Thursday, February 12, 2015

Just Get Me Home

It is a normal trip to Reno for a trade show. Trade shows are typically a little boring anyway and I was getting a lot of planning done, along with observing other salesmen in their booths. Just a typical day. Went to dinner at a new place and it was pleasant, but not extraordinary. Did hear a funny conversation at the table next to mine between a young couple that I thought were marrieds, but turned out they were fairly new in the relationship, but he had progressed further than she. Anyway, it was with great restraint that I didn't interject (particularly for his part, he was headed for a very rude awakening) But we all live and learn in our own ways. By the way, I always take a table and never eat at the bar, One simple reason, if you eat at the bar it seems to be an invitation for everyone to talk to you. After a long day of talking to people I don't know I did not want to continue with more people I did not know. Besides the weird ones all sit at the bar. So I grab a table and just eavesdrop on the folks around me. Anyway, I seem to have wandered off topic.

So while eating dinner I had the first faint little hints of an Afib episode. I am a veteran of these. Three episodes bad enough to send me to the ER, and numerous little ones that keep me guessing. Woke up  the next morning to work out and realized my old buddy, Afib was still with me. Heart rate about 100, not bad but uncomfortable. For the uninformed Afib is the top part of the heart keeping the big bottom part primed to squirt blood all over the body. When the top part stutters, the bottom chambers just keep working harder and harder to no avail. The immediate symptom is shortness of breath because the blood is not carrying the oxygen very effiecntly. So you pant to get enough air.
It either gets worse or it goes back into rythym and all is good.

I texted my bride just after waking up and told her what was happening and that it was mild. Then as I was walking to the car to find a Starbucks, it kicked back in. I felt fine. So I texted her again and said no problem, all was good. When she answered she said, " Oh good. You better have a plan in place."

Hmm, a plan. The extent of my planning is to hope it doesn't happen. Sort of the ostrich approach. Of course there are ERs in nearly every place I go. So my real plan is to panic and call the EMTs.
But then I wondered what I needed to do if this really took an ugly turn and I stepped into the great uncounting while on the road.

I have developed two lists. The first is a list of places that my bride can just leave me. Seattle, Charlotte, in fact nearly anywhere in north or south Carolina. Boston is nice, but cold (I know, some of you are thinking I may need the cold to offset the heat I may find on the other side, but I don't think it works that way). Scottsdale and Phoenix are just as good, but the opposite problem of heat. Texas is the best, but the purpose here is if I am somewhere else.
The second list is longer, DO NOT LEAVE ME IN Los Angeles. It is NOT filled with Angels, it is crowded and ugly and my least favorite place. Keep me out of Chicago and upper Midwest..they talk funny. If I am in Colorado it is just a noncontiguous Texas county, there are more Texans there than in El Paso. Speaking of which, not El Paso, or Clovis NM.
But if at all possible get me home. As in where all my crowd is located. I don't want to travel the heavens to watch my kids grow old or my grandkids grow up. I'm also hoping to be close enough that my bride can join me at some point and I don't want her to have to travel beyond the single step we will all take.
Home for me is where the ones who love me outnumber the ones who don't know me. The ones who love me will be my final resting place.
So my plan is to make the final step at home, but if not I will find my way there.

Godspeed, home is the resting place we all long for.

PS to my bride, if the plane falls out of the sky, sue 'em.
Don