As I write this, it is Thursday morning. On Tuesday night, my girlfriend was suffering shortness of breath and pressure in her chest, accompanied by dizziness and (briefly) pain or pressure in her left arm and neck. We called 911, and paramedics responded quickly, but they could not identify a specific problem. They recommended that we go to the hospital. So I insisted on taking her immediately to the hospital - thank the gods that her ex-husband was able to take the kids! Anyway, my girlfriend was admitted to the ER, and they soon decided they were going to need to keep her overnight. There were no beds available in the hospital, so we stayed in the ER. I stayed until 3 AM, then went home to call out of work for the next day. It wasn't until late morning the next day that she got a hospital room. I visited her again Wednesday night, but they still didn't know anything for certain, and were going to keep her overnight (again) for more tests. They still don't know for sure what is going on as of this writing on Thursday morning.
All of which has provided us with outstanding opportunities to practice our Stoic philosophy. None of these things is really in our control; how we react to these things is in out power, however. We are not perfect sages, and it can be difficult to maintain true Stoic serenity in such trying times. But we're working on it.
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