After our move to a new home, described in an earlier thread, the chest pains just didn't want to go away. I hoped I'd just pulled a muscle, but eventually I had to face the fact that I couldn't walk the 200 yards to the mailbox without stopping to birdwatch, and I went to the doctor's office. It was a stable angina, with professional attention required.

I got a lot of cautious advice on the use of nitroglycerin, and several people quizzed me on whether I knew what 9-1-1 meant. I never got to calling 9-1-1.

I am now loafing comfortably at home with a stent in my left descending coronary artery. The rest of the arteries looked good. The right side was growing toward the left in compensation, and the cardiologist said because of that I should have survived a heart attack, if I'd waited long enough to have one. None of the EKGs showed any permanent damage. I have a pailful of drugs and I signed up for a drug study. If I follow the literature I brought home, I'll change my diet from cheese and bratwurst to nuts, leaves, and berries.

Okay, so I'm milking it a bit at home. They told me I shouldn't do anything to strain the porthole that's healing in my right groin. Just loafing around, that's all.

The lesson, I guess, is don't wait too long.

Now I have a little time to work on two stories, a long one and a short one, that I've been thinking about for a while. I'm trying to keep the loafing from getting in the way of that.