It sucks growing old

[June bug]

Take care, JT8.

[Lani]

Take care, JT8.

[Kriselda Gray]

60 years old, tonight is the first in 21 years I'm sitting in an ER, this time with chest pains

i hope you're ok and feel better fast!! Take care of yourself!

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

[John Thomas8]

Many expensive test, 0 answers. They sent me home since it wasn't a heart attack.

[sugar magnolia]

Many expensive test, 0 answers. They sent me home since it wasn't a heart attack.

My husband made about 10 trips to the ER with chest pains and each time, they ruled out a heart attack. Finally, after over a year of this, a new doc took one look at him and diagnosed panic attacks. Gave his a prescription and a referral to another doc and he's been fine ever since.

[johnpcapitalist]

Many expensive test, 0 answers. They sent me home since it wasn't a heart attack.

Glad you aren't suffering a cardiac event, but sorry to hear that they have NFI what's going on. A similar thing happened to me in March when I had major chest pains and went to the ER -- a big (and very expensive) fire drill to make sure I wasn't having a heart attack.

In my case they figured out it was gallstones pretty quickly, though. I'm amazed at how fast they were able to find a donor organ so I could get it taken care of.

[MN-Skeptic]

I just had lunch with a high school friend I haven't seen in 40+ years and he told me that he was about 53 when he felt a heavy weight on his chest. He went to the hospital where they did lots of tests but couldn't identify anything. So after a few hours they were getting ready to send him home. He was still hooked up to the various monitoring machines, when all of a sudden he got sweaty, felt ice cold, and the machine alarms started sounding. So, he was at the right place at the right time to have a heart attack!

A former co-worker and her husband sold stuff like high end flashlights to police officers and were at a police / fire fighters convention when the husband collapsed from a heart attack. What better place to suffer a heart attack? So he survived.

[johnpcapitalist]

He was still hooked up to the various monitoring machines, when all of a sudden he got sweaty, felt ice cold, and the machine alarms started sounding. So, he was at the right place at the right time to have a heart attack!

A former co-worker and her husband sold stuff like high end flashlights to police officers and were at a police / fire fighters convention when the husband collapsed from a heart attack. What better place to suffer a heart attack? So he survived.

Another story in a similar vein: a good friend and his wife (55-ish at the time) were giving a lecture to a group of researchers at the UCSF med school. She started feeling funny and acting odd, and completely disintegrated in front of the audience. It was not too difficult for the entire neurosurgery department of UCSF in the audience to figure out that she was having a stroke. The surgeons took it rather personally as a point of honor to do right by her, and she made a complete recovery. As she later said, nobody should have a stroke, but if you're going to have one, make sure you're in a neurosurgery conference when you do.

[RTH10260]

It sucks growin´ gold

past bedtime

[bill_g]

I know I've told the story of the time our car broke down in the woods near Mount St Helens. We rolled to a stop in front of the house of a woman living alone that was having a heart attack, and she couldn't reach her wall mounted phone to call 911.

[roadscholar]

I just realized my wife and I are both older than two of the 50 States.

[Volkonski]

I just realized my wife and I are both older than two of the 50 States.

Mrs. V. and I also. Not only that but we are old enough to remember when they became states and 49 star flags.

[Phoenix520]

I was born in one of those states when it was a territory.

[pipistrelle]

I was born in one of those states when it was a territory.

How does that affect your presidential aspirations?

[Foggy]

On this forum, the best place to be when you are having a heart attack is wherever W4 is. When she saved her husband's life, the doctors and nurses wanted to meet her, because only about 5% of people with that kind of attack survive. 'Course, she had bruises for weeks after pumpin' that man back to the land of the living, but he's still around today.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

We are so old we are taking a trip next week on a bus with other old folks! The trip is sponsored by the local Senior Citizens Center. Firstborn Son thought this was great hysterical.

[Foggy]

My dad's microwave oven broke last night. My two sisters live within 25 miles of him, and both are married to guys who know how to fix stuff. So what does he do? How does he deal with it, at age 94?

Why, he calls ol' Wifehorn, of course. Not either of my brothers-in-law. Not me. Why would he need to call me? All he has to do is get ol' Wifehorn involved, and I'll be there too also. Today they spent a couple hours on Amazon and places, and we're going to Bathysphere or wherever it is a week from mañana.

My wife and my dad are BFFs.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

[jemcanada2]

I know I've told the story of the time our car broke down in the woods near Mount St Helens. We rolled to a stop in front of the house of a woman living alone that was having a heart attack, and she couldn't reach her wall mounted phone to call 911.

What a great story. The universe sending you to save her life!

[bill_g]

I know I've told the story of the time our car broke down in the woods near Mount St Helens. We rolled to a stop in front of the house of a woman living alone that was having a heart attack, and she couldn't reach her wall mounted phone to call 911.

What a great story. The universe sending you to save her life!

Oh yeah. Sure seems like it. It's in my karma. I have a bunch of stories like it.

The roads around here are like most places. You can go someplace a bunch of ways, and you usually take This way to go There. But today, you decide you'll go That way. And along the way you see a school teacher in a dress with a leg cast trying to change a flat tire ... and nobody is pulling over. Grrr. This must be why I went That way.

You've got miles and miles of windshield time ahead. You've done it a hundred times. So, you listen to music and try to stay focused on the road as it meanders along. Do ta do to tra la la, oh hey? Was that my exit?!?! Dang it. Gotta go five miles ahead to turn around now. And as you make the left to go under the overpass to get back on the highway, there's a new car from New York and an elderly couple looking forlorn hiding from the summer sun in the shade of the overpass that nobody ever takes where absolutely no one in the world can see them from the highway. For hours. And no bars on the phone. Boy, talk about patience. Or a complete lack of will to survive. Or great Faith in Providence. I'm thinking they chose the latter. And here you are.

It's a beautiful day on Mt Hood, and you're at an awesome site with an awesome view on this totally awesome day. Oops. Forgot something in the truck. What's that? A guy leaning against the truck, winded, cold to the touch, not entirely coherent. You call the lodge on the radio letting them know you coming down with someone that needs medical attention.

Let's go canoeing!!!! You and your pals load up and hit the road. Did you check the weather? I didn't check the weather? Crap. Rain all weekend. Okay. We can be tourists. Let's check out the beach. It can be Kewl when the weather gets sideways. What's going here? Who are those people waving at? Damn. Two girls caught in the rip tide and heading further out. Get the canoe down. Strip to your skivees. Keep your shoes on. Paddle out. Fetch them. The waves are swamping the canoe. Head out a bit further. Catch a wave and have it push us all the way in. Yea! Success, and not even feeling cold yet. Hand shakes all around. State Trooper and fire fighter volunteers that arrived are elated. Beers all around at the local tavern.

And I have more stories. They mostly tell themselves without embroidery. Mrs is constantly amazed at the situations I am presented with that never happen to anyone else. It is a source of much amusement at holiday time when the boys want to catch up on who I saved this year. Mrs usually has to pick one to get me going.

[Phoenix520]

One day we went That way instead of This way and rescued a young family from a house fire.

Follow your instincts!

[bill_g]

So, it's happened to you too! Good! Not alone. Thank you. Doodoo occurs, and you just have to be present to the moment. Ride the wave.

[keith]

I was born in one of those states when it was a territory.

How does that affect your presidential aspirations?

Goldwater proved it doesn't.

[Foggy]

Off Topic

Happened to my parents, not me.

They had friends who were out of town, gave us permission to use their swimming pool. We almost stopped for gas on the way, but my dad decided for no reason to get it after we swam.

We got there and the baby was at the bottom of the pool and the babysitter was drowning, and my parents saved them both.

So I believe the stories when it happens to other people, and I try to be ready.

Edit: Their friends bought us an entire Encyclopedia Britannica as a thank you gift, which was enormously expensive and cool, the fucking compendium of human knowledge before Google took over the world. At age 11 or 12, I thought they were magical books, and they were. Huge influence on the poor ol' rooster.