I knew it wasn't a heart attack (I'm about 20 years too young for one, and I had none of the other typical symptoms) but I started to grow just the tiniest bit concerned because this tightness is accompanied by difficulty breathing and pain whenever I take deep breaths, so I thought it'd be a good idea to call my primary care doctor, just to hear her say 'oh, it's just asthma' or something.
Instead, I was told to take my arse immediately to the hospital...which I wasn't at all expecting to hear. I also wasn't able to do it since no one was available to see me at work until later that afternoon. She wasn't too thrilled with me, but I had to tell her I had no choice.
So I wound up being seen this afternoon (and my car getting hit by some confused elderly man on the way there *twitches*) and the doctor tells me it's Costochondritis, which is actually not that serious at all. Here's the mayoclinic definition:
Costochondritis is an inflammation of the cartilage that connects a rib to the breastbone (sternum). It causes sharp pain in the costosternal joint — where your ribs and breastbone are joined by rubbery cartilage. Pain caused by costochondritis may mimic that of a heart attack or other heart conditions.
Your doctor might refer to costochondritis by other names, including chest wall pain, costosternal syndrome and costosternal chondrodynia. When the pain of costochondritis is accompanied by swelling, it's referred to as Tietze syndrome.
Most cases of costochondritis have no apparent cause. In these cases, treatment focuses on easing your pain while you wait for costochondritis to resolve on its own.
And that's probably going to be the last bit of excitement from me for the rest of the month (or so I pray...)
1 comment:
Holy crap, woman. You been livin dangerously. And you're the third person I know of in the last two months to have heart attack symptoms that turned out not to be heart attacks, but that scared the crap out of a primary care physician.
Good grief.
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