Day three in the big house. Not that big house, obviously, but when trying to make time in a cardiac ward sound more interesting, embellishment is key. I mean, there are people in here who can’t move. People who nearly died. People who are really freaking sick. And then there’s me: sitting in my side room with my nice hospital WiFi and my nice laptop, spending inordinate amounts of time playing on computer games and surfing the Internet.
The reason for me still being here, dear reader? Why that’s because there’s enough evidence (my own ‘longer than it should be’ ECG readings from ER the other night; the fact I’ve got a family member who ‘just died’ rather young; the fact I have an immediate relative with LQTS) for the medical staff to put me on what’s known as as a ‘48-hour tape’.
This 48-hour tape* is essentially there to track my heart, as the name suggests, for two whole days. You see, apparently, this kind of thing is difficult to diagnose. And while I and several other people are hoping that I’ve just got stress-related problems (this summer has been horrid, and no, I’m not going to explain it) there’s still a possibility that I do have something that warrants me staying in hospital**.
While having the tape tracker on is far nicer than having any other type of wired or unwired tracker on, it does mean that I’m still supposed to stay on my ward — or venture off ward only with the accompaniment of an appropriate adult. Which translated, means anyone who visits me.
For reasons I won’t go into today, I’ve not seen any visitors yet, but my wonderful wife has informed me that she does in fact intend to visit later with our daughter. Our son, meanwhile, is off being all grown up and year 8-ish at a school open evening.
While I won’t get to see my son, seeing my wife and daughter will undoubtedly be the highlight of my day.
This is because all I’ve done today is watch YouTube videos, research driving licenses in Oregon, walked up and down the ward a few times, and talked to a few friends on the phone.
Oh, and play SimCity.
I’ve always liked SimCity, and must admit I was kind of frustrated with the new incarnation. Like many fans, I liked the terraforming as much as I liked the actual city building. And SimCity 2013 doesn’t have that feature.
Given the fact that I’m here for another day at least, I figured I’d get the upgrade expansion pack Cities of Tomorrow. It lets you build massive skyscrapers, have very fuel-efficient cities, and generally pretend you were living in Futurama or The Jetsons.
So far, I’ve not figured out quite how the new elements fit together for maximum effect. As a consequence, my city isn’t as big as it should be. But hey, if you’re on SimCity and fancy visiting, do drop by. I’m Aminorjourney on there too.
In the meantime, I’ll promise not to do anything stupid, and I’ll see you soon.
*Its not really a tape, of course. It’s a digital recorder, but I guess it hails from the days when we really were wired up to a static tape-fed machine to record two days’s of heart activity. That must have sucked big time. All I have to put up with is not showering for two days, which is torture, I might add.
** Much protesting has taken place, but yes, apparently, the doctors aren’t convinced I’m actually okay. So they’re keeping me in. Apparently, when a relative’s heart stops beating, and then you present the symptoms you’ve had since you were very small and some anomalies on the trace, they start to take you really seriously. Apparently death is a one-way street…