I had one of the scarrier moments in my life this morning. I went to bed around 3:30 the night previous, but for some reason I woke up spontaneously around 6:30. I lay in bed fully awake, hardly even groggy, and after a minute or so I felt a little pinch in my left side, between my lower ribs. I'm used to little pains like that; they would bug me if I slept on my stomach the whole night or if I lay down on something which put too much pressure on my chest. If I tried to breathe deeply, I'd get a sharp pain in my ribs--something to do with the difference in pressures. Other times, I'd have a ache in my shoulder and side if I slept funny, like lying on my arm with my back twisted. But this pain was different. It lingered. After a few more minutes I felt a ghost pain in my left chest. Something was up. I didn't wake up on my side. I ran through my mind all the possible scenarios. I remember learning that pain inside the chest is usually referred by your brain to an area close to the skin because there are no pain receptors in your internal organs. There was no shooting pain down my arm or pressure in my chest, just a strange pain I never felt before. I thought about how there's a history a heart disease in my family. I thought about how most heart attacks occur in the morning. I wondered if I drove myself to the emergency room to get tested, if insurance would cover it. And if my parents would find out. I wouldn't want them to worry about something like this if it was a false alarm. The pain didn't go away. I lay flat on my back, breathing as lightly as possible. I felt my heart thump hard in my chest every few beats. For a long time there's been a fear in my mind that I might have a heart problem. Every now and then my pulse would race for no apparent reason. Sometimes it would seem like my heart skipped a beat. I thought about dying. About my mortality. There are few times in my life when I've felt more fragile than I did laying in bed. I thought maybe God was calling me or something. That it might be my time. Or maybe I'd be living with a damaged heart. I thought about when my dad had a heart attack, and how much the medical bills were. I think at one point he was moved to another hospital in an ambulance and it cost around $5000. Did my insurance cover things like this? I got up and started looking