tl;dr: Bad things happened at home and on campus, I wound up in the ER, went to a cardiologist, and I've got atrial fibrillation. Probably genetic. Unlikely to outright kill me, but it's possible if not treated (blood clots, complications with other stuff) and it's a whole lot of not fun. Also rare in people my age (0.5%). Is really going to fuck with my ability to do well in school, especially as right now I have as much desire to go sit in my sociology class as I do to have my gums scraped. Even more so given that one of my "episodes" happened in government last time, and that was both terrifying and embarrassing.
Echocardiogram to follow, and I have no money for anything else, so this may all lead to bankruptcy (had insurance for the better part of 15 years and used it maybe twice, quit job and within 2 years keel over with something whose fixes range from three-day hospital stays to stabilize drugs that will need to be taken until I croak, or $100,000 surgery; and only after probably 8-15 grand in bills just to get me stable enough to treat). I've had irregular heartbeat stuff pop up various times before, but nobody ever thought it was particularly bad. Neither did I until I lost consciousness and fell over several times in the last little while. Come to find out my sister is suffering from similar but less obvious stuff, and this in the wake of an uncle who just died of unknown heart complications, another that's dying of unknown heart complications, and my dad who died a decade ago of heart complications after living for 13 years after a heart transplant.
On the bright side, I guess I don't have to worry so much about whether social security is around when I retire. On the downside, I'm probably going to have to write my books a lot faster.
Not looking for sympathy. Just posting this here because you're my friends and I wanted you guys to know, especially in case something unexpected happens to me at some point. Probability is that I'll end up at least sort of okay eventually, but with these things you never quite know.