Living Proof

They say women are more complicated than men in terms of emotional and intellectual ways. We're over thinkers and obsess more than the average guy. But we're also more complicated in other ways, especially when it comes to a heart attack. For men, they get a chest pain. Bam! Heart attack. Simple. Easy to diagnose. For women, they can have a slight back pain, and that'll be the indicator of a heart attack. It's known as the "silent killer". We also get various other signs: jaw pain, chest pain that radiates in one or both arms and even good ol' heartburn. There's another ailment that plagues many hypochondriacs such as myself like costochondritis, which is an inflammation of a rib or the cartilage connecting a rib. It is a common cause of chest pain. I get this a lot, especially if I sleep on my left side at night. This pain is a sharp stab, usually in the upper left pectoral muscle which periodically hits a nerve that leads right down my arm into my ...

Let me just say one thing before I start to rant: I give so much credit for those who work in the medical field, whether you're an x-ray tech, nurse, doctor or pharmacist --- you are exposed to so much shit. Okay, that was my OCD talking. Yesterday, I collapsed onto the bathroom floor, pants halfway down and all, because I was too weak to actually get up. I had called Mad earlier to tell her to bring me to the ER. My dog was scratching the door crying because she knew something was wrong. I was severely dehydrated and weak. I really didn't know how I was going to make a 30 minute (yes 30 effing minutes) to the hospital when I was umm, going every 10 minutes, but thankfully I made it just in time. When I got to the receptionist counter while Mad was trying to hold me up, the woman looked at me and said, "Stomach virus?" I didn't say a word. How did she know? "Wait right there, all rooms are taken up by the same exact thing." Immediately my OCD kicks i...