The Goat Pen

Farewell and adieu, my fine aTm Aggie.

Water off the NC coast in January is brisk, but they wouldn't hold a public polar bear plunge if they thought anyone was in danger or close to it. The first few seconds are bracing, but then you can stay in and not feel like you are freezing. OTOH, Logan and I said we were going to jump in the local lake for new year's day (like the time I did it and Stu posted the picture of me coming out and Crow made fun of my thinning hair and the fact that the dam in the background looked kinda like a nuclear power plant), we didn't do it on new year's day, but we did it weekend before last and it was cold as fuck. Significantly colder than the ocean off Atlantic Beach. There was a buoy about 20 yards off the pier we dove from, I figured I would swim to that and back to the pier and get out, I got about halfway to the buoy and turned around. Felt like I was on fire, my skin was burning. I checked my balls, there was a flat area down there where my balls used to be...

NC coastal waters never get too cold due to the gulf stream. I'd say the water in the pacific off the coast of northern Cali in the summer is pretty similar to winter water off the coast of NC...

Inlets are warmer

I wish you would take the outlet...

The shark was near Hyde county in the Pamlico at one point.

So?

hedge wrote: Felt like I was on fire, my skin was burning. I checked my balls, there was a flat area down there where my balls used to be...

That was probably the run-oft from all the pesticides in the neighboring fields.

DooKSucks wrote:The shark was near Hyde county in the Pamlico at one point.

Yeah, that map of her travels showed that she was right at the mouth of the river. Bull sharks are reportedly found in the Pamlico River, which would make me not want to go swimming in it. Plus jellyfish.

You're terrified of water anyway, aren't you?

I'll never put on a lifejacket again. So, eleven hundred men went in the water, three hundred and sixteen men come out, the sharks took the rest, June the 29, 1945. Anyway, we delivered the bomb.

My family had a place on the Pamlico when I was a kid. I saw a jellyfish one time. I never heard of any sharks. We were near Washington though.

Saint wrote:

DooKSucks wrote:The shark was near Hyde county in the Pamlico at one point.

Yeah, that map of her travels showed that she was right at the mouth of the river. Bull sharks are reportedly found in the Pamlico River, which would make me not want to go swimming in it. Plus jellyfish.

I'm in New Orleans. Sat next to a NC State guy at the bar last night. He railed on about the UNC scandal so long that I started calling him Auggie after a while. The thing is, he never questioned my use of that name for him.

I'm sure he represents the rule, not the exception...

turns out they misdiagnosed the family friend that has Guillain-Barré.

He has something that has similar symptoms to MS but is binary in its approach - either you get it and heal completely or you get it and it pretty much stays the same. I don't remember the name.

I think he'll be alright but the chance of it recurring if there is any trauma to the immune system is pretty high so that will hang over him the rest of his life.

Over the holidays I had some episode - I still don't know what it was - had a huge meal - about 3 hours later when I went to bed, my blood pressure goes to about 150/110, my heart starts racing and I have shortness of breath. I go downstairs and stretch out in the recliner and its not getting better so I pop a couple of blood pressure pills and some aspirin thinking all those cheeseburgers have finally caught up with me and in a few minutes some guy is going to standing over me yelling "CLEAR!!!" - and this pretty much goes on all night and into the next morning. At the same time all this is going on, the weather changes so my sinuses are out of whack - I'm pretty much breathing out of my mouth half the day. On top of that, I cut out caffeine which drastically reduced the amount of carbonated beverages I take in (this all comes together at the end)

I had family there so I didn't want to make a big deal about it - eventually my blood pressure returns to normal but my shortness of breath isn't going away and whenever I eat I'm feeling full after just a few bites - its not consistent but its happening multiple times a day - so after 2 weeks of this I go to the doctor with all these worst case scenarios running thru my head. I'm convinced I have a heart blockage or stomach cancer. I'm at the age where any ache or pimple is cancer to me so I have endoscopy done - comes back - no issues, everything looks great, I have an ekg - looks identical to the one I had 5 years ago. Then I go get a few chest x-rays. They come back fine, Then I go have a stress test with ultrasound and nuclear dye - it comes back and everything looks great - so no stomach issues or heart issues. Btw, that ultrasound of your heart is pretty cool - seeing the valves pump blood.

So slowly , either I've been getting better at dealing with it or I was getting better, but either way each day it was becoming less of an issue as I went on.

During these episodes I start to notice something - if I burp, I feel great - everything gets back to normal, but the problem is - I can't burb - used to do it all the time but hardly anything since these started - so I think what was happening was that I was gulping in air while I breathed and especially after I ate, and doing so I got so bloated that it was actually pressing up against my lungs and that resulted in me having trouble to breath, which either thru stress or whatever resulted in the racing heart and elevated blood pressure.

So I started drinking caffeine free coke zero and burping. Last night I ate my first full meal with a coke and burped and didn't have any issues. Now I'm driving my wife crazy because I relish burping so I'm going around the house just cranking these out with a "BRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPPPPPPPPPPPPPP" about every 30 minutes followed by me proclaiming "damn that feels good!"

I'm not sure what broke the dam so to speak but I can now burp again and life is good.

As a result I'm never going to have 4 nights in a row where I eat gigantic meals and snack on stuff all day like I did this last Xmas - truth is I doubt I've ever done that in my life and I think my body just said enough of this - you're 48 years old - the gaskets are wearing thin so it shut me down.

I'm pretty relieved because for awhile there I was expecting at a minimum a stent or something along those lines.

Then I go have a stress test with ultrasound and nuclear dye - it comes back and everything looks great ..

The only way to confirm 100% there is no arterial blockage is to have a heart cath.....been there, (all clear nuclear stress test w/blockage) done that.

Toemeesleather wrote:Then I go have a stress test with ultrasound and nuclear dye - it comes back and everything looks great ..

The only way to confirm 100% there is no arterial blockage is to have a heart cath.....been there, (all clear nuclear stress test w/blockage) done that.

really - so what happened and how long after the stress test?

My doc went ahead a scheduled a heart cath for me the next week.....found blocked left anterior descending (the widowmaker).....inserted 3 stents.

Toemeesleather wrote:My doc went ahead a scheduled a heart cath for me the next week.....found blocked left anterior descending (the widowmaker).....inserted 3 stents.

were you just not feeling well or what - what motivated you to go ahead with additional checkouts after the stress test?

My symptoms were chest pain and some indigestion....and it wasn't me that was motivated, it was my doc. I really thought I was in the clear after the stress test. My ignorance.