The day before we were departing for Italy, I woke up with a stiff back, barely able to move.  We decided that we would simply go to the walk in clinic and get some muscle relaxers, which would surely be the answer to my pain.  As I waited for Nick to get ready, I suddenly felt very weak.  I called my paramedic boyfriend down to see what was wrong and with a few checks of my seriously low blood pressure, and a worried look after not being able to find my radial pulse, he decided to call an ambulance.  9 hours later, we left the emergency room with some painkillers (see picture) and heart monitor sticker marks that I still can’t get off.  It turns out I got positive results on all the tests I took, and with that in mind I told Nick we were definitely still leaving the next day.
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