some mild chest pain that started last night. It was on the left side of my chest, and I was hoping it was just a pulled muscle or pinched nerve that would feel better in the morning. The pain was intermittent, but lasted through a restless night, and when I got up in the morning it was then accompanied by a tingly/numb left arm. I went to work in the morning, and while the arm numbness and chest pain continued, at one point a wave of lightheaded/dizziness hit on top of it. It definitely caused me to panic internally, which I'm sure didn't help at all, but it was one of those few times in my life that the thought went through my head that this could actually be it, and Death was on the way to get his due.

Thankfully I recovered after a little bit, and it wasn't a full-on heart attack or cardiac arrest that my stupid worry-wort of a brain thought was coming. I decided I wasn't going to take any chances and headed to the urgent care. They did an EKG, and although there wasn't anything major showing up, they were worried about an elevated "J curve" (you medically smart folks may know what that is, but I sure didn't). They took a blood sample, because apparently if something specific does or doesn't show up there at certain levels it means the "J curve" is either something to worry about or not. Thankfully it came back normal - meaning it wasn't an immediate emergency type of situation. They do want me to go back for a "stress test" (one of those treadmill tests) on Monday to get some more data, so I have that to look forward to.

Although I'm not feeling 100% yet, I've been feeling better this afternoon/evening. Things seem to be trending in the right direction, but I won't consider myself fully out of the woods until after the stress test on Monday.

Anyway, days like today just remind me how death could come for any of us at any time. It's so easy to forget during the day-to-day grind when things are going well. It also reminds me I'm nowhere near ready to move on. I've got a lot that I need to work on before I'd feel anywhere near ready. Now I'm just hoping I don't make an exit before I can take the chance to do something about it.