It feels strange to realize that you are the cause of your own sleeplessness. I had a roommate in my hospital room, and my snoring woke him shortly after I was shown to my bed.  He turned on his TV to muffle the noise, as drowning it out would have been a futile effort. The TV broke through my sleep, and woke me up.  I’m certain that my roommate and I cycled in and out of dozing for most of the early morning.  Later, when the sequence of likely events had clicked, I apologized to him.  He was gracious enough to accept.

It’s worth noting, I think, that hospital food is still terrible.  Though, now that I have an inkling of what it’s like to juggle dietary restriction (both before medical incident and after), budget, hitting some sort of healthiness goal, and more budget, I can’t imagine throwing in mass production.  Feeding patients, employees, and visitors in a hospital is putting food in a lot of mouths.  So, while I grumble about my dining experience, my hat is off to those doing the job.  You jump through hoops that I couldn’t.

When Nikki walked in to my room, my spirit soared.  I had guessed she was on her way, because she’d stopped responding to text messages and emails.  Having that knowledge didn’t dampen how good it felt, even a little bit.  She did a magnificent job trying to hold back her fear and worry for me – she only teared up once or twice.  Wren came with, since they were heading up to Frankenmuth together.  She gave me a sisterly punch in the arm and told me how stupid I’d been for not going in earlier.  I grinned, told her “Thank you,” and stuck out my tongue.  They both went on their day, despite their worry for me, and that made me happy.  I know it’s not easy to put aside worry and enjoy the moment.  I was glad not to ruin it for them.

My Dad’s a superhero.  I don’t know if I’ve mentioned that here, but he is.  I don’t ask the man where he hides his cape.  It’s a respect thing.  It’s there, though.  He made the trip up from the T-W-P to watch the kids so that Nikki and Wren could go on their trip while I was having my heart tested.  And after I was cleared to go home (did I mention that my heart seems to be perfectly healthy?), he and Cian initiated Project Get-Nikki-Flowers-While-She’s-Out-Of-Town-So-She-Gets-A-Happy-Surprise-Upon-Her-Return-Home to great success.  While I may have been the mastermind behind project GNFWSOOTSSGAHSUHRH, it couldn’t have been done without the superhero.

I would be a jerk if I didn’t mention Dad’s oft-underestimated partner in superheroing, Mom.  She stayed home with Grandma so that Dad could come up and help out.  I’m certain that she has a super power, and I think it revolves around putting up with Dad, Joe, and me.  Ask Nikki, that’s no task for a normal human.

Gentle reader, I would be happy to end my tale here.  Me, safely home with no heart problems.  Nikki and Wren, bellies full of Truth Chicken.  Dad, Acelyn, and Cian, hearts full of play time.  Alas, it was not to be.