hello and good friday morning to everyone. i have returned from vanderbilt hospital and i have many stories to tell. i also learned alot about myself as far as my health is concerned, so listen up. first, i had to leave to get there yesterday morning at about 6:30am to get ready for the 12hr test. matt drove me over there which was nice because i was planning on walking. once i got there though, they ran me through a bit of paper work and commenced with plugging me in. first i got two iv's, one in each arm, and then they started taking blood, and by that i mean more blood than i have ever given (this is an equation that will play in later). before i got there though, i had only gotten four hours of sleep, and i had also not eaten in 14 hours, so my blood sugar was low. well, after they gave me the infusion of the medication i was receiving, they let me rest for about an hour. that's when i fell into a deep sleep. shortly after they woke me up and immediately walked me over to a chair on the other side of the room, then they started taking more blood. it was then that i felt very dizzy, and was thinking about how weird it was. the next thing i remember, i was having this marvelous dream, and someone touched me on the hand. i was in such a deep sleep i forgot where i was. i thought i was going to wake up in my dorm room, but then i remembered that i was at the hospital and that they were probably just waking me up to do another test. then i felt with my head that i wasn't laying on a bed at all, and immediately opened my eyes to see what was going on. so my eyes open and i see a bright light and a bunch of faces all circled around me staring down at me. the first thing i said was "i just had the most pleasant dream" then they asked me my name and i answered, then the date, and i answered again just as quickly. they then told me i passed out cold and then some more folks ran into the room with the defibulator (heart schocker). i was amaized because i've never passed out before, and it felt very weird though it didn't hurt at all. i did regain consciousness in a pool of my own sweat though, and my left fist was tightly clenched. also one of the nurses who put me on the floor so i could get more blood flow to the brain hurt her back and was pretty shaken up about the whole deal, so she went home. i on the other hand, thought it was pretty neat, and carried on the rest of the day normally. i was, however, moved from group two that takes more medication and gives blood, to group one that gives no blood and takes only the infusion. i'm still getting payed the $900 though, as i would be in group one. for the rest of the day it was pretty much sleeping and test taking. on the occasion i would flick on the tv, but not very much was on to watch. anyways, the thing i learned about my health was this. apparently my heart has extremely emphesized reflexes meaning that whenever i move a muscle or take a breath, stand up, or sit down, my heart immediatly reacts to that change. from what the doctor said, that is a very healthy thing that most folks my age have, except it was way more emphesized in me than in anyone else he's examined. the only down side is that when exaustion and low blood sugar come in to the equation, i can become more sesceptible to passing out. i though that was really neat. being that i had about nine wires hooked up to me, i got to see how my body reacts to lots of different things. the EKG monitor was what showed the voltage of my heart and that's what also displayed my heart rate. i have an incredibly low heart rate at 48bpm. at one point it even got down into the upper thirties. average people have a resting heart rate of 60 bpm. when i stand up though, my heart rate immediately jumps to 120 bpm from 48 to cope with the changes in distribution of my blood due to gravity. it sounds a little wild, but he swore that it was very healthy. anyways, i just thought i'd share that with y'all. now i'm gunna go wash all of this hospital stank off of me in the shower. oh yeah, and the worst part about my visit was when they had to take off all of the 11 EKG pads off of my body. those things have about the same adhesiveness as super glue and about ripped my skin off. we won't even discuss my poor chest hair (singular). have a great weekend everybody. peace and love!