There have been close calls on the interstate -- some my fault, some the fault of others, some born of chance -- and I've had some medical issues in recent years. Back in 2007, I began having intermittent bouts with cardiac arrhymthia. The most serious incident occurred on the evening that I moved into my dorm room at university: my heart began beating very fast, and I could not get it to slow down. I wound up sitting in my (largely bare) room, then in my car. Eventually the beating became slow and very irregular, and I had steady pain in my left arm -- symptoms of a heart attack, I thought, and I expected that I would lose consciousness. Instead, after a few hours of sitting there in my car half-conscience and trying to put my thoughts down on paper, I realized I felt 'normal'. Every time I moved in and out of my room thereafter, I approached some of my luggage with nervousness, because I had to haul stuff like a big CRT monitor up four flights of stairs.
Then, this summer, I developed enormously high blood pressure that may have been my undoing (given my "this too shall pass" attitude -- I knew I was sick, but was determined to wait it out) had my family not forced me to go to the doctor, where I learned I had a problem. Now medication, a sensible diet, and a new lifestyle of regular physical activity has me feeling like a new man.
I've also lived through a few hurricanes and tornados, as well as a flood, but none actually harmed me.
