{"id":6166,"date":"2011-10-13T06:54:03","date_gmt":"2011-10-13T10:54:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=6166"},"modified":"2011-10-13T07:54:40","modified_gmt":"2011-10-13T11:54:40","slug":"the-heart-wasnt-what-the-heart-wasnt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/the-heart-wasnt-what-the-heart-wasnt","title":{"rendered":"The Heart Wasn’t What the Heart Wasn’t"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had an appointment with a cardiologist on Tuesday, to follow up on my symptoms from September. Looking over my EKG and checking my vitals, he seemed a little incredulous about my ER experience. I wondered if he suspected me of being an insurance investigator or something. He said that I was perfectly healthy, and supported my theory that the symptoms were a result of the stress-caffeine-anxiety axis. I’ve subsequently finished my two big stress-related activities, cut my daily caffeine consumption by around 45%, and am trying not to give a shit about little things.<\/p>\n

(About the coffee: For the last few months, I was drinking 7 cups a day, and have cut that back to 4. I was drinking a 3-cup mug around 5:00 a.m., when Amy & I get up in the morning, a 2-cup mug of French press around 9:30 or 10 a.m., then another 2-cup French press at 2:00 p.m. The mid-morning once was the stress-related \/ stress-inducing one; I used to just drink the early morning and early afternoon ones, but found myself in the mid-morning routine as a result of “picking up something” on the way to the office. Starting the Monday after my ER experience, I cut the 5:00 a.m. mug to 2 cups, eliminated mid-morning, and retained the 2-cup 2:00 p.m. one. It’s my drug of choice, and I’m sure other people are just as exacting about their booze, cocaine, etc.)<\/p>\n

Hearing about my family history of atherosclerosis (Dad and his far less obese brother both needed quintuple bypasses in their mid-60’s), the doctor wanted to perform a multifunction cardiogram<\/a> (MCG). He left the exam room to check on my coverage, then came back to say, “It looks like your insurance doesn’t cover the test. I think you should have it, but it DOES cost $175 . . .”<\/p>\n

“. . . And?” I said, reaching for my wallet.<\/p>\n

“Well, you don’t have to pay for it all at once.”<\/p>\n

“. . . No, that’s okay. I don’t mind,” taking out a credit card. A nurse took that and rang me up for it. I just spent $180 to get some Joost Swarte pictures framed, so I’d feel like a dolt if I complained that it cost too much to find out if I have early signs of arterial blockage.<\/p>\n

The test went fine. It consists of a single electrode on the chest, plus 4 jumper-cable-style clamps on the wrists and ankles. The nurse reassured me that I wouldn’t get a shock from them. I had to lie still for 3 or 4 minutes, during which time I nearly fell asleep. That test, too, came back just fine.<\/p>\n

The cardiologist and I made vague plans about a second date 6 months from now, and I drove home.<\/p>\n

On the way, I noticed a bookstore. In suburban NJ (Hawthorne, in this instance), those stand out. Well Read<\/a> was “New & Used,” which I feared meant a lending library of romance and James Patterson books, but I pulled over to check it out.<\/p>\n

I was pleasantly surprised by the selection. Sure, no Anthony Powell or Richard Flanagan, but it had a non-pandering array of fiction, and some interesting selection on its comics shelf. Tthe YA section looked to be dominated by vampires, but hey.<\/p>\n

I decided, “If they’re willing to keep a bookstore open in the suburbs in this day and age, they deserve my money.” I opened up the Amazon app on my phone and looked over my wish list to find something that I could buy. I was hoping they had Lucky Bruce<\/a>\"\", the new memoir by Bruce Jay Friedman, but no luck. And the new Neal Stephenson book<\/a>\"\" is too huge for me to buy in hard copy; that’s a Kindle read for next summer.<\/p>\n

Eventually, I settled on The Finkler Question<\/a>\"\", by Harold Jacobson. I hadn’t read it, but thought, “It won the Man Booker, and it’s about Jews in England, so that’ll make a nice gift for Mom.” I picked that up, thanked the clerk for fighting the good fight, and left him to the two old ladies who were trying to find “that book. No, I don’t know the title, but it’s about a detective . . .”<\/p>\n

Now that I know I’m “perfectly healthy,” how do I keep from falling back into time-wasting routines? How do I stay up after the wake-up call?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had an appointment with a cardiologist on Tuesday, to follow up on my symptoms from September. Looking over my EKG and checking my vitals, he seemed a little incredulous about my ER experience. I wondered if he suspected me of being an insurance investigator or something. He said that I was perfectly healthy, and … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Heart Wasn’t What the Heart Wasn’t”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literature"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-1Bs","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6329,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/april-fool","url_meta":{"origin":6166,"position":0},"title":"April, Fool!","author":"Gil","date":"April 1, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"It's been a long time, dear readers! Sorry for the absence, but I've been undergoing some strange anxiety\/depression stuff for the past month, with no clue how to shake it. Part of it was work-related, with some work-worries waking me up at odd hours. To compensate for lost sleep, I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0312424094","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6154,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/look-in-your-heart","url_meta":{"origin":6166,"position":1},"title":"Look in Your Heart","author":"Gil","date":"September 30, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm fine, but . . . I spent nearly 21 hours in an emergency room from Thursday into Friday. For the past three or four weeks, I've been experiencing these symptoms occasionally: a fluttering in my heart, a feeling of pressure (not painful) in my chest, or pressing down in\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 4 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 4 comments","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/look-in-your-heart#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0375714790","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1455,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/shopping-list","url_meta":{"origin":6166,"position":2},"title":"Shopping List","author":"Gil","date":"April 15, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Mad Mix went outlet shopping this weekend, but only came back with the Woodbury Common Playlist. (I, on the other hand, managed to find some exercise shorts, a new French-press coffee mug, and a briefcase from Kenneth Cole that goes by the name \"Flappy Gilmore.\")","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4501,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/slow-fast","url_meta":{"origin":6166,"position":3},"title":"Slow Fast","author":"Gil","date":"September 29, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Every year on Yom Kippur, my dad & I make our annual trip to temple so he can recite Yizkor, the prayer for the souls of his dead parents. You can find my past writeups about this experience here (5768 edition) and here (5769). I was ready to continue this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Religion"","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1224,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/black-coffee-in-bed","url_meta":{"origin":6166,"position":4},"title":"Black Coffee in Bed","author":"Gil","date":"November 29, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Jane Galt has written about plenty of important topics these last few years, but none as important as Best Practices for Coffeemaking. It's a subject near and dear to my heart, especially since I recently moved back to paper filters after two years using a gold filter. We recently bought\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/black-coffee-in-bed#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8449,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/coffee-my-romance","url_meta":{"origin":6166,"position":5},"title":"Coffee, My Romance","author":"Gil","date":"December 23, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"A pal of mine recently wrote, \"I'm thinking of revamping our coffee system and immediately thought of you. If I were to start from scratch, what would you recommend?\" It's flattering that I'm the go-to when someone thinks of coffee, or it's a sign that I need an intervention: either\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Coffee"","block_context":{"text":"Coffee","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/coffee"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=voyantpublishing&l=as2&o=1&a=B001802PIQ","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6166"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6169,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6166\/revisions\/6169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}