Every now and then, you get smacked in the face with your own mortality
.
Two things happened recently to remind me of mine.
A co-worker's childhood friend passed away this weekend. Don't know the guy, never met him, but when something horrible like that happens, I can't help but treasure the time I spend with my close friends and family. My health and that of my loved ones is something I take for granted, and it's really quite jarring when I am occasionally smacked in the face with reality.
The second thing happened tonight. Woke up this morning with soreness in my upper back; thought I did something to it in my sleep. Around 7pm tonight, I experienced shortness of breath and pain on the left side of my chest.
Talked to an RN at my HMO, and to Buffy, an RN friend of mine. Both suggested to head to a hospital just to make sure it was nothing. Those kinds of symptoms really aren't things to mess with, so Geneve and I headed to Hartford Hospital.
Had to get three x-rays, including two of my chest. Turns out the first one had irregularities that the radiologist thought was caused by shadow cast by my nipples... so I had to get a second one taken, wearing little pasties with metal nubs--permanent NHOs. As if that description wasn't funny enough, Geneve asked if they had tassels on them.
Good to know she doesn't lose her sense of humour in a tense situation.
So it turns out I did just pull my my rhomboid muscle in my sleep. Good to know, but it is still freakin' scary when you take a deep breath and feel like someone is stomping on your chest.