Friday's Strip will be up later this weekend

This is my very first EMS/911 story, so I thought that I would share.

Got an extra early start Thursday morning, because I had several hard freelance deadlines. Ate my regulation bowl of plain oatmeal for breakfast at 8, cup of black coffee. Actionscript my little heart out until 4:45, no lunch, no breaks. Step out to go get something for dinner, because I gotta do a strip.

Go to Sam's Club (don't judge me), eat a free sample of frozen lasagna. Purchase 2-pack of said lasagna, drive home, put lasagna in freezer. About 5:30 Thursday evening, I start to develop some stomach pains. Fifteen minutes later, they escalate to the point that I am sweating profusely from head to foot. Seconds after that, it feels like my stomach is going to split wide open, and then, I kid you not, my arms go numb, from the elbows down.

About the point where I could not feel my hands at all and my fingers curl up upon themselves, I decide it would be a good time to call 911 on my cell phone, using a knuckle. EMS is on the way, but I'm home alone and all the doors are locked. The operator gets my wife's cell phone number and calls her to tell her that she needs to get home ASAP to let EMS in. The problem with that is our local township is having it's annual fall festival, and all the streets are blocked off for the opening parade.

By the time she gets off the phone with EMS and calls me, I've got some feeling back in my hands and the pain has let up some. I make my way to the front door, which I open up and wait for the EMS in the front yard. Super-nice and sympathetic EMS workers arrive and tell me that they have taken about 20 calls like this all week; a killer stomach virus is going around, symptoms include sudden, beyond unbearable gas pains and nausea. The numbness in my hands was caused by my abdomen cramping and contracting, restricting the blood flow to extremeties.

So I was spared a long trip to the ER, but I was wiped out for a few hours. The thing is, at 11 pm, I feel pretty much okay, aside from being exhausted. Was it the stomach flu, or food poisoning from Sam's Club? Is this a message from God to switch to Costco? Time will tell, I guess.

In the meantime, I'll make every effort to get today's strip up by Sunday. Only a few weeks left until time for the annual Halloween arc. Also, I got a lot of positive feedback on the Star Wars strips that ran this week. I'm glad that you guys liked them.