So I turned 24 last month! And the day after I was struck with more medical issues than I've had my entire life combined (I may be
exaggerating, but it was bad). So what exactly happened????? NOBODY KNOWS! I had one doctor tell me I was like an episode of house, another tell me I was 'special' and yet another tell me I was a medical puzzle.
Basically, I woke up at about 12:45 AM on Monday with bad chest pain. I was hoping I could sleep it off but after 30 minutes of tossing and turning and increased difficulty breathing I called Dr Mom (or Nurse Mom if you want to get technical) and she was like 'what are you doing- go to the hospital!'. So I woke up Sleeping Beauty and he drove me to the ER while I prayed that I was not having a heart attack. After an hour of waiting in the ER with a really unhelpful triage nurse, I parked myself at the sign in desk and refused to move until they took me back.
They finally took me back, checked my vitals (everything was normal), and gave me some morphine for the pain. They did an EKG which was also normal so I started feeling a little foolish- did I really imagine all this pain? Nope. After about 6 hours (in which my poor hubby did not sleep a wink) a cardiologist came by and let me know my
troponin (cardiac enzyme) levels were high which is
indicative of a heart attack but another enzyme that increases with heart attacks was not present at all (big cheer here). A few hours and another dose of morphine later I was admitted into the hospital and we both called our bosses to let them know we wouldn't be making it in to work that day.
I was in the hospital for a little under 2 days and in that time they took my blood and vitals every 4 hours and did an EKG every 6. They also did a CT scan of my chest and an
echo cardiogram. I also got to experience the awesome effects of
nitroglycerin (I hope no one EVER has to use this stuff. worst headache of my life) and eat some delicious hospital food (although my dear hubby did sneak me some
chipotle).
Michael had to go back to work Tuesday since the president of his company was in town and Michael had a presentation for him but his mom came and stayed with me for a while until my mom was able to make it down (after 3 cancelled flights).
After all these (expensive) tests my team of doctors (internist and a couple cardiologists) could not totally determine what was wrong- so they used process of elimination and determined I had
myocarditis.
Myocarditis is basically inflammation of the middle layer of heart muscle, and when it gets
inflamed,
troponin is leaked and causes heart attack like symptoms. The only way to fully diagnose this though is with a biopsy of that particular layer of the heart. NO THANK YOU! So they put me on some
meds (which didn't work) and then some different
meds and all was good. Except.....
When they did the CT scan of my chest they saw a nodule on my thyroid. Not really a big deal (about 50% of people have them and don't even know it) but it was a pretty big one for someone my age. So I got to have a needle biopsy done on that- which was awful! They can't fully numb your throat and they stick a thousand (7) needles in your throat, wiggle them around to loosen up tissue, and then suck out some samples. But thank God, it was benign. So I think I'm done with docs for awhile. I got to have a ton of follow ups for the first couple weeks after everything went down and missed a ton of work, but since I don't work for
satan anymore it wasn't a huge deal.
Overall it was a scary, expensive, and painful ordeal. The inside of my arms were bruised for a month from all the needles I had poking me.. But I am so thankful that it was nothing major and that I'm still kicking today. I don't know how I would have handled it without my husband and mom literally by my side and all my other friends and family by my mental side. love you all!!!!!
Oh yeah....I'm gonna run a marathon? Go ahead and laugh. I am.
