What does it feel like to be woke up, out of a sound sleep, with a stabbing back/chest pain, just under the right shoulder blade...near between the boobs? Well, it felt like I was having a heart attack, only more in the back! Everyone knows you should take an aspirin if you think you're having an attack and then call 911 and/or get your butt to the ER room. I know that! I have a number of years experience with heart issues to confirm that I should know that! But I got up and took two aspirin's and then went back to bed to figure out what I was going to do if this WAS a heart attack. This plan of action was not in the brochures on what to do if you even THINK you are having a heart attack and, in fact, would not be the recommended way to handle the kind of pain I was having! None the less, that's the way I handled it and I lasted out the weekend, with the steady, 7-10 level of pain off the 1-10 point pain scale most nurses use, nowadays, and a steady diet of aspirin's and ibroprofens seemed to keep the pain tolerable.
Why didn't I scurry up to the hospital to get checked out, like, that very night? I'm not really sure. I had doubts that this was a heart attack because it felt different from the SVT's I once suffered with until an ablation was done to my heart in December of 1996. This new year of 2010 finds me reaching out to a new doctor and a new hospital, both located 50+ miles from where I live due to difficult experiences with local doctors and local hospitals in both Grant and Ogallala. The hospital in my home town, Ogallala, has been on my avoidance list ever since my gall bladder surgery in 1997 and experiencing the nasty debt collecting practices they used after the construction of the new hospital not long after. They are a good resource hospital but not the kind of home hospital I want to frequent. Sure, great personnel work for there and the hospital is new and beautiful. And ... it has a big construction bill needing to be paid. If that was the only problem I might be willing to reconsider snuggling up to their care but I have a list and let's just say I don't trust them anymore. So no, I did not want to go to local hospital and if I was going to drive 50 miles to my newly chosen hospital for care then I was going to be certain I needed to go!
So, on Monday, I called and scheduled an appointment for Thursday. THURSDAY! I can't believe how many things I felt were more important than to go get checked out to see if I was having a heart attack! I'm scheduled to care for my grandson on Mondays through Wednesday so, of course, Thursday was the earliest I could go. AND my paperwork for my taxes wasn't finished yet, so I just HAD to get that all in order in case I was hospitalized, or worse, dying! That way my husband could just mourn for me instead of cussing me for the mess I would have left him to sort through.
So Thursday it was. They hooked me up to an EKG and my heart was ruled out pretty early. Guess the fact I made it til Thursday might have been a good indicator, too. I was admitted into the hospital for a stomach scope, and a biopsy was taken which later proved to be non acute. I went home with a few prescriptions and samples for Celebrex and that intense pain still bringing me to tears at times and an appointment to discuss test results with the doctor on the following Friday.
I couldn't wait until that next Friday and by Monday, after nearly 10 days of such intense pain I called the doctor in distress. That Tuesday they sent me to the Ogallala hospital for an ultra sound and cat scan of my 'guts' and my Friday appointment with the doctor was bumped up to Wednesday morning.
Wednesday morning, a funny thing happened. I woke at 4:30 am feeling better than I had since all this began. The pain was barely noticeable! My husband encouraged me not to cancel my doctor appointment, which I was considering, and so I went anyway, and learned I was probably suffering from Pleurisy.
Pleurisy ~ also known as pleuritis, is an inflammation of the pleura, the lining of pleural cavity surrounding the lungs. Pleurisy typically causes sharp, stabbing pain with difficulty breathing.
Today, is Friday and it has been nearly two weeks now with this pain. Sure, the pain is at a lesser degree since Wednesday of this week but I'm really wishing the pain will soon be COMPLETELY gone and I can get some very much needed things done! Things that God must also want me to accomplish since He's not taken me out of this life, yet. Nope, no heart attack. Guess, that's what happens when you're not having a heart attack.
