Thursday 05/15
Played tennis with Nar for about an hour in the late afternoon. Good long-sleeve dri-fit weather; it was upper 50s and overcast.
Friday 05/16
Occasionally (maybe once a month, if that) I’ll get a fleeting, sharp/stabbing pain in my left side. It usually occurs when I’m up but not doing anything strenuous, so in the past I’ve ignored it since the pain was very brief. However in the evening when trying to nap I got one of those pains, but it lasted maybe 5-10 seconds, much longer than it ever had previously. I had just eaten a large 10-piece nugget meal with an extra junior cheeseburger deluxe from Wendy’s (only meal of the day), so I was concerned that I may have had some heart trouble. A google search for “sleep chest pain” eventually led me to this site:
http://www.fibromyalgia-symptoms.org/fibromyalgia_chest_symptoms.html.
I didn’t read it thoroughly, but I felt satisfied that my issue wasn’t heart related and then took my nap.
Saturday 05/17
Woke up with tightness in my chest. This was the most common symptom for angina, which was usually the top choice in my google search the night before. So I dug up my insurance card and started to look up providers and ER benefits. I think I would’ve gone to Lutheran General had I ended up going, but I ended up passing after confirming that my HDHP has a $5000 deductible.
An aside: Three years ago when I first decided to get health care at Target (by then I had been around numerous ‘close encounters’ throwing the truck/taking down pallets put up in the air by idiots) I just got the cheapest plan so that I would have something in the case of something catastrophic. I was surprised to later learn that the ~$10 I was paying each paycheck went into a HSA that was set up automatically, so in the end my entire premium went into an account I could pull out of (and it gained a nominal amount of interest). The one negative was that the HSA prevented me from doing a free e-file with H&R Block the next year, so when it came time to re-elect I was like ‘Fuck the HSA’ and chose the cheapest plan, which was only $6 a paycheck. Not sure if it didn’t exist the year before or just wasn’t available to me due to tenure, but I jumped on that in an instant. I found out this year that the HSA would still screw me since Target’s benefits year starts around April, but H&R Block didn’t appear to need the 5498-SA (aside #2: I just received my 5498-SA for tax year 2007 in the mail this month in an envelope postmarked May 5. Way to go, Optum Health Bank!), pulling the info from one of the option boxes in the W-2 (I made no withdrawals from the account). Looking back Target had some great benefits, as now I’m paying $50 a paycheck for the HDHP coverage from Advocate (benefits get considerably cheaper for 3-year/full-time associates and then I think continue to drop at increasing tenure intervals) which I had assumed at the time of election would go into my HSA like it had at Target. When tax time came around, I finally read the fine print and saw that the only contributions to my HSA would come from my own pocket, so there would be none.
Back to the story: by the time I had looked up my insurance information and kept looking at heart health websites, the tightness had begun to subside. And many of the sites ended their angina info pages with tips for 50 year-old men and post-menopausal women. Thinking I was in the clear both physically and demographically, I decided to take a nap. And when I woke up, I felt like a new man. So I had a McDonald’s double cheeseburger and two McChicken sandwiches, and later on went out for Nik’s birthday, where Nar gave me a clean bill of health, confirming the age stuff I had seen online earlier.
Before we got to Uncle Fatty’s, my first time playing quarters led to many shots of whiskey, and we all were sufficiently drunk before leaving Andy’s place. Me and Nar were displeased at waiting at least 20 minutes at the front bar to find out that the blender broke and there would be no mixed drinks served from there. In the end I did get to try one of the tropical drinks, although I don’t remember if it was any good. All I can recall about the experience was the following:
-wait time at bar=unacceptable
-sports bar in back almost like a second establishment
-^had a moderately attractive unkempt DJ
-quality cover band
-that 30 year old in front of us was something
Generally though, I thought it was a cool place with the beach decor.
A couple of pictures, not enough for a facebook album, so they go here:
^I’m almost positive that the only thing that could’ve been in Nik’s line of sight at this moment was the (admittably very good) guitarist of the cover band, who I would instantly classify as a bum if seen outside of cover band duties.
Before Golden Nugget, Nar was pointing out how he thought his brother messed up his Civic somehow by smoking:

They were all trying to illuminate it, and Nik’s swiss army light is pointing directly at a hole in the turn signal cover on the side mirror. Something that we could not discern in person. Also Nik, if that knife has a USB drive in it, that’s the shit.
Sunday 05/18
Slept most of the day.
Monday 05/19
From Sunday I was up until maybe 5 or 6AM. When I tried to sleep though I was unable to since my arms felt sore, something I hadn’t noticed earlier. The arm soreness messed with my usual sleeping-on-the-side position, and I couldn’t have slept for more than 15 minutes before being forced to readjust. It was probably all mental, but whenever I tried to sleep on my back I would just feel some sort of vibrating/tingling sensation somewhere in my body after a few seconds. Despite this, I ended up going to work at noon, not feeling fatigued at all. After work, I felt like Burger King, but I decided in advance that I would limit myself to a cheeseburger, small onion rings, and pie of the moment.

(cropped from BK website)
Unfortunately Burger King didn’t agree. Appealing to my interest in new fast food offerings, mayonnaise, and lottery, I had to get the meal and King size it to maximize the number of game pieces. I was displeased to find out that the game pieces are scratch-off (their Spiderman tie-in had the same type); if you let them idle on a fry container or drink cup the oil/condensation will seep through and make it significantly more difficult to scratch off, and they already have a low-quality scratch-off surface to begin with. One thing I need to take a picture of next time around was the two-ply nature of the game piece, as the second layer has the online code you can enter for a second chance game like with McDonald’s Monopoly. As for the burger? I took the image from the website since mines was no good:

To be fair, it would have turned out better if BK’s lettuce were more consistent. I’m not a big fan of BK’s or McDonald’s lettuce, although I would choose the latter over the former if I had to. Wendy’s is ok since I think it’s usually one big slice of lettuce, but Steak’n'Shake is probably my favorite since it’s also one big slice but of the leafy variety. But like most things, in the end I approve of the sandwich as a whole, although I wish they offered it in a single version, just so that I could feel healthier by not eating their most artery-clogging one.
I did think very highly of the wrapper as well:

I like how they switched up the font and modified the flavor text to match up with Indiana Jones. Also I never really paid much attention to the whopper type logos, although I don’t think I’ve had a whopper since the chicken tendercrisp came out.
Tuesday 05/22
On Monday i didn’t notice the arm soreness at all during the day, and it only popped up when I was trying to sleep. Yesterday I felt it a little bit during the day, and it wasn’t as bad at night, but I was eventually able to sleep once I committed to sleeping on my side. Despite initial skepticism, I’m assuming the soreness can be attributed to tennis on Thursday, although I’ve never had it settle in more than two days after the causal event before.
Wednesday 05/23
Haven’t tried to sleep yet, and I haven’t decided yet if I should go to the Y in an hour or so to spend some time on the elliptical, or wait until 8 to see if Nar wants to play basketball.
I guess I should document my attempts to modify my lifestyle, maybe this will motivate me.
-when not eating, can only drink water (already started this on Saturday, we’ll see how this holds up in cooler weather)
-no super-sized meals with exception of BK/Indiana Jones promotion (this failed last time one week in, I can’t cut fast food completely or probably even partially out of my life)
That’s all I’ve got at the moment. Not sure how I want to quantify the physical activity element, so I’ll pass on that for now. I know the two things above are minor, but ‘crawl before you ball’ has been my health-improvement motto for at least a year now. And now? I’m still in Pampers.