When we last left our superhero (Yeah, right!!!!!), he had been released from the Emergency Room with a prescription for Aggrenox to keep these things from occurring again.

Fast Forward to 12/31/04. My wife and I are on vacation. We had visited my parents (and survived) and had gone to spend time with my father-in-law. We also took advantage of the opportunity to go visit with my cousin who is also a silent partner in our new business.

We had been in Asheville, NC where my wife was working removing spyware from one of my cousin's computers. We had been there all afternoon and at about 5:00pm I started feeling dizzy. I didn't think anything about it and I felt none of the other symptoms (you know, numbness, tingling, slurred speech, etc.) so I figured we would join my cousin and her husband and another couple for dinner at this really nice restaurant in town.

My cousin, her husband and the other couple were planning to go to a movie and stay up until midnight to bring in New Years. In Asheville, they have a fireworks display to bring in the new year. My wife and I needed to get back to my father-in-law's so we politely declined those invitations.

When we left for that 45 minute drive south, I was still feeling not quite right but was able to make it home in a reasonable amount of time. We had to contend with an accident on the freeway that delayed us about 15 minutes or so.

We are now back in South Carolina. We get home about 9:45pm so we helped my father-in-law get his house decluttered for his upcoming birthday party that was happening on Sunday. By the time I got upstairs, I could feel my heart beating very loudly through my chest (you know, thump, thump, thump at a quick pace and you could feel that if you placed your hand on my chest). I got changed for bed and relaxed and let things settle down.

The time is now about 10:45pm on New Years Eve and my wife and I are in bed. You see, I don't have the stamina I used to and she has her assortment of ailments that sap her stamina as well. After laying there a few minutes, I tell my wife, "Dear, the left side of my face is numb."

She is up like a shot at that statement and she starts asking questions and turns on the light to look at me. She tells me that the muscle tone in the left side of my face is slack. She asks me to stick out my tongue (It pulls to the left side, same side as the numbness).

She decides we are going to the emergency room. I agree with her decision especially after . She goes downstairs to awake her father because he knows the area (Where the Emergency Room is) and he agrees to drive us to the Emergency Room at St. Lukes Hospital in Columbus, NC.

We get to the ER at 11:18pm. I get registered and they take me back to a room to be examined. They do bloodwork, a physical examination, and a CT Scan. All of these came up pretty much normal. In other words, nothing glaring was found.

They had me hooked up to those monitors of course. I found that I could move my arm laterally and increase my pulse from the mid 80's to over 100. My blood pressure was what I call high normal (low 130's / low-mid 80s).

By about 12:30am, the numbness started going away and I was discharged about 1:30am on January 1, 2005.

I do NOT recommend bringing in New Years in the Emergency Room. The ambiance just stinks.

I already had a follow up visit with my neuro scheduled for January 7. More about this later.

TTFN (Ta Ta For Now)

Charles Ramsey