When the Homily is about Immunology

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to work...

After the Martin Luther King day celebrations began to wind down, which in our house entailed cleaning up vomit from a child who coughed herself into puking, and pouring liquid tons of medicine into children preparing for a hopeful night's rest, I settled down to read to my daughter.

My troubles had begun right after dinner when I was pleased to receive a massive headache, the intensity of which I was rather unfamiliar with. Then as I was reading, the pain changed. It seemed to focus in my upper chest, into my neck and jaw line. By the time I had scooted the sick child off to bed I was becoming deeply concerned. Shortly after that the pain was fully in my chest and my left shoulder as well, I became more and more convinced that I was having a heart attack.

So that evening and most of the next day I spent my time in the hospital undergoing tests I was not unfamiliar with: EKG's, echocardiograms, stress tests, cardiac enzyme blood tests, amongst others. In the end, it was determined that I apparently had a comeback of the virus that I had thought I had overcome, and this time it had taken refuge in the pericardium. They call it Pericarditis and I am here to tell you that despite the relief of not having heart disease, it is none-the-less a rather painful unhappy condition. Imagine the simple and minute change of heart labor involved in rolling over in bed causing sever pain.

I guess I've always figured that like Norm of "Cheers" I am destined to be a Heart Disease statistic, and when you develop an ailment that looks and feels a helluva lot like what you expect to die of, it tends to make you think more seriously about life.

Curiously enough as Basil was driving me to the hospital (yes I have been lectured by the hospital staff about not calling 911) my thoughts were heavily focused on the fact that I really do not have enough life insurance. Repentance and such would come later that night. Both are still on my mind today as I recover.