Health Scare

I had a scare in the early hours of Monday morning. I had gone to bed Sunday night not feeling 100% but nothing definite - start of a cold, tummy upset, or just plain tired after a really good weekend.

However, at 3.30 a.m. I awoke with a pain across my chest and the tops of my arms. The pain wasn't sharp but a "clutch" or ache in the centre of the chest making it difficult to breathe deeply.

I got out of bed so as not to disturb best beloved, who needed her sleep as she was back at work in the morning (later that day). I sat in the spare bedroom and I can tell you I was frightened! My 60th birthday is tomorrow and it did cross my mind that I had often said none of the male antecedents in my family had survived beyond 59. What irony I thought if I should be allowed so near to my sixtieth birthday only to have it snatched away at the last moment.

Eventually I decided to take painkillers and indigestion tablet. The ache subsided sufficiently let me back to bed where I dozed until Ingrid had left for school. Getting up I did have cereal but still the chest feeling (can't describe it as pain as such) was there. I took a stronger indigestion mixture called Gaviscon and went back to bed where I slept until 2.00 p.m.

Having resolved to my own satisfaction that tiredness was no longer an issue, I dosed myself at prescribed intervals and managed to have an evening meal. A final dose before bedtime and I slept through the night soundly.

I awoke this morning with a chesty feeling in my lungs but the central feeling was gone...almost. Ingrid insisted on phoning the doctor and I got an early morning appointment. The young doctor (are they related to policemen?) gave me a blood pressure test (ok), took some blood to be tested (would show the after effects of a heart attack if that is what it was), sent me to the nurse for an ECG (which equally proved negative) and listened to my heart.

I left his surgery much relieved and am hoping the blood test is also negative, although he may send me to the fast track clinic at the hospital to check for angina.

My intention is not to log all my ailments but rather to remind myself and all those who may read my blog in passing to live for the moment - no-one can predict what is going to happen beyond that.