Thursday 14 September 2006

Pic of the day: I guess it is only natural that my friends are shocked when I tell them about my chest pain. After all, many of them have friends or relatives who died around my age after telling similar stories.

Doctor again

It all started on Monday, when I was at work. Actually I was not working when it happened; rather I had taken a longer break than I had planned to, because I followed a link by an online friend to the weird and awesome comic Slow Wave, which is actually a collection of random people's dreams, illustrated in a 4-panel black/white comic format. I guess some of you find other people's dreams boring, but I was totally absorbed, until the pain started.

The pain this time was in my left arm and the left side of the chest. This is generally considered to not be a good combination. I got up and wandered the corridors trying to walk it off, but there was no effect for the better or worse. I felt somewhat nervous about it, but I knew it could not be the heart. After all, nobody in my family ever has a heart infarct or anything such. Well, at least not until they are almost too old to stay alive anyway.

My friends disagreed with the categorical way I dismissed that option, and after a few days I gave in and called the doctor. I was, unusually, given an appointment the same day.

***

This was not the usual doctor, but another young man who seems to be into combat sports or something, judging from the strength of his hands. He poked me quite a bit. As expected, he did not think it was the heart. Rather he suspects a stomach ulcer, which seems likely to me as well. Just to be sure he gave me a prescription for nitroglycerin, which I may take if I have an attack and see if it has any effect. I am not likely to do that, since I can walk up a flight of stairs four storeys without feeling this pain. It is pretty clearly not angina.

I am going back tomorrow to take blood tests, for cholesterol and such. I also got an appointment for Thursday in a week, at 9:20 in the morning. Light knows how I'll get up early enough for that... there is no direct bus connection from here to there, only from Nodeland to the city and then from the city to Tangvall where the doctor's office is. Hopefully I'll manage somehow. Besides, a week is a lot of time!

In the afternoon I celebrated, as is good and proper, by mowing the lawn with the manual lawnmower.

Incidentally, when I came back from work, I could not find my key at first. Then I discovered that it still stood in the door, on the outside. I think this is the first time I have seen that. I guess I was more distracted than I was aware of. That, and I was up a couple hours earlier than usual...