I hate being sick

For those of you who don't know, I was in the hospital this past Tuesday with what now appears to be acid reflux. I had spicy shrimp earlier in the day and then I topped it off that Monday night during the poker game with shrimp tacos and a shrimp quesadilla. Initially, I thought all the shrimp must have meant it was food poisoning but I just don't think so. Right around 9:30 pm on Monday, I got a pain in the center of chest that was uncomfortable, but not unbearable. After everyone left, and I went to sleep, I was able to snag about 2 hours of shuteye when I woke up at 1:30 and the pain had gotten much much worse. The few times in the past I've had acid reflux (only twice actually), I've been able to get by with some Maalox and Xantac. This time, nothing worked. If you've even had acid reflux, you know that lying down actually makes it worse because the stomach acid goes up into your esophagus, which is probably what happened when I was asleep for the two hours. So my only recourse was to stand up or walk around until the pain subsided. But it didn't, and I was awake like that until 7:30AM with the pain actually getting worse as the night wore on. I called my ex-wife for help because she's been suffering from this for a while and she convinced me, wisely, to call for EMS. I did and they arrived in 10 minutes flat. Two enormously large Fire Department gentlemen came in and were the nicest guys I could have asked for. They took down some personal info, including insurance, natch, and wheeled me out into the ambulance on Wall Street to take me to the New York Downtown hospital which is only a few blocks from here. I was admitted immediately into the emergency room where they gave me an IV drip and some painkillers. That helped enormously as it took the edge off and I was able to get 30 minutes of sleep. My ex-wife arrived (we're still close) and helped me with the X-rays and EKG tests the doctor ordered and then she drove me back. I made it back to my door at 1:45 PM, completely wiped out and still in some pain. Whatever they gave me made the pain bearable and I was able to sleep the rest of the day. I had to take the next day off from work and I thought I was good to go in Thursday, but I managed 3 hours before I went back home. I was considering cancelling the Thursday game, but I wanted to host it even if I wasn't good enough to play simply because we had new players and I didn't want to disappoint them. Plus, as you can see, I'm addicted (duh). Today was okay for work but I'm watching my diet very carefully, sticking to salads and inoffensive mush, like oatmeal until my digestive system gets back on track. The only casualty was my plans for this weekend. I was going to spend the weekend in Atlantic City with Paul Hellman but I don't think I'm quite up to the task yet. I MUST be ill if I'm cancelling Atlantic City. Oh well... There's always next month.