Just when...

... you think things are going great there always seems to be something that pops up.  This was my view Friday afternoon and yes, those are my cute shoes on a hospital bed.

I felt "off" from the get go that day but I just chalked it up to fatigue.  But then I was sitting in a client meeting that afternoon and it started to feel like an elephant was sitting on my chest.  I had chest pain and soon it was spreading to my shoulders and neck. 

I finished the meeting and got some water.  I sat back down at my desk, drank my water and Googled chest pain spreading to shoulders and neck.  I didn't even have to open a single link; every preview on Google told me to go straight to the ER.  So off I went with a co-worker who gladly drove me and stayed with me.  I work with some pretty awesome people. :)

It's amazing how short your wait is when you walk into an ER and tell them you are having chest pain; it was either than or my new haircut that I got for the occasion.  I had exactly enough time to write my name and birthday.  By then they were taking me back to start an EKG.  Fortunately my EKG looked great.

The pain was not subsiding so next was a blood draw, a chest x-ray, morphine, and a CT scan to check for a blood clot.  Nothing showed up thankfully.

Diagnosis: atypical chest pain/severe anxiety.

I have a follow up with a cardiologist next week for a stress test and I can't help but wonder if you can win a stress test since you're running?  That's my goal... win the stress test!

The ER doctor told me to take it easy and I did that for exactly one day.  I ran a few miles on Sunday and was back to riding my bike on trails with Steve on Monday evening.  Not doing something physical is no longer an option for me... especially since it's one of the things that helps to minimize my anxiety.

So while this event scared me and even made me wonder how I could be possibly have a heart issue given all my running, I felt more confident knowing I would be OK because I have been taking good care of myself.  That's a good feeling because 6 months ago I would have felt very different and would have second guessed my health the entire time while waiting for the test results in the ER.