Note: After publishing this blog post, I realized this might be confusing to anyone who has not been following the saga on Facebook. After returning home from the hospital on Thursday, I experienced even more severe chest pain that night and readmitted myself to the ER the following morning.
It’s been a long three days full of needles, tests and doctors. When I was asked by a nurse on Day 2 in the ER, “Hey weren’t you in here yesterday?” it reconfirmed to me this ain’t exactly the kind of place you want to be called a regular.
Heart pain isn’t something you want to mess with, especially since just six months ago, doctors were throwing around terms like “open-heart surgery” and “stints” with Jamie. And even though I was praying like crazy it wasn’t something serious, I have to admit I didn’t want it to be something embarrassing like heartburn or acid reflux.
That is on par with feeling like you were having an acute appendicitis attack, only to realize it was just gas (been there, done that).
As it turns out, it was something: Costochondritis. Basically, it’s a condition that causes localized chest pain due to the inflammation of the junctions where the upper ribs join with the cartilage that holds them to the breastbone or sternum.
It feels similar to a heart attack so the only way to diagnose it is to systematically rule out heart-related problems. Over the course of three days, I got X-rays, an EKG, a CAT Scan and a treadmill stress test.
Yep, those medical bills are going to be ugly.
When the pain was at its worst and I hadn’t slept in two days, they pumped me with morphine, wherein I uttered such slurred profundities as “Sleeeeeepy…” and “DUUUUUUDE.”
They kept me overnight last night for observation because my symptoms seem to worsen in the evening. I knew it was the right thing to do but that evening, we were supposed to drive Haddie to Vail (about 1.5 hours away) where she would compete in her adventure race today. For the past few weeks, we’ve been biking, hiking or zip-lining every day as a part of her training. I am devastated about missing it but grateful our good friends (with whom she is competing) took care of her.
So, I’m learning how to take it easy at home and I want to thank everyone for their prayers and well-wishes. I’ve been prescribed anti-inflammatories to reduce the swelling and vicodin for pain, and the prognosis is good. No one knows what causes it but out of all the heart-related conditions, this is one of the lesser evils. I mentioned earlier I’ve had these flare-ups most of my life (though never to this degree) so wasn’t surprised to read Costochondritis is a common cause of chest pain in children and adolescents.
But there’s one complication. If you’ll recall, I was scheduled to have my knee repaired last February but Jamie had heart surgery the day prior so I pushed it back until we could pay it off. The rescheduled surgery was supposed to be in a couple of weeks and now we have a new deluge of heart-related bills.
But I’m not complaining. Maybe it’s just the good Lord’s not-so-subtle way of telling me I’m meant to limp around forever.
I'm a Canadian-born mom of two, former Denver Post columnist, family travel writer, editor of MileHighMamas.com and 9News contributor. Expert on all things Utah, Denver, family and travel. Lover of laughter and life. Happily married to a man obsessed with growing The Great Pumpkin. 