A minor blip...

...in the smooth passage of life. A few days ago, I became aware of mild chest pain; as you can imagine, chest pain is something to which we are a teeny bit sensitive. It was not severe, and it didn't really feel like the cardiac pain I have experienced before, but it persisted for several days. Jo and I therefore consulted with our GP by telephone, and he suggested we should hail a passing ambulance and hie us to a hospital Emergency Department to get it thoroughly checked out. This we did, and I am just back home from a series of tests over a day and a half.
All is well. It turns out that what I have is called costochondritis, a form of arthritis in the rib cage, which is quite commonly mistaken for cardiac pain. After all the serious, steely-eyed cardiac testing, it was quite a relief when Martin Masterson, my cardiologist, poked me in the chest and I went "ow!" The remedy: paracetamol as required. There are more details about costochondritis on http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/costochondritis/DS00626 .
Back to normal!