the First Five Heart Attacks Don't Count - Part 2

I tossed and turned all night. I got up at my normal time and was sitting at my computer desk catching up on work. It was a Friday morning, not much to do.

My girlfriend insisted I go to my doctor who was a great person, physician and friend - and less then three blocks away - I love small towns.

I declined but she called and the friendly nurse insisted I get my fat 'a**' in the office immediately. She was German and could probably kick my butt.

They all listened and poked, drew some blood, took a chest X-ray then a paramedic volunteer brought in the portable EKG and I let them test it on me.

The doc said something to the paramedic and they conferred with the end result being they both heard and saw it - whatever 'it' was.

The doctor made a phone call and the paramedic hooked the EKG up to a phone line and I heard the familiar sound of a modem. They were sending my EKG someplace.

After a half hour wait, I was ordered home to bed, to take whatever medicine my girlfriend brought me and follow all orders written on this full sheet of paper no matter how good I felt.

I was to relax and not worry about a thing. How stupid an order is that? The second order on the sheet was no physical activity. Like walking? Like showering? Explain please. A few sentences down: No sexual activity - What? A few lines down, no heavy meals - eat many small meals - refrain from red meat and the next line: No alcohol. No smoking anything. You get the idea.

Ok, no sex, no red meat, no booze and no smoking. My life was over.

At the bottom of the page was a notice I had an appointment with a cardiologist Monday morning, February 26, 2001 - my girlfriend's birthday.

I had made great plans including a party at work, followed by a few drinks at the local watering hole then a nice quiet dinner at the best restaurant in the big town twenty miles away.

My girlfriend came home from work early that Friday with her daughter in tow and four or five different medicines for me.

I got out of bed to see what the Internet had to say about my new dope. Blood thinner, another to make my heart beat steady, nitro to open up my arteries, new blood pressure medicine - double the dose of before, and some Xanax. My girlfriend promptly took one.

I slept the next 24 hours and sneaked out to have a lunch time cigarette. It tasted so good. I was in a great mood and was so hungry I was ready to go to the hood for some battered fried chicken, red beans and rice with thick buttermilk biscuits.

That Saturday at brunch I had old fashioned oatmeal, dry toast (one piece) and sucky decaf coffee. In retaliation I had another cigarette on the sly.

Then I went back to sleep. I heard mother and daughter exchange words in loud voices but I did not hear it clearly because of the closed bedroom door.

I was brought back to life by someone yelling. I got out of bed and my girlfriend was yelling at someone on the phone. She was so mad I could not understand what she was saying.

She hung up, saw me and told me to go back to sleep. I don't think I had ever seen her that mad. She explained her daughter wanted to go to her father's for the weekend - one of her friends was having a birthday party.

Unfortunately the daughter was grounded as a result of her independence ploy on Thursday evening. She still wanted to go to dad's so the father was called with the request and the rules for the visit were hashed out.

The daughter asked to be picked up at a friend's after they got done studying. Agreeable to all parties since the friend was well trusted and was gifted with stern parents.

The daughter headed out walking to her friend's saying she would call her father when she was ready.

Five hours later, and several attempted phone calls, the father drove to the friend's home where a neighbor advised the family was on vacation for at least another week.

The Third Night

Her daughter was not old enough to have a cell phone but I set up a spare that only allowed calls to/from two numbers.

The rules were going to be simple - if she failed to answer the phone or attempted to bypass the security she went to her grandmothers a state away and would attend the private girl only school at her father's expense which meant she would be expected to work all waking hours cleaning and doing chores on Grandmother's farm.

She would also not be allowed to attend driver's training until her 18^th birthday and would forfeit her car stored in our garage that she had earned by getting perfect grades for two years.

Of course, these were the plans her mother and I discussed without the daughter present. We expected her at any time.

Her father's house had been locked up and signs put on all doors and accessible windows for her to return to her mother's. The neighbors had been asked to give her a ride or to call the sheriff if she broke into the house.

She chose to go to a different party where there was lots of alcohol. At 10:30 she was brought to us by a local village policeman. She called him a pig when he took the handcuffs off.

She did not know I could move so fast or talk so loud. I blocked her path before she cleared the foyer and demanded she apologize immediately.

The I requested a court date from the officer and her mother explained she needed a wakeup call.

After the officer left she called her mother a few choice words and I showed her to her new bedroom - the room was empty without any lights.

I threw in a blanket and pillow and her mother told her if she heard the door open she would be at her side immediately keeping her eye on her.

The daughter demanded she go to her father's. Her mother dialed the phone and I could hear the father's voice across the room.

She would not be going to her father's overnight or alone for two or three months as punishment. He would get her on Wednesday evening for a library trip where she would be expected to study and be tested afterward.

That's when the daughter threw the phone through the eight foot by five foot picture window - it was deliberate because it took her three throws to break the inner window. Luckily it was a double hung energy efficient model. And then she called her mother an fffin' whore.

Her mother made her sit in a kitchen chair in the middle of the living room while I laid on the floor trying to breath and clutching my chest in extreme pain.

The paramedics were called and I got nitro. I did feel much better. But my heart was skipping all over the place. A Xanax seemed to make things much better with another dose of heart beat stabilizer just in case.

The paramedics came, took my vitals, hooked up the EKG and transmitted the results to the ER docs. They thought everything looked good and they left me with a bottle of oxygen and mask at my doctors orders who lived the next block over - and still makes house calls - I do love small towns.

Her mother told her to keep an eye on me while she ran to the grocery store for something.

Her mother was extremely pissed and her daughter was extremely scared - she said later she was worried about her own ass but her mother told me she was actually worried about me but would never admit it to me.

After she left I moved to my computer desk without help and the pain hit again - hard. I sucked a nitro in and the relief was almost immediate. The oxygen seemed to make me dizzy and confused.

Her mother came back with aspirin - the one thing she had forgotten earlier and had me take one. Her daughter acted like she did not have a care in the world and it broke her mother's heart.

At that point I did not care about anything but feeling better. I hurt bad but did not tell anyone. I decided to try my usual treatment and went to bed.

At three AM I woke to extreme pain and took two nitros, another Xanax and a stabilizer. I went to the garage for a smoke after I stabilized and felt pretty damn good.

I laid on the couch trying not to disturb anyone. It was a good thing I did - her daughter tried to leave at 4 am.

I told her that if she left I would have the sheriff put her in the juvenile center until she was twenty-one - I was done with her. She decided to stay.

To be continued.