shower peaks

Runic Half Month As begins (the gods)

Skinny Dipping Day -- funny t-shirt:  I no longer skinny dip. I chunky dunk!

St. Cassian's Day (Patron of students and teachers; Brixen, Italy; Comacchio, Italy; Imola, Italy; Mexico City, Mexico)

St. Concordia's day (Patron of nursing mothers and wet nurses)

St. Hippolytus' Day (Patron of horses, prison guards/officers/workers; Bibbiena, Italy)

Wall Day -- anniversary of the day in 1961 that the Berlin Wall began going up; observe it by trying to break down a wall or communication barrier somewhere in your own life

Women's Day -- Tunisia


Birthdays Today

Shani Davis, 1982
Midori Ito, 1969
Quinn Cummings, 1967
Danny Bonaduce, 1959
Dan Fogelberg, 1951
Kathleen Battle,
Philippe Petit, 1949
Kevin Tighe, 1944
Don Ho, 1930
Pat Harrington, Jr., 1929
Fidel Castro, 1926
George Shearing, 1919
Ben Hogan, 1912
Alfried Felix Alwyn Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, 1907
Alfred Hitchcock, 1899
Bert Lahr, 1895
Annie Oakley, 1860
Lucy Stone, 1818


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Zaire/The Tragedy of Zara"(Voltaire's "Tragedy in Verse"), 1732


Today in History

The English army under King Henry V lands at the mouth of the Seine River, 1415
Tenochtitlan of the Aztecs is conquered by the Spanish, 1521
Tenbun Hokke Disturbance, in which Buddhist monks from Kyoto's Enryaku Temple set fire to 21 Nichiren temples throughout Kyoto, 1536
John Smith submits the story of Jamestown's first days for publication, 1608
Christiaan Huygens discovers the Martian south polar cap, 1642
Founding of Litchfield, CT, 1651
Marie Antoinette and other French royals are imprisoned by Revolutionaries, 1792
Nat Turner sees the solar eclipse which he interprets as a sign from heaven to begin his ill-fated slave rebellion, 1831
Earthquake in Peru and Ecuador kills 25,000, 1868
Ferdinand von Zeppelin patents his "Navigable Balloon", 1889
First production in the UK of stainless steel by Harry Brearley, 1913
Opha Mae Johnson is the first woman to enlist in the United States Marine Corps, 1918
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) is established as a public company in Germany, 1918
The first barbed wire fence that would become the Berlin Wall is erected, 1961
The Apollo 11 astronauts are released from a three-week quarantine to enjoy a ticker-tape parade in New York, 1969
Michael Phelps sets the Olympic record for most the gold medals won by an individual in Olympic history, 2008
Footage of the previously unseen Kawahiva tribe is released; the Kawahiva is an indigenous tribe living in Brazil's Amazon rainforest, and is thought to have had very little contact with the outside world, 2013