Jolly Roger at Half Mast

For the past week, Kent had been complaining about his neck and chest. I figured his neck was probably from playing Warcraft ever waking hour outside of work, but the random chest pain seemed a little odd. He said it was a sharp pain, right around his heart area, and that it would suddenly hurt like a bitch and then go away. I'm not sure if it's related, but shit hit the fan yesterday.

I hadn't done much this weekend. I took care of some stuff at home on Saturday, helping my Dad with our felled tree in the back yard and picking up furniture from the city for when I move back for school. Both Friday and Saturday night, I just went to Kents and did the usual hanging out. On Sunday, I went to Jersey to eat dinner with my brothers where my Mom works. That's when I got the call.

Brett called my cellphone, and told me to find out what hospital Kent was in because Rachel was freaking out. "What?" Rachel was on the phone with Kent when he told her he had to hang up and call 911, and since then no one had been able to get in contact with him. As he's telling me this I almost can't believe it. I'm sure Rachel was going nuts, and Brett would do something but he's in Maryland. Being that most people Kent knows are either out of state or 2 hours away, I'm the only one who can actually do anything.

But I'm in Jersey at the time, at a restaurant no less, so I have no idea where to even begin. So of course I call my Dad because, as Kent would say later, papa T is "like a super hero, making sure people are ok and aren't cold and shit." So my Dad called the police station in that area and found out that Kent had called 911, that police had stopped by, and that an ambulance had taken him to Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital about two miles from his house.

After that, it was like an episode of speed racer. I dropped my brothers off at home, and broke most driving laws in both the states of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. My Dad met me in the emergency ward of the hospital, and there was Kent in room four. He was awake and said that his whole chest and neck suddenly hurt so bad that he couldn't "man it out" any more. He looked up his symptoms on WebMD and of course they were very similar to a heart attack, which I'm sure freaked Kent out further.

As it turns out, nothing was wrong with his heart, but X-rays would show something wrong in his lungs. Apparently, 10% of his left lung collapsed for no reason at all, which I didn't know could actually happen to people. Doctors said that it wasn't inhibiting his ability to get oxygen, and that if he wanted to he would be OK to go home for the night. They gave him some pain killers and told him to come back in the morning. The part of the lung that collapsed could re-inflate by itself, but if it deflated any more, they would probably have to go in and do it themselves.

I talked to him today around lunch, and I guess he's gonna be fine. His lung hadn't really changed since yesterday, and he's going back with his Dad to Lancaster to rest until Wednesday, when he's supposed to come back for more tests. He has to take it easy for a few weeks (something that shouldn't be too hard for Kent since physical activity isn't exactly a mainstay in his life lol), but he should be able to go back to work on Thursday.

So that was the last 24 hours for me. Does the word "interesting" comes to mind? It looks like Kent should recover, so that's all you can ask for.

Currently, I'm taking a poll to see what new name we will call Kent to bust his balls. The names "10%", "Lungs" and "Bronchial Bitzer" have been thrown around, and I'm also evaluating using "Bedpan" from time to time. If you have any good suggestions, please let me know.