Flutterby™! : Dan's Health 2001-11-30 18:20:09+00

Dan's Health

2001-11-30 18:20:09+00 by Dan Lyke 9 comments

Ugh. Worked from home yesterday so I didn't infect my office-mates, was starting to feel fine, but then sometime late-afternoon I started to get a little short of breath and my chest on the right side started aching. If it had been my left, I'd have been to the emergency room in a hearbeat (well, depending on the heartbeat), but since it was on the other side I decided to grin and bear it. Today I'm at work as usual, but it feels like I've cracked a rib or something, except that there's very little surface tenderness. I'll muddle through the day (got a few meetings I don't want to cancel), but this does not feel good.

Get better buddy. I went to http://www.chickensoup.com to send you some herbal cures but all they sell are some crappy books. I figure if you grind them up and add chicken stock and veggies it might still be usefull. Whatdoyathink??

I been doin' the soup thing, but I can think of better ways to get my starches than ground paper. If this keeps up for too much longer I'll be seeking professional assistance, I'm fine with garden variety colds, but mysterious aches and shortness of breath scare me.

Have you been coughing? I once strained a stomach muscle from coughing during a bronchitis episode, so I thought I'd ask. Take it easy, K?

I'm not a medical professional, but your description smells like pneumonia to me. Get yourself to someone who can prescribe antibiotics, please.

You're bright, Dan, so I'm betting you've already seen someone, but just in case, I'll re-emphasize Dori's advice:

Find a weasel with a DEA number and get a Z-Pak or Avelox or whatever's hot on the west coast these days.

I hope you've not been sniffing anyone's mail (the stamped kind, Dan.... jeez.... sniffing someone's armor is kinky even for you)
or male (you've mentioned watching lots of Martha Stewart cooking shows)
or Mel (my ex-wife.)

Maybe your body's just letting you know it's time to take a few vacation days :-) Be well...

Just on a note similar to Debra's...Dan, that "cracked rib" feeling you're having but without the surface tenderness...I had something very similar once, again because of a racking cough.

If you're not coughing, it didn't happen to you, but this is what happened to me:

I coughed so hard, so repeatedly (I had a brutal case of bronchitis) that I tore the cartilage holding my bottom right rib to the rest of the rack in the front. It was nothing serious but it was incredibly unnerving...especially because I could feel it swing when I coughed (and only when I coughed). It took about a month to heal...the only symptom when I wasn't coughing was an ache *very* similar to a cracked but not broken rib.

At any rate...I hope you are seeing a professional about this, and that it's nothing. Just throwing out a prospective cause for the scary chest pain.

Hmmm... Dan, is there an unusual protrusion on your side - shaped vaguely like a knife handle?

Saturday I got someone to look over my vitals enough to say "you're fine 'til Monday, no need to go to the Emergency room". So I'm off to get, hopefully just, some antibiotics, at 11:15.

On the pneumonia thing: I've had pneumonia, and it doesn't feel like what I had. And the stethescope doesn't hear any bubbling or other sounds I'd associate with pneumonia. Anyway, hopefully some answers by lunch.