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It only hurts when I breathe

The chest pain got worse.

I awoke this morning with a tight, achy feeling, like a small person (maybe a 4-year-old) was stepping on the left side of my sternum*. But, stubborn idiot that I am, I went to the gym and got in the pool and made an attempt at swimming my 5000m workout. After 1800m, it was just really annoyingly painful. My coach looked at me and told me to get out of the pool, take the day off work, call the doctor and get some rest. (She also noted that my lifeless eyes betrayed the lack of sleep I got last night. I was up way, way too late working on a fun project. Fun projects will be the death of me. Damn those fun projects.)

My sports-medicine doctor's office has an urgent-care clinic**, so I walked in and got in to see a doctor pretty quickly. She poked around and declared that I probably did not break a rib in the crash, but rather bruised or strained the rib-sternum connection point. The X-rays showed no obvious breakage. But the doctor was very sympathetic: "It feels kinda like you're having a heart attack, doesn't it?" She understood.

So now I'm back at work with a handful of prescriptions and a load off my shoulders (but not off my chest, har har). Even though the doctor basically confirmed what I knew, I feel better just for having gotten it checked out. No bones are broken, and I will not injure myself further by continuing to work out, but I WILL TAKE IT EASY. I will not ride 90 miles tomorrow as planned. But maybe 50. Or possibly 60.

* When we were little kids, my mom used to lie face-down on the floor and have my sister and me walk up and down her back in our bare feet. We thought she was nutso, but now as a sore and creaky adult I completely understand. Ah, to have a 40lb child at my beck and call for such needs.

** The office is inside Pac Bell Park, or whatever it's called now, where the SF Giants play baseball. Photos of the players hang on the walls. They have an X-ray machine in the office, which is so so convenient. As medical offices go, it is pretty darn cool.

August 18, 2006 12:06 PM