I woke up this morning aching all over my chest and back. It felt like I had been doing the weight lifting exercise of my younger years but there hasn’t been any weights lifted for years.

Going back a few months to just before my 50th birthday and I undertook a big checkup with some things requiring looking at including cholesterol and weight. So then started the treadmill regime with 45 minutes / 4 kilometres each day. Over the next few months I had shed 8 kgs but each time I started, there were pains that I attributed to being unfit and worked through it.

That was until Thursday when I felt really bad and even though I recovered quickly, “muscular pain” persisted.

Fast forward to today and after waking up to the aches, I thought a chinese massage would be the go but on the way I thought a chat with the doctor might be a better option.

It was getting close to knock off time at the Medical Clinic and when I asked the receptionist to chat with a doctor, her reply was that “we normally call an ambulance for that”. I convinced her that it wasn’t that bad and I was soon chatting with the doctor.

After explaining my pains when exercising, his thoughts were with angina but it still needed to be checked out. A phone call to the Chest Pain Centre and I was booked in for an immediate admission. Now just how to get there.

I rang Jenny and she was still at Mt Barker for softball. A call to my brother and he was also on the way to Mt Barker. Finally I got onto Dad for the ride down. All said why not an ambulance and the doctor had said that it was not an emergency and even offered to take me when he knocked off.

On arrival at the Chest Pain Centre, I was the only customer so there was immediate attention. It wasn’t long before being hooked up to the “machine that goes bing” and some blood taken.

The results indicated that I had indeed suffered some sort of heart issue but would require more tests to determine the extent so the Cardiac Care Unit was going to become my home for the next 4-5 days. 🙁