When it rains...

Thank you all for your concern about whatever is going on with me. I've got to tell you, I'm kind of concerned at this point. Yesterday I started having chest pain on my left side. Thought it was probably just a gas bubble stuck in my chest/shoulder, but it got worse and worse today. Of course my mom is freaking out. So I called my doctor's office and talked to the nurse. She said give it until Friday. Okay.

But it just kept getting worse. And by the time I went to get Eric I was REALLY hurting. It started just hurting with a deep breath, or a cough, or a hiccup, but it got to the point that it was hurting all of the time. So I told Eric we needed to head to urgent care. I just didn't feel comfortable waiting until Friday. I certainly wouldn't have let Eric or one of my kids do that!

We had the puppy in tow because of shots, so Eric, the boys and the puppy stayed out in the car while Taevy and I went in. This time I got to tell them about my dad's history (died of bronchiolitis obliterans) and my grandfather's history (blood clots in legs). The doc did an EKG (fine) and another chest x-ray (also fine). He said with bronchitis (my current diagnosis) I shouldn't really be coughing up blood or presenting with left side chest pain. He said "Something is funny in the history."

He called my doctor and the doctor said....no, I won't do that joke again. =-) The doctor said that I should come in tomorrow armed with a fresh sample of my bloody sputum. The doc at urgent care said he was surprised because he would have voted to have me go back to the ER, or to just admit me to figure this out. Oh well. At least I don't have to wait until Friday.

So I walk out of the Urgent Care at almost 8pm and start the car. Wait. The car won't start. UGH! Eric listened to sports radio for 3 hours and our battery ran down! Eventually Eric's parents came and gave us a jump. A quick stop at Sonic for dinner and now we're home.

I am in a lot of pain. I'm not coughing very much. Seriously--I don't cough much. It's just that when I do cough it's usually bloody. But this chest pain is a PAIN in every sense of the word. I can't get a deep breath without grunting in pain. Actually at this point, I sort of want to grunt in pain constantly.

I don't know what's going on. If you're a doctor and have anything to guess, please comment! The more brains the better! I just don't even know what to guess it is at this point. I just know it's not TB and supposedly not a blood clot (I have a LOT of those symptoms). It's hard for me to believe it's bronchitis and from a quick web search, pertussis doesn't really fit (I don't have a hard or all-day cough).

I would really appreciate prayers. Eric cried this morning because he's worried (he never does that) and the big kids both asked to pray for God to heal me tonight before bed. I think in this family we've always had thoughts of the daddy leaving before we want him to, but it's kind of new territory for the mommy to have something that we can't figure out.

Anita