8:47 p.m. - 2003-01-30
Back Pain
Miss Bunny had to go have her eye checked this morning. She has been seeing our cat's vet for this, Dr. J., whose office is right down the street, instead of two hours away in Birmingham like Alvin's. Thank God I had the sense to make the appointment for 10:30 this morning instead of the usual 8am, because the minute I woke up I had the distinct sense that something was just not right. Like, that maybe I needed to roll over and go back to sleep for at least the rest of the day.
This could have been triggered by having a strange but actually rather beautiful dream where I was shown a photo of myself as an old lady. I was about 80 years old, and, although a little jowl-ey, not all that bad. Oh, and there were some big bags under my eyes, but there are already big bags under my eyes.
It was rather reassuring actually. It wasn't a bad face, but instead was a face that will wow all those old geezers at whatever nursing home I wind up in.
Anyway, I finally pulled myself out of bed, with about ten minutes before I was supposed to show up, rabbit in hand, for the appointment. Rushed through the morning ritual, grabbed Mirage and her carrier, dashed into the car, jumped into the driver's seat, turned around to grab the seat belt...and experienced pain the likes of which I haven't felt in years. An amazing stabbig pain coming up through my left shoulder blade. It was excruciating.
I kept going though. They didn't call me "No Quarter" in art school for nuthin'! By the time I had driven the three minutes to Dr. J's I was hunched over the wheel and could barely breath. The kind vet assistants did all the bunny wrangling for me, Miss Bunny's eye were pronouned almost cured, and they loaded her back into the car.
I did manage to make it home, by which point my arm had gone numb, I couldn't breath, and I was vomiting. And the pain in my chest had developed into very intense pressure. If you are at all familiar with heart attacks this will all be sounding just a bit unnerving.
One of the doctors I used to work with at the emergency room used to joke that if someone called and thought they were having a heart attack, we should ask them if they felt like an elephant was standing on their chest. I felt like an elephant was standing on my chest. Did I call an ambulance? Nah, I called Bruce.
I just had this feeling that it was an intense chest wall spasm. I've had them before and they usually only last about ten minutes, but I could have messed myself up reaching for the seat belt. So I decided to call Bruce and let him know what was going on and then go upstairs to bed. I figured as long as someone knew I was halfway dead I could just go collapse with the cell phone, and if it really got bad I could call 911 just before I passed out. I think they can trace cell phone signals thess days.
It's feeling better now. I would say it's definately muscle related. Jeez, talk about useless weeks - this one has been a total write off. And I still can't remember the name of that freakin' Italian author! For a fleeting moment I thought it was Italo Calvino, but now I'm not sure.
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