Monday was a rough night. :( I'm really out of shape; so Monday afternoon I went for a long bike ride. Much longer than I guess I should have...and I was breathing really hard and really fast. Five miles of hills. I was pretty proud to have done it, and all without getting off my bike!
We went to the awards that evening; and so when we got home from the awards my chest was hurting. I figured it was heart burn from those spicy meatballs. So I took some tums and went to bed. The night was so awesome that I literally fell asleep with a smile on my face.
I was up and down all night and the pain got worse and worse and started going into my back, my jaw and down my right arm. I started to panic and freak out some...so I woke Cyndi up and told her what I was feeling. We were both afraid I was having a heart attack (no matter how unlikely that was...) I actually knew about pleurisy and kinda thought that might be what was going on...so we headed to the ER. I was so afraid I was going to just be told it was indigestion and sent home and I'd be so embarrassed for wasting everyone's time! (not to mention the cost of an ER visit...I JUST finally got all paid off on my last visit. Dang it!)
When the doctor came in they checked me out, checked on my heart, breathing and tapped around on my tummy. After he did that he looked at me and asked "are you a sex change patient?"
Um...what?! o.O I was tired, in pain and confused...I have never heard anyone put it that way. My first thought was "no. I'm an androgyn. I don't plan on having sex change operations..." but I just literally didn't know how to answer his question! He must have seen the confusion on my face and asked a follow up question, "Are you genetically male?"
To which I responded "Oh!...no." he explained about estrogen having cardiac risk. So...ok. Makes sense...I guess.
This doctor has treated Cyndi before, and Cyndi was there with me (and he knew Cyndi's trans*. She's open about that.) I was wearing jammies, a tshirt and have been growing out my facial hair. I never bind my breasts...and most certainly don't bind to go to the ER when I'm feeling so crappy!
We hung out, and watched videos on Cyndi's kindle. They brought in this numbing liquid to see if the pain was indigestion, but it didn't help.
So they assumed it must be pleurisy and gave me an anti inflammatory shot and that totally worked. My hands have never tingled that bad ever. It was really horrible. We came back home around 4:30am and went back to bed. I slept until noon and then just relaxed on the couch.
The doctor didn't explain pleurisy very well...so I googled it and the first thing I saw was it's connection to RA and Lupus. Hmmm. So I called my GP's nurse to tell her about the night's events and she said that my bike ride totally could have caused it...and that people can get it from having colds where they cough too much, or pneumonia where they cough and wheeze too much and that it's not just RA and Lupus related. *whew* She told me I've got to take it easy for the rest of the week and to be sure to take deep breaths even if it hurts so that I don't get a I'm not sure where this leaves me for Pride parade...we'll see. One day at a time I guess.
The doctor's question "are you a sex change patient" will be with me for quite a while!! What a way to ask if someone's transgender...
1 comments:
I for one am glad that you're okay and that it wasn't a heart attack or something like that.
I've been in somewhat similar situations because I tend to jump into exercise full throttle, even if it's been a while (which is what it sounds like you did). Once I went walking in a hilly neighborhood and forgot my inhaler at home (I have asthma). I barely made it back to the house, and when I did, I felt like I was going to die!
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