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200 Joules of Heartstopping (and restarting) Power
Philips Heartstart XL Defibrillator

My last two days have been an almost scene-for-scene repeat of the atrial fibrillation episode I had a year ago, written about in “A Good Day, Courtesy of Suntory and a Cute Cardiologist”, except that this time was much worse in the sense that the cardiologist was not cute.

It started yesterday morning, so last night I went to the hospital to pre-check the procedures, and this morning was there when they opened at 8:00, and by 11:30 I had had my electrocardiogram and by noon they were pumping Propofol into me:

Propofol
the magic sleeping milk

This time felt much different than last time... it came on much more slowly, and merely as a feeling of being tired and slightly drunk. I remember some conversation, and that I took a photo of the docs with my iPhone. And then I remember talking to a doc about whether I'm still feeling groggy. No memory at all of the 20 minutes in between.

I do have a vague feeling that the main doc preferred to have his face blocked out if I put the picture up on my blog, but it's so tentative a feeling that it might have just been a dream, but best not to take chances with other people's trust...

Docs Looking at a Groggy Me

Rest assured that he's a fine looking man, but the cute female cardiologist last year left a strong impression that's hard to beat. 🙂

Letting The Groggy Melt Away

To celebrate the lack of death, Fumie and I went to Togiya (とぎや or 十祇家) for dinner and plum wine. I'm partial to the Prucia mentioned at the top of their plum-wine list.

(Update: I was partial enough to eventually bring home a bottle, which besides being tasty is gorgeous)

Our favorite food is the tako karaage (basically, the octopus version of chicken nuggets), but everything there is tasty. The chef/owner has experience with Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and French cooking, so combines them all in odd but tasty ways.

Fruit Salad

It's hard enough to take good photos of food with pro equipment in a studio setting, so please excuse this afterthought iPhone shot. The salad was interesting because it mixed semi-frozen fruit bits like mango and orange, along with avocado and lettuce.

I took other photos, but they're just not worth sharing. I'll have to go back with better equipment some day. I'll need better excuses for why they didn't come out well, but they'll be better at least than this. And it'll be a good excuse for another glass of Prucia plum wine.