Happy Holiday Weekend??

I hope everybody had a fun Valentine's/Presidents' Day! I know I did... NOT!

I'll preface by saying that I get a really bad cough deep in my chest every year around the same time. It's probably a pollen allergy. I'm not sure. I do know that it's happened every year since 2007. So when the bad cough occurred toward the end of January, I stocked up on orange juice and Sudafed and waited for it to pass. Big mistake.

This past Wednesday I noticed a bizarre pain in the left side of my chest. I wrote it off as a 24-hour stomach bug, but when the pain hadn't subsided by Friday I knew it was time to visit the doctor. Yes, kiddos, I spent Valentine's Day at the ER!!

My paranoid self was already thinking it was something serious like appendicitis, and if I coughed strongly enough it was going to burst. The nurse certainly didn't help when she casually mentioned it could be a urinary tract disorder. Gee, thanks woman, I'm not already legitimately concerned!!

To my relief though, when the doctor finally entered the room, she said that all my organs were completely fine. The muscles around my ribs were simply inflamed from all the hacking I had been doing.

Yes, you read that correctly. I have flaming ribs. *insert gay joke here* The doctor prescribed me Robitussin for the cough and an anti-inflammatory before briskly leaving the room. I was still kinda stunned at what had come out of her mouth, but I picked up my medication and spent the rest of my evening drinking with the roommates. Ya know, because I had to get one last hoorah in before starting my medication the next day.

By Sunday evening I felt a lot worse. The anti-inflammatory set off my acid reflux. Stupid reflux! First you can't do spicy foods then caffinated products, but now you're gonna take my medication away from me too?? Rude. Anyway, on top of the pain from the inflammation, now I was feeling lightheaded and had a severe case of heartburn. I stopped taking the meds immediately.

Now we're on Monday, Presidents' Day. I worked as long as I could, but I had to leave mid-afternoon because I couldn't take the pain anymore (and I wasn't even doing anything at work). I headed back up to the ER and explained my situation. I think I left the doctor dumbfounded. She had this look of, "Fool! You can't take NSAIDs without it coming back up? Who are you??" That said, she was extremely helpful. Wayyy more helpful than the doctor I had seen *VERY* briefly on Friday.

She browsed through all the different anti-inflammatories there are to see if any of them did not have heartburn as a side effect. Of course they all did. So she prescribed me some Tylenol regular strength to deal with the pain while I continue taking the Robitussin. Hopefully once the cough goes away the inflammation will finally die down as well. She also gave me a doctor's note to get out of work for a couple of days because the only way to heal muscle inflammation is... well to not do anything. At all. Okay maybe breathe but that's pushing it.

So all in all I've had a spectacular holiday weekend! Hopefully by Thursday all this pain will finally go away, and I may continue my life as normal. Until then, I'm gonna do what I do best: sit on my lazy butt. MOVIE TIME!!!