Me? Nooooo.

On February 8, 2011, 10 days before my 27th birthday, I got a caramel macchiato(did I spell that right?) from Starbucks. It's my favorite drink. I think I would do backflips and a song and dance if I could get one for free. When I get coffee and bring it to work, it takes me pretty much the whole morning to drink it. No lie. Probably b/c my hands are so occupied doing other things, like answering the phone and typing semi important business proposals. Ok. I don't type business proposals. I type letters that threaten collections to people if they don't pay their bill. So I was at work on that lovely, cold February day sipping on my macchiato when all of a sudden I feel this strange pressure in my chest. And then I felt it go down my left arm. And then I thought "OMG I AM JUST 10 DAYS SHORT OF 27 AND I AM HAVING A HEART ATTACK! OMG. I AM TOO YOUNG TO HAVE A HEART ATTACK. OMG I AM GOING TO DIE."
Overdramatic? No. Not really. I think those thoughts were rational. I decided I wasn't going to make a big deal and threw the coffee away. The pressure slowly let up and I chalked it up to the fact that it was the espresso in the coffee. But as the day went on, I felt worse. Then on my way home from work, I had another episode, this time with shortness of breath. Again, my thoughts were: "OMG I AM JUST 10 DAYS SHORT OF TURNING 27 AND I HAVING A HEART ATTACK. OMG. I AM TOO YOUNG TO HAVE A HEART ATTACK. OMG. I AM GOING TO DIE." I arrived home and tried to calm down, telling myself that it was nothing. But, there was a small voice in the back of my head telling me that I should probably get checked out. I decided to tell my mom. She yelled at me for telling her so late in the night and that if we went to the emergency room then, we would have been waiting for hours on end. I decided to wait until the next morning to see how I felt and would then make a final decision on if I should go to the E.R.
Morning arrived and I woke up still feeling the pressure and occasional shortness of breath. I then decided it was best to go to the E.R. They pretty much took me in right away. They did an E.K.G. and brought me to a different area while I waited for the results. I had several thoughts going through my head, the most prominent ones being "How the heck am I going to react if I had a heart attack so young? Is my life about to take a turn for the worse? I know I don't always exactly eat right, but I am fairly healthy, so why is this happening?" The E.K.G came back normal. A nurse then came and asked me 8,000 questions
N:"Do you have history of heart attacks or heart problems in your family?"
Me:"My grandparents, but they are much older. My sister had some issues, my mom has a heart murmur, but other than that, no."
N:"Do you have panic attacks?"
Me: "No."
N: "Are you depressed?" (My thought was: "This isn't a psychiatric ward!" But I guess it was necessary.)
Me: "No."
And so on and so forth about my medical history. Then she took some blood. And then we waited. And waited. And waited. At some point, they asked me for a urine sample. It's always fun trying to pee in a cup. When you're a girl. But I braved it like a champ. And we waited. And waited. And waited. I had a P.A. come and ask me the same questions. And then a doctor. The doctor tapped into one thing that the P.A. seemed to have forgotten-the fact that I was considered borderline anemic, even though my iron levels had been recently pretty under control. I thought we were finally getting somewhere, but nope, more waiting. I guess when they discover that your case isn't that serious, they like to leave you hanging. So, I was in the E.R. for probably over 4 hours. It was fun. I hope to do it again. Just kidding. They told me that nothing was wrong and that if I still had problems, to visit my primary doctor and they would hook me up with a 24 hour monitor to test my heart's frequencies and what not.
I thought I was ok, but then I was still having symptoms. I met with the doctor and she felt that the hospital did a good workup, but was willing to give me the monitor to make sure that I wasn't dying. She didn't say that, but that's how I felt. So about a week later, I got the monitor. I had all these little sensors attached to me and it felt like I was carrying around a cell phone from 1990. I had to keep a small diary if I felt any symptoms or anything out of the ordinary.
Then the results came back.
And I was just fine.
At this point, I was extremely frustrated b/c I was still feeling crappy, I couldn't have coffee(oh yeah...I didn't drink coffee for a month. They told me to lay off the caffeine until they figured out what was wrong.), and all kind of thoughts were going through my head. I was happy that I was ok, but still wanted answers. The doctor referred me to a pulminologist b/c they thought that maybe there was an issue with my lungs that was causing the pressure. Their results came back fine. I met with my primary again and was then referred to a cardiologist. And I was still just fine. At this point, there were really no other doctors that I could go see. We had pretty much exhausted all efforts. I had done every google search possible to see if maybe the doctors were wrong, but they basically all said what the doctors had said.

So. I decided to let it be and give it up to God. I asked the people that were praying for me to still continue to keep me in their prayers. Looking back at it, the only thing it really could have been was that I was stressed. I was stressed and it was effecting me internally. I had things going on that I won't discuss here, but I didn't think it was that serious. Apparently, it might have been. All I can really do is thank God that I really didn't have a heart attack a few days before I turned 27. I think it was a sign that maybe I should better listen to my body.
If you get anything from this post, I would hope it would be this: that when you have something going on and you can't forsee the outcome/future, you have to fully rely and trust on God. I know that I know that I know it's hard, but you gotta do it. In every area of life. And the other thing would be to stay healthy. I also know that's super hard. I have a sweet tooth. I like all things bad for you. While you're still here on earth, try to eat everything in moderation. Listen to your body as much as you can. It will tell you when something is wrong. Be good to yourself.
That's all. I don't know why I felt compelled to share this story, so I just did. =)