Wednesday night about 23:20 I rolled over in bed, poked my wife and said, "I don't know how else to say this, but I have chest pains and my left arm feels funny." qtrhorserider popped out of bed and insisted on driving me to the E.R. instead of calling 9-1-1.

By the time I got to the car I was sweating too (but I never had any more symptoms than that). When asked by the nurses where my pain was on the scale of one to ten, I said five to seven, because I don't think I'm as sensitive to pain as most people, and I haven't ever had cause to be asked that before, which may be related. After the morphine and the nitro it went down to point five.

I was admitted and taken to the cath lab, where they gave me more good drugs and a cardiologist went in through the groin to remove the blockage. Afterwards he said there had been 99% blockage, but it was removed and now he'd put in a stent. He said, or the E.R. doctor said later or earlier, that a stress test such as I'd taken five years ago would have identified if there were any blockages then, but there's always the chance of existing deposits in the arteries breaking off and creating new ones; which my doctor had stressed at the time, too.

About 01:30 I was moved up into a room, wondering here my wife was. By the time the nurse thought to ask for the cell phone number, it rang just outside the hall; my wife, my dad and his wife (my mom turns her phone off at night) visited for a little while. I had to sleep on my back the first four hours, which isn't usual and didn't work well. But by the time my wife showed up with my laptop at 11:30 I was ready for it.

About 08:00 the nurse gave me five pills, one of which was Lipitor, which says the blockage was cholesterol. I guess that set of pills is to be daily routine from now on.

I left a message for my mom to call me when she got up. Then I was on my phone with my wife when she called. I know Mom would feel best when she heard I sound perfectly normal, but the phone tag went on about half an hour.

More when I know more.