Expect the Unexpected

Another beautiful day in sunny south Florida. A perfect day for tennis, or so I thought. Fran and I had our usual early warm up. I was feeling good. Each day I've been feeling more on the ball and confident with my play. I knew Susan would be a tough match, but I was ready to see what I could do. About 30 minutes before my match, I went off on my own, stretched and got myself mentally prepared. I had a game plan, and was ready to put it into action.

Susan is a big hitter. She started out swinging big. We had some long exchanges, with both of us moving all over the court. In about the third game of the match, I was finding that I wasn't able to recover between points. My heart felt like it was beating out of my chest. I just couldn't catch my breath or recover. I was taking deep breaths and trying to slow everything down, but nothing was working. Fran was watching and I told her I was in trouble. Finally at 1-5 I called for the trainer and took a medical timeout. He took my pulse and blood pressure and stayed with me through the allotted time...I think it's about a 15 minute rule. After the timeout was over, I stood to see how I was feeling. I wobbled and was unsteady and I knew at that point I shouldn't continue. I was so disappointed. I had promised Phil that if I had any problems that I would be smart. My little voice was telling me to be smart. It's so hard to stop in the middle of a match and say you can't continue. At the trainers recommendation I decided to go to the local ER to get checked out. I was feeling pretty drained after it was all said and done. I opted for Fran to take me rather than call the paramedics. (later I found that it's best to call the paramedics so they can get a truer reading of what my heart is doing when I have the episode, rather than waiting 45 or so minutes later) The Palm Beach hospital and staff were great...except for the student blood drawer, who poked my vein, and caused a gusher bigger than a geyser! There was blood everywhere! All my blood work was fine, my heart rate and blood pressure stabilized. A bag of fluid later, I was on my way. I did call Dr. Phlaum, my cardiologist, while I was in the ER to let him know what was going on. He advised me not to try to play doubles this afternoon and just take it easy. So we pulled out of the doubles. Poor Fran must think I'm a medical mess...this is the third tournament that I've screwed up the doubles for her.

Other than feeling tired, I feel fine now. I'll hang out tomorrow and watch Fran play Susan in the semis, and hopefully watch Fran in the finals on Sunday, before we fly out on Sunday evening. Well, I wanted to use this tournament as a barometer to see where I am, and now I know. More work to do. I hope we can figure all this out. I've had a great time being back on the court and hanging out with all my tennis friends.