Update: I was given some meds to speed the recovery and mitigate the effects of  a likely mild MI before the cath on Monday. I guess they’ve kicked in, because i feel superb. Better than I’ve felt in weeks. Alert, calm, and just fantastic all around. I can’t help but feel sorrow for the millions of people who do not have the health insurance I enjoy. The year 2014, when Obamacare kicks in, can’t come soon enough for this nation.

So, it turns out I probably had a mild heart attack a few weeks ago. At the time it was stomach pain, like in the upper GI or gall bladder region, and not much else. Nothing like what you read about. At first the cardiologist thought I was ok but he ordered a few tests just to make sure, turns out my ejection fraction slightly off, inverted T wave on part of the EKG, persistent high blood pressure, etc. He suspects a near full block at or near the very tip of the heart, the part that points down. We’re fixing to find out for sure: I’ll be cathed next Monday and there’s a 50-50 chance he’ll angioblast a blockage and/or put in a stint at that time. I am going to try and tweet/blog through some of it just for kicks.

Yesterday was indeed a heavenly day as planned, but last night and this morning were spent mostly in the pit of hell. The cardiologist cleared me earlier in the week, the diagnosis for recurrent and often severe upper stomach pain is looking and feeling more like a hiatal hernia or some gall bladder issues, or both. Whatever it is I spent a hellish night doubled over for hours. [Read more…]

Ah the baby New Year, welcome child. We hope you are far superior to that loser geriatric son of bitch with the 2012 sash hanging across his frail old body. So buoyed was I by the prospect of starting anew, I went to a house party. Wherein I was the oldest person in attendance and one of the only ones without a date. Awk-Ward.

But I was introduced by the merciful host to a snappy looking young lady as “my friend I told you about who writes on the Internet,” at which point a discussion of journalism and new media websites ensued. She asked me if I was the Daily Kos guy who writes about science “What’s your name there, the Dark One or something …?”. It was one of my many tens of tepid fans! [Read more…]

It wasn’t quite as much of a predatory feeding frenzy as Y2K, but there are no doubt some End-o-World scammers running for cover with their stolen loot right about now. As, alas, the world failed to end.

But fear not! There are still many ways it could end. And even if there is no dramatic flame out, our collective fate is at least partly in the hands of madmen, some of whom who literally and proudly believe Jesus loved guns so much he rode a dinosaur named Trigger. Plenty of opportunity there for epic fail, so keep on truck’n boys and girls. That is all.

The news over the last few days was so depressing I could barely turn on a cable news station much less post. On top of that a friend I’ve known for decades, a bright, lovable, Texas good old boy with a heart of gold got depressed out of the blue a few months ago. He sank deeper and deeper into the abyss, despite his family’s wealth and the treatment it afforded, and despite having friends and family around keeping him company. But it’s not possible to watch someone 24/7 for weeks on end, he was left alone for a few minutes, he got into a safe — one we didn’t think he knew the combo to — where all the guns had been hidden away and killed himself, leaving us all in shock. One of the things he got obsessed with near the end as his symptom progressed and various drug regimens were turned on and off — was the fear of being committed.

Words is the CT shooter Adam Lanza may have also been terrified of being in a full treatment facility. Some are speculating that’s what set him off on his deadly rampage: [Read more…]

I’m just going to post this because I don’t know what to make of it yet. Plus there’s been enough bad info floated on this horrible deal already to make anyone cautious that this might not be accurate: [Read more…]