missing, remiss

Naomi is back, at long last, with an explanation for the absence: a hospital stay to diagnose and correct a heart condition.

After three days, it was concluded that the enzyme level was a lab error—four subsequent tests came out flat normal—and I have a slight electrical abnormality in my heartbeat pattern (in the T-wave, for the medically inclined among you) that amounts to nothing more than a harmless quirk. I was diagnosed with costochondritis, which is a viral inflammation of the cartilage in the rib cage, and sent home with a prescription for 800mg ibuprofen horse pills. (They did three chest X-rays, an echocardiogram, several more EKGs, a chest CAT scan, and tons of bloodwork to rule out all the more serious possibilities, hence the $22,000+ tab.)

There are two codas to this story. Coda the first: In the midst of all that testing, they also uncovered a very slight degree of mitral valve prolapse, undetectable by stethoscope, which is basically a fancy name for a certain type of heart murmur that many people go their entire lives without discovering. However, since stimulants have a way of making it worse over the course of a lifetime, I am henceforth ordered off caffeine. Yes, that's right. No more caffeine. Ever. And there's nothing like eliminating caffeine cold turkey to make you realize how dependent you were on the stuff. But this amounts to a minor annoyance at worst and a great excuse to stop consuming something that isn't very good for you under the best of circumstances, plus a very strong incentive to get more sleep. I am content.

Good to know.

In other blog inactivity news, we wonder whatever became of Mere Orthodoxy. I'd hate to de-link what was once my number one read, since my brother and his blogging pals were consistently posting good stuff about philosophy, science, relationships, and everything else from a thoughtful Christian perspective. We were friendly adversaries in the iron-sharpens-iron way, and I miss that. I know that my brother's absence (he's finishing a book, teaching, running GodBlogCon, and being a good husband) is a major loss, but there are four other guys on staff. Fellas?