Fun Start to the new Year, NOT…
The start of my Christmas break was spent in the UP of Michigan for a couple days. Weather was cold, and the trail system from Rockland to Copper Harbor was in great condition.
I was looking for a hotel that was cost effective for a bunch of guys on the trail system in the UP. I came across D’s Basecamp in Toivola, Mi. just south of Houghton. She had multiple suites that would hold up to 8 guys for approximately $200 a night. We had suite 4 which was 3 bedrooms, a living room, full kitchen, 2 full bathes. We all thought this was a great place to stay and Donna the owner was very accommodating. We will most definitely be back whether it be snowmobile or UTV season. Right on the trail system and about a mile north of Mosquitoe Inn.
Its been probably 20 years since I rode a snowmobile to Copper Harbor. The view from the Brockway Mountain once again did not let me down. It’s always breath taking looking down at lake Superior with all that snow in the winter time.
I did have a project I’ve been putting off since we moved in our house a couple years ago, that was redoing the felt on our pool table. I was going to pay someone to do this, but could not find someone local to do the task. I started thinking that I’ve done way harder project than this one. I found a company that specialized on products for do it yourself guys like me, so I took a chance. I think the hardest part of this project was the nasty glue removal doing all that scraping, it was very time consuming. After that, it was pretty easy putting the new felt back on. Found some tricks on the interweb which one was to soak the center of the felt with water, this was so you could stretch the felt into place and if there were any wrinkles after you were done, it would dry and tighten up to make the job flawless. The slate weighs about 300 pound, and is not really a one man job moving it around. The end results were very satisfying.
Christmas Day was spent hanging with friends all day watching football games at some awesome garage bars. People in Conover really know how to party.
December 26th started my fasting for my scheduled colonoscopy on the 27th. Felt like by the morning of the procedure I had loss 10 pounds. Well the scheduled appointment was for 10am and I arrived early and was lucky with a cancellation to get it done ahead of time. Everything was fine and I went home with some colored photos showing a healthy colon.
On New Years Eve our plan was to go out early and celebrate at a local pub which brought in the new year at 5pm with a local performer playing 2-5 (Dana the Performer) and once again did not disappoint. Headed home and invited a few friends over at 7pm thinking we’d be lucky to make it to 10pm. But the games came out and the next thing we knew it was 1am.
On Thursday the 2nd of January we headed down south to Wendys dads wedding which was pretty special to say the least. Thanks to a close friend which is a ordained minister and was able to fill in at a short notice. Wendy and I were joking we felt like the brady bunch with a whole new family.
Now, after 2 weeks off and getting ready to get back into the norm of the new year, Monday felt like just another day. On my way to work I started feeling like something wasn’t right. Heart rate started going up, felt my blood pressure escalate, heart was fluttery and started having chest pains. It felt like the heart was out of rhythm skipping a beat. I made it all the way to the parking lot of Harley Davidson and knew I should get looked at by a doctor. I called my boss in the parking lot and told him the situation and said after I got checked out, I’d be in. Well, driving to Rhinelander which is about 20 minutes away thinking to myself, just be ready to call 911 if it got any worse. I did make it to urgent care and they immediately put me in a room and started the EKG. Blood pressure was 220/125 and heart was racing. An IV was started thinking I was dehydrated, drew blood and after consulting with a cardiologist, they gave me some blood pressure meds to bring the pressure under control. The EKG did not show signs of a heart attack which was confusing to the ER doctor. After a few hours the blood pressure came down to 175/100 and that’s as low as they could get it. They decided to keep me overnight for observation. No beds at Rhinelander available, so I got an ambulance ride to Minocqua’s woodruff hospital. Not much sleep Monday night as they kept taking vitals throughout the night. Tuesday morning they did a echocardiogram and found an enlarged heart with a valve issue causing the blood pressure issue. They said the valve was smaller than it should have been and another blood pressure drug was given to open it back up to function properly. They put a heart monitor on my chest which records the heart for 24 hours a day for 7 day for further troubleshooting.
I went home with 2 scrips of blood pressure meds, one to control the blood pressure, the other to control blood pressure and return the valve back to normal size/opening.
I did do some research on my fluttering heart and skipping beats which it is still doing this morning. It happens on average once every 2 minutes and more if I’m active. A condition called Atrial fibrillation (AFib) is an irregular and often very rapid heart rhythm. An irregular heart rhythm is called an arrhythmia. AFib can lead to blood clots in the heart. The condition also increases the risk of stroke, heart failure and other heart-related complications. But the doctor told me when I asked, that the EKG showed no signs of this. I’m hoping what the monitor on my chest will show what I’m feeling.
Well it’s Thursday morning and I’m gonna try this regular work schedule again today with high hope of completing a normal day.
Think Snow
