Before I even get started, I am going to note that I was not drinking.

Had some friends come over for the 4th...

...oops, providing some background...

I started a keto diet last Thursday; in addition, I picked up a chest cold last Thursday as well ;>...

...and returning to the story:

So my friends come over, and I am coughing a little more heavily than the usual for this week. I am not engaging in my usual hijinks either, coz I'm just a bit bushed.

We start teaching my friend's kiddos how to shoot BB guns; digression - one of the boys didn't even want to shoot..."I don't like guns"...JAYUS H...the brainwashing in schools is bad these days.

So I go to walk into the house, and my left leg just turns into jelly. You ever see a rat after a rattlesnake tags him? With his legs all rubbery? That was me ;> I manage to control myself to the floor after a few tries at walking. As I started crawling to the chair, a wave of dizziness and a headache hit me. At this point, I was hoping I wasn't having a stroke, but I did assume I had let my leg fall asleep.

So I sit in the chair and slap my lazy-ass leg around a bit, and it finally comes back into play. I walk around for a bit and make sure my legs are good indeed (see, just a leg that fell asleep!).

I go outside and I notice that my vision is blurry in the upper left quadrant of my left eye. I wait a couple of minutes for this nonsense to go away, and when it doesn't, I go to WebMD and enter the symptoms.

Happy happy joy joy!
Here is one result...
Transient ischemic attack (TIA), i.e, a "mini-stroke".

Fuck that noise. this could be a precursor to a stroke. I'll go in manana and get it checked out, but I'm not fucking up the 4th for all these happy drunks. The blurred vision goes away after about 10 minutes.

I go help the boys shoot the BB guns some more, but I start feeling really weak. So I told myself to go ahead and call 911. When I walked over to tell everybody, I noticed my left leg going tingly and numb again.

The ambulance ride

So I call 911. I am feeling very lucid. The first on-scene is the volunteer FD truck. By the time we are done with this, there are at least 10 emergency responders rubbernecking around me; the benefits of a well-off tax district with little need for constant calls for ODs and violent crime. They get here within 5 minutes.

The only thing I'm confused on is the time frame of the event. One of the girls says, He went completely white in color. News to me LOL. The EMS tech lets me know that it could be dehydration, and that it is my choice if I want to go to the hospital. My instinct is to say fuck it and see what happens without going to the hospital, but the calm part of me does a little matrix...

Go get checked out	Check it out at a later date
Ambulance is already here	resource drain if an actual emergency happens
I have paid a lot in taxes over years	can't afford it
I think VA covers it ;>	on the 4th? REALLY?
HELLO, possible precursor for a stroke!

OK, let's ride.

Digression time, two 4ths ago, one of the girls had a stroke (a real one) after getting home...I rue the fatback/maple syrup/whiskey we fried up for the beans but ate like candy...or I'd rue it if we didn't have it again the next year LOL. The only reason I didn't make it this year was this damn chest cold

Anyway, we are blaming each other for the Great 4th of July Stroke Curse and wiseassing as they cart me to the ambulance. The EMTs get in on the comedy show as well.

We have a pretty good conversation on the way to the ER ; weightlifting and life's interruptions of weightlifting, idiot drivers who can't see an ambulance to save their own lives, and this damn chest cold. The EMT tells me it's possible for this thing to last for two months, as he has just gotten over one of that time length. I need to start lifting again

I get to the hospital just in time; real emergencies start coming in soon after I arrive. I warn everyone to avoid my cough-radius. They gave me the works: NP scale test,blood test, piss test, CT, and a chest x-ray. Thankfully, everything came up clear, and I got to go home the same night. They chalked it up to the new keto diet (my system hasn't adjusted yet) and the heat of the day...hey this is Texas, and it's HOT! Official verdict - dehydration, even though I was drinking a lot of water, and have been for more than a week

I'll go to the VA doctor on Monday and do a full follow-up, but I want to see how things pan out over the weekend.

The nurse-practitioner that evaluated me was cute, around my age, and I thought we exchanged a couple of looks, but she looked too frazzled and short of time by 11PM (when they cut me loose) for me to hit on, even if I know I'm avoiding women at present, I certainly thought about hitting on her.

Moral of the story? Better safe than sorry

If you have a possible life threatening situation, go get it checked out ASAP. Don't worry about being wrong.