Everyone I Ever Was and Everyone I Ever Will Be

Yesterday I woke up with pretty bad chest pain.

I'd had it off and on for about a year now, but then it was always a sharp pain whenever I took a breath, and it lasted about a minute and a half, tops. So by the time I was able to really get worried, it was gone.

This time? Lasted for half an hour. I browse around on webMD ("Could be something harmless. Could be cancer." Gee, thanks) and then call mom to ask her exactly what heartburn feels like. She says that what I'm having is probably that, and so at lunch when she and dad come to visit me and the tots, dad brings a bottle of antacids.

Take four of them. Nothing happens.

Since it's been about three hours by this point, I bite the bullet and call my doctor. He's out of town for the day, and the nurse says that considering it's chest pain, she has to recommend going to the ER.

So I hang up, tell my parents that she just has to recommend that because she can't diagnose over the phone, it's probably nothing. That yeah, the whole three-hour thing isn't great, but the pain isn't spreading, my arm doesn't hurt, and it's always faded off before.

Mom: "True. Now get in the car."

So I get to the ER, where I think about half the staff is people I graduated with. One EKG, one chest X-ray, and a shot in the butt later, and I am the proud owner of an inflamed muscle! Which explains why it only acted up in bursts before-- just pulled it or something-- but kept hurting yesterday . . . the other night I carried Ian around for about three hours straight when he wasn't feeling well but kept fighting sleep.

Took a bunch of Ibuprofen to help the swelling go down, and was told to take three or four pills whenever it started acting up again.

And that was my excitement for the year.

So a couple of months ago, one of my back teeth (that I'd a filling put into when I was about ten) broke practically in half. Weirdly enough, it didn't hurt, and since things like X-rays and strong antibiotics weren't exactly a good idea, I figured I'd wait it out and go see a dentist right after the baby was born.

Well, over the past few days it's started aching if it touches something cold. And yesterday while I was eating, it actively hurt. It fades off to basically nothing when I'm not eating or drinking, but . . . yeah.

My next doctor's appointment is about half a month away, and I'll talk to her about my options then. Hopefully there are options other than "tough it out until May", because if this does get worse I'm going to be an incredibly cranky person by the time summer gets here.

I'd already taken tomorrow off work, in honor of Halloween, but after I sprained my toe I took today off, too-- and a good thing, since I'm limping like crazy. Chris and I did head to the grocery store, though, because I want to walk around enough to gradually prepare myself for Wednesday.

I like having days off, but it always throws my mental schedule out of whack. Wasn't until Chris left for work that I really remembered-- "Oh yeah, it is Monday, genius. Update Karavan's Mirror."

So that's done, and now I'm going to do some more NaNoWriMo plotting/panicking.

***

My dad was walking home from work the other day, and he heard a woman shriek, "Leave me alone!" Her voice was coming from a house about half a block away, and as he walked closer she yelled it again. So he took out his cell phone and called 911.

A moment later, a guy comes out of the house, looking none too happy.

Idiot: "What're you doing?"
Dad: "I just called the police."
Idiot: "What the . . . you just called the cops on me?"
Dad: "Yes I did."
Idiot: "And now you're just gonna stand there and wait for them?"
Dad: "Yes I am."

So the guy proceeds to yell at my dad, threatening him and saying a bunch of 'if I ever see you around here again' stuff. Meanwhile, the woman who was in the house heads out a side door, gets into her car, and drives off, circling the block. The guy sees this, gets into a different car, and leaves. When the cops get there, the woman comes back and she and dad explain what was going on.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why my father is awesome. :-)

***

Speaking of awesome, if you haven't done so already, go rent Slither. I cannot recommend this movie enough. Nathan Fillion! Sarcastic characters! Alien slugs bent on world domination! It's great.

Went to the Kansas City Zoo today. Walked about eleven miles (no exaggeration, mom was wearing her little mile-counter thingy). Am beat. Going to loaf now.

This is a persistent cold. I have now nicknamed my office trash can "Mt. Kleenex".

I called the donut shop this morning to see if I needed to come in to work, and I guess I really sounded crappy because I got an immediate, "No, stay home." Time to go the orange juice and pill-popping route, clearly.

Other forms of therapy include sitting here and writing (of course) and reading The Chronicles of Narnia. I got the entire series for Christmas, and I'm really enjoying it so far . . . when I was little, I only read The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, and that took me a long time to get through because when Aslan was killed I got so mad I shut the book and didn't pick it up again for over a month. lol (I think I was about seven or so, and had absolutely no clue about the Biblical parallels)

The books have such an different tone to them-- very laid back and conversational. After having it drummed into my head in various writing classes to never use 'you' and 'we' in a book, it's interesting to see them used so much here, along with the constant side notes in parentheses to the reader.

On movie news, if Brokeback Mountain is still playing in Wichita next Monday, my husband and friend I (and possibly my mother) will be making a pilgrimage to see it. Yay.

And has anyone heard anything about that new movie End of the Spear? I want to see that.

Okay, when I told mom that I might try to lose a couple of pounds before the wedding because I tried on my dress again and it was a little snug around the middle, I did not mean "lose a couple of pounds by getting a cold and therefore not wanting to eat anything". Bah.

So I was sitting here, typing and sniffling and generally feeling sorry for myself and cursing at the entire planet every time I sneezed, and then mom and dad come back from some errand-running and mom hands me the DVD of Alone in the Dark.

Me: *purrrrrrrrrrrrr*