So, last night, like I do pretty frequently, I casually browse through some of the Facebook pages of people I knew in life. One of them as usual, is Ric. And first thing I see on his timeline is this message:
My first thought, as I think anyone would think when seeing this, was who the hell puts a glib post on Facebook about them having a heart attack like this? But then I thought about it. Yeah, Ric would.
Of the 75 or so responses he got, only one asked if this was a joke. Messages from his mother and sister confirm it's not.
Apparently, as shown in the picture above, Ric's mom Candy, and his sister Debbie, we're down from Indiana visiting with Ric over the holiday weekend. As usual, Ric played host by bringing them to all the swanky restaurants in Lake Mary including the above visit to Fishbones. (Yes, the same Fishbones Ric, Scott, and I had gone to the night I got so drunk I didn't know where I was. Let's see now, I guess that was back in
2006.)
As Debbie describes it in a message to another relative on this Facebook post, Ric started feeling chest pains before they were about to leave to go back home. Debbie says his mom thought it might be acid reflux but to get it checked by a doctor anyway. Apparently, the pains resurfaced, and I guess Ric checked into an ER.
I haven't called him either to find out more details or to give him any well wishes. Maybe I should. I just did, it went to voicemail. I left a message for him to call me if he wants.
EDIT: He called me back around 5:00 p.m. Just as he was being released from the hospital and confirmed that the doctors did say it was a heart attack but that it was affected by a minor collapsed artery. Not sure what that means. I would think any artery collapsing around the heart isn't exactly what I would call minor. And I could hear in his voice that this scare was going to be greatly minimized in his mind. He would not be compelled to become Pod Person 2.0. I told him that "Well at least I feel better knowing he feels better." and left it at that. We didn't talk about how our interactions would proceed from here on out. I don't expect he'll just call out of the blue, he still sounded like talking to me was awkward. Until, that is, one weekend probably sooner than you might think, he'll be putting back a pitcher or two at Gator's and he'll pick up his phone. He wants company on his journey to his death spiral.
