Solar Synapse, Cardiac Conundrum
Week 16 of 2024, and the Sun's magnetic pole flip puts my heart under pressure…
To see how Sam Pepys spent this week 364 years ago, follow this link.
There’re many good things I could have focused on this week: Saturday’s afternoon of gardening; Sunday’s final rehearsals for Made in Dagenham; most significantly, our ‘final’ wedding anniversary (of our ‘anniversary season’) on Thursday…
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But, alas, Wednesday happened.
It began so well. By 7:30am, I had already ticked off most of my tasks for the week, and was on track to get on top of things – at last!
And then, randomly, the touchpad on my laptop stopped working.
The amazing David Ault, famous horror voice actor and astrophysicist, had told me on Monday that we’re currently going through some kind of solar event. It apparently happens every eleven years or so, and results in interference with our planet’s magnetic field. He thought this might explain our poor mobile signal of late.
Now it seemed the solar event had gone for my laptop. Over the course of two hours, I followed every step on Asus’ website to remind my laptop of the touchpad’s existence, a list that ended with a system restore. As I initiated that process, I felt grateful that I did at least have a spare USB mouse I could use if that didn’t work.
My laptop heard my thoughts, and realised it hadn’t scuppered me enough – so began an endless loop of repairs and restarts.
This was bad. The next week was one in which, thanks to travel, I wouldn’t be able to work without my laptop. As it was, I reneged on my writing group in Norwich this week: I couldn’t justify 6 hours on a weekday without access to a keyboard.
Maybe that’s why, during rehearsal that Wednesday evening, I became increasingly aware of a pain in my chest. It’s felt tight since that visit back near Hogmanay, but this was ouchy – and it was spreading across my upper body.
I kept it together enough that nobody noticed, and even danced all the moves we were learning for our curtain call. But when our magnificent director gave me a lift home, I asked her to drop me off at Hinchingbrooke’s A&E instead…
Back in December, the consulting GP had said, “What your heart is doing isn’t strange, but it is strange for someone of your age. I’ll refer you to a cardiologist, but if it gets worse come straight back.”
Pain was an example of ‘getting worse’, right?
After the triage nurse took my pulse and blood pressure, though, they clearly didn’t think I was at risk of an imminent heart attack; they didn’t take my bloods or an ECG reading for another 90min.
By then, I’d called Ermma to let her know, and insisted that she needn’t worry. She cleverly suggested I let the doctors know that both my parents had surgery for gallstones, as those often cause chest pain. She also made me promise to call her for a lift home, even though Hinchingbrooke’s only a 15min walk away (I actually walked there with my tight chest back in December).
She finished with a single SMS saying, “I love you.”
It was around 1am that the consulting GP called me through. As I sat there with a permanent pain around my heart, and a tightness throughout my chest, he said flatly, “There’s nothing wrong with you.”
He had the results of my blood test and ECG, so I knew I could trust him. But somehow, I didn’t feel relieved.
He asked me if there was anything else concerning me, so I mentioned the tightness I’ve had in my left leg for years now, which has my regular GP baffled. But to this he just said, “Sorry – are you here for your leg or your chest?”
I took that to mean my leg wasn’t relevant. But this flummoxed me into forgetting to mention gallstones. Instead, I asked if I was still on referral for a cardiologist.
The consultant looked as if he thought I was mad, but did at least check. With some disbelief in his voice, he said, “Yes, you were referred on 30 December. But you are not an urgent case. It will likely be around July.”
As Ermma took me home, the pain finally subsided. The tightness is still there though…
Our anniversary was the next day, this year largely sponsored by Sky TV and Compare the Market: we had free tickets to see Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire in the Cambridge Vue (very much worth the watch), followed by a 25% off our bill at Prezzo.
We had a wonderful time, albeit slightly marred by Ermma regularly checking how my chest was feeling. I got to wondering: had the solar flare interfered with the hospital’s heart testing equipment? Had it affected my heart directly?
At least I was still alive and able to enjoy another anniversary with my heart’s keeper.
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