I took it for granted. I figured it would always be there. I thought, 'the other guy, not me.' I'll know, I thought. Wrong on all four accounts.
I left work after midnite turn at the hospital. I'm a steam engineer. Hot. So the eighty degree temp at eight in the morning felt good as I rode down Rt. 17 toward Winchester. The plan was to take my five year old for his final set of shots before kindergarten. We were then going to Toys-r-Us for a reward of sorts for not making us chase him around the Doc's office.
After leaving the Doc's, which turned out to be tramatic for my wife than son, we met up at the toy store. As I parked my scoot I felt alittle goofy, but for me that's not really out of the ordinary. So into the frigid store. Frigid because by now I was sweating buckets and the store was about twenty degees cooler than the outside temp.
I made it to the 'construction vehicle' aisle, my son's favorite. Here the trip really began. My son said something and I turned to face him. Wow..acid flashback! He appeared to be at the end of a long hall or tunnel, his voice a filmy echo. Floor! Show me the floor. I sat without really knowing that I sat down. I have now lost all control of my arms...my heart is doing laps inside my chest looking for an exit. Enter my wife. Corporate Director of the Non-invasive Cardiovascular Lab.
I was having a Cardiac Event. Yay. My wife, God keep her, got me calmed down and wanted an ambulance. Hold it! Aren't we forgetting something? My bike! I'm not leaving my baby in a mall parking lot a mere fifty yards from the Interstate! She knew the ONLY way I was going to the hospital was on that bike, or it with me.
By now I had stopped experiencing my little episode and agreed that I would get checked out. Long story mercifully short...three stents and four coronary bypasses. I was 90,80,80 and 70 percent blocked. Me! Fifty years young. Motorcycle riding, weight-lifting, wine drinking fool that I am.
The final blow was undiagnosed diabetes. Damn! What happened to my youth? To indestructability?
