Twitter as Medical Alert System

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Detour, originally uploaded by LenEdgerly.

Yesterday as we were in final preparation for our trip to Boston and Maine, I woke up from a nap disoriented, unsure what year it was, and sure someone had slightly revised all my posts on Twitter. My wife and my doc agreed it would be prudent to get checked out. I ended up overnight at Presbyterian/St. Luke’s Medical Center in Denver, and received a clean report from various tests, including a CAT scan last night and an MRI this morning . I was attended well by Dr. Timothy M. Clark, along with Maria on the 10th floor, Kirk on the MRI, and others whose names I can’t remember. I was pretty fuzzy until this morning, when the world seemed to click back into alignment. Dr. Clark speculated on what sort of event might have cause the interruption and discharged me at about noon. I’ll have some of his comments on the Video Pod Chronicles episode I plan to upload Wednesday.

The Twitter angle is very strange. I was so convinced that my Tweets had been tampered with that I wrote a couple of them down longhand last night, as evidence for whatever hunt I was going to conduct for the Twacker. I asked Darlene to bring the notes to me this morning, and, no surprise, I recognized every word of them. Forgetting the year last night was one thing, but it was my total disorientation about Twitter that really shook me up and made me agree quickly to a visit to the Emergency Room.

We were booked to fly JetBlue to Boston late tonight, but it’s been delayed till tomorrow night. In addition to calls from my family and friends, I was really touched by the chorus of consoling Tweets that I received online from friends on Twitter. My good Alaska friend Kes Woodward and his physician wife Missy also provided key encouragement last night to get things checked out. I won’t say I wasn’t scared, because I was, and I am still digesting the experience. One thing for sure is that I will abandon my odd habit of smoking one cigarette a week, on Thursdays. It was fun while it lasted, but a night at Presbyterian/St. Luke’s convinced me it’s not worth however miniscule the risk it poses of a return visit.

It’s great to be back home, Twittering and blogging, watching TV with Darlene and the Yorkie, and enjoying the rest of 2007.

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