It was all a bit scary; chest pains usually are. I was sound asleep and was woken by the intense pain in my chest which followed all the classic patterns, radiating up into my jaw and down my arm .... so I woke Ric up. This was at about 1:30 in the morning. I was worried enough that I mentioned we really needed to do something, so Ric called the ambulance service and they came and checked me out. The portable ecg they took appeared normal, but they still advised getting to the nearest hospital, so off we went. The ecg there was normal too, and they eventually sent me home.I followed up with a visit to the doctors the next day and, given our family history, she has me booked into a cardiologist. But now, after it's all over, I don't really think that there's anything wrong with my heart - I think I might have pulled some muscles or something. But I will get checked out just the same. Fact is, I had been feeling vaguely unwell the entire day before this episode and I've felt less than perfect since - no energy, lethargic and sleeping every chance I get - so I will be following up until I find out what's going on.
The focus on my health has reminded me about a couple of things: firstly, I had a cold way back in July and I still have a cough from that, so chances are I've torn muscles in my chest .... but obviously I need to put a stop to the cough.
The other thing is that in August or so I was diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome - another family favourite - and my right arm in particular hasn't really improved since then; I've had problems with my wrist, elbow and shoulder, so the time to do something about it is now. Last night, for example, the muscles in my forearm kept cramping up and at one stage I lost complete control in my arm.
This all starts to fit together, now - I'm sure it's all muscular but I haven't really been taking too much care of it all.
Ric and I have made the decision that I need to back away from some of the more physical work in our business; when we started all this, I, in usual fashion, jumped in boots 'n' all, hefting around things which I know are way to heavy for me, and now my body has shut me down. I have enough to do what with the new cleaning work, the bookwork and keeping our own home running, so it's time to stop believing that I'm somehow endowed with superhuman powers and can do everything .... that's the hardest part of it all, but quite frankly I don't have the energy to fight it any more.
