What do you do when there's nothing you can do?
I had quite a scare last night. While on the phone with an old friend, I began having major pains in my chest when I breathed. I thought I had bad indigestion or something, but the pain became increaingly worse. Ten minutes later, Luci and I are in the ER and a nurse is ruling out heart and lung problems. Fortunately for me, the hospital has a poilcy of seeing the patients with chest pain and breathing difficulties first. I had an EKG and was returned to the waiting room. Best guess was pulled muscles along my ribcage. I had to take very shallow breaths to avoid the pain. After waiting for 3 hours, I checked to see my place on the list. Fifth. Translation: 1-2 more hours. We left. I went home, rubbed on some menthol and slept. My doctor doesn't answer her phone nor her email and I've resided to go sit at my desk and try not to breathe too deep. Ahh...
It's a little ironic to have "breathing" problems after I've quit smoking. Going on nine weeks now and I'm no longer using the patch. I still have little red squares all over my chest and arms.