Friday 19 October 2007

Pic of the day: "There's no way that's going to be all right!" is my standard mode of operation, I'm afraid.

Short: More hypochondria

This morning I had a new and different chest pain. There are only so many of them, you might think, but at the age of 48 I seem to have added a new one. It came early in the day, when I was still not gone to work. (I do that fairly late most days. I also go home fairly late, not to mention that I only work 90%.)

This particular pain was not to the left but smack in the middle of my chest, and higher than usual. It felt at least level with my nipples. Shortly after, I started to get queasy. I am almost equally worried about my heart and my stomach, since I have had problems with acid reflux and stomach pains for years and a bleeding ulcer could wreak lethal harm... if the stomach ruptures, it is at least as dangerous as an infarct.

I put on my pulse watch almost at once. At first it showed a fairly normal pulse, but it gradually increased. At this point I felt fairly sure that my stomach was still there, but thought that it might have been a small infarct. Contrary to popular belief, they are not all immediately fatal. For some reason, the fatal ones seem to have become fewer. This could be due only to quicker and more efficient treatment though.

At work I complained to a coworker and then called my doctor's office. I was slotted an EKG test later in the day to rule out the possibility of an infarct.

The test showed as always that my heart was in excellent condition. I am sure I am tagged with "hypochondriac" there by now. They still set me up for some tests 28 November. Before then I will probably have forgotten it all.