A couple weeks ago I had blood drawn from my left arm. It left a nasty bruise and my elbow was sore for a few days. But the ache never seemed to fully go away. After the bruise disappeared I was still noticing an occasional ache in my elbow. Over a few days it moved into the meat of the big muscle on my left arm, and I began to notice it “sliding” about… sometimes in the forearm, sometimes in the elbow, and sometimes in the bicep. In just the last day or so it sometimes manifested as a shooting pain running up my middle finger. I didn't pull any muscles that I'm aware of. It doesn't hurt to move it. It doesn't hurt to the touch. Pinched nerve maybe? Maybe. The problem is that due to anxiety, athsma, and scar tissue in my left lung, I get chest pain and tightness all the time. Pain in the chest coupled with an ache in one's left arm is considered a strong indicator that one's heart is having trouble…
I had a heart check up in 2001 and everything looked good then. Should I worry? Well, my father has heart disease, and needed a quadruple bypass in his early 50's, and his father died of a heart attack at the age of 47. And just recently, a cousin of mine on my father's side of the family passed away from a heart attack. She was 42. I am 37, sedentary, overweight, and I have high cholesterol and circulation problems.
I have been hoping this pain in my arm would subside given time, but it hasn't. Two nights ago, I had an anxiety attack about it. This morning at 3 AM, I had a full blown panic attack. (Side note: the less sleep I get, the more emotional and irrational I become. If I go 24 hours without sleep, just about anything even remotely sentimental will make my eyes water.) My wife comforted me and urged me to go to the doctor. “Go see Doctor Lisa, she'll tell you you're worrying over nothing, and then you'll feel better.” So this morning I made an appointment with my nerves all ajitter.
The appointment was at 11:30 and I arrived at 11:20. I had brought with me the results from my blood test that the podiatrist had run (liver function normal, kidney function normal–much to my surprise), but I hadn't brought anything to read. The magazines in the waiting room were wayyyy out of date. (There was a copy of TIME there talking about the upcoming presidential election.) I read an interesting article in Nantucket Magazine about a guy named (I think) Peter Boynton, who raises native Nantucket plants from seeds to help propagate those species across the island. He sells his “native plants” via Surfing Hydrangea Nursery in Nantucket.
But I could not sit still. I was too anxious. While reading the above article I wandered over to a window and stared out at the snow which had begun to fall.
 |
And I waited. And waited. I kept checking the wall clock, and then each time I would remember that the wall clock was broken and always said it was a quarter to three. I wondered if it would be correct before I left. As I often do when stuck at the doctor's office. I sent text messages to Patty's cellphone to pass the time:
11:32 AM: I hate waiting. I'm worried.
11:34 AM: Starting 2 snow here.
11:51 AM: Snow is really coming down. You should probably get going.
12:23 PM: 1 hour and counting…
Shortly after that last message, they finally called me in, weighed me (255 lbs) checked my bloodpressure (excellent) and then sat me down in the exam room to await the doctor. Now I was in a 7'x7' room about with no windows and even less reading material. *sigh* Fortunately the wall clock in this room worked, so I could be even more cognizant of the passage of time.
The wait in here was comparitively shorter… I finally got to see the doctor at about 12:45 PM. She apologized for the long wait and listened while I explained to her about all the things I am worried about. She listened to my heart and my breathing, and asked “Are you having any neck pain?” No. “Chest pain?” Well, yeah my whole life, I have been noticing some tightness in my chest lately, but a large part of that is probably anxiety.
After examining me she said I was not showing most of the symptoms of heart trouble. She once again encouraged me to work on my anxiety, because that was the *real* problem. It may be time to go back on Paxil again. Further she said that because of my family history, I should begin exercising and that if my cholesterol turned out to be high (it was 220 last time I had it checked years ago), then perhaps medication to lower it would be in order.
So I'm scheduled for more bloodwork now to check my cholesterol. Yayyy. To put my mind at ease, the doctor also arranged for me to take a stress echo test so that I could have my heart checked out. Further, she also recommended that I have an EKG done, saying “Now listen, I'm not recommending this because I think something is wrong. This is largely so that if at some point in the future (considering your family history) you go to the ER with chest pains, there will be a baseline EKG on record that they can compare to.” Apparently people who have heart conditions will sometimes have an EKG done which will be compared to earlier EKG's done on the same person. Changes in the EKG reveal changes in heart function.
So that was my visit to the doctor. I'll probably do the bloodwork and EKG on Monday. The stress echo test isn't scheduled until April 15'th… like I need a test to tell me I'm stressed on tax day. 
On the way home I felt a lot better. I grabbed a chicken stir-fry sandwich with delicious peppers and onions and got home by about 1:20 PM. I've been worried about my health a lot lately. I made a New Years Resolution to quit most fast food, and have been very good about it since then. Jody over at The Big DumpTruck wrote an article that inspired me recently:
…I read an article on the web about how if you take 10,000 steps a day, you'll be healthier and lose weight. As someone who just cannot join a gym and actually use it, this sounds like it's right up my alley…
So I ordered a pedometer from Amazon – doing research into the ones recommended by other people, etc., and I decided on the Omron HJ112 Premium. I'll let you know what I think.
Good for you Jody. You go girl. Think I'm going to get a pedometer and set myself a goal of steps per day. Hey it's a start. Better than sitting on my ass all day… uh, writing blog articles.
Don't you have a treadmill? Or did you get rid of it? You could set it up in front of the TV, couldn't you?
I've been thinking a lot lately about how to get more exercise into my routine. I used to run 30 miles/week, but I've been so sick this winter, and stuck indoors with sick children, that even 25 miles/week is challenging (last week I only did 15). It seems like if you can work it into your routine somehow, that when you can't get the actual exercise sessions going, at least you're doing something. It's tough, though. The nearest supermarket is almost two miles away. An easy walk, but you can't buy anything perishable if it's warm out. And this winter, we haven't had sidewalks, so it's dangerous to walk there in the winter. (Although it's raining today, and we just got them back! Yay!)
I thought about walking the girls to school. Again, sidewalk issues. Plus, I'd have to build them up to the two-mile walk. But a possibility, once spring comes around. How about the dead of winter, when there's so little light? That's extra tough.
If you find any solutions to adding those steps, I'd be interested to hear them.
You've got a scary family history going on there. Please try to do some exercise. The trick is finding the thing that you can stick with. I think that's different for everybody.
We weren't using the treadmill and we had a family member who was in need, so it was given to her.
I can get a lot of steps in at the office if I just make up my mind to do it. Thanks for your concern Maggie. Trust me my family history (medically speaking) is very disturbing. All the Swedes had bad tummies, my maternal grandfather died of a stroke, and I have similar circulation problems to what my mom has.
My wife's doctor asked the routine questions about exercising. She came home and started looking into health clubs. I bought her a used treadmill the next day. Seemed better than time commuting to and from, lockers, fees, changing cloths, etc. She treads for an hour every other day after work at 3mph. She reads while she walks and has plowed through a ton of books in the last year. We got one that folds upright when we need more room. Me? I have good genetics. I actually ran a health club as part of my Chiropractic office. My favorite machine was a stair stepper. Easier on my butt than the stationary bike. Be nice to read your RSS feeds on a slate PC while exercising. Of course you could bust your butt cleaning house or whatever, too. The spots where you indicate pain are along the radial nerve distribution. The blood draw may have result in its being irritated. First and second finger symptoms always led me to look at its origin in the neck cervicals.
Ooopps again. In reading your description I notice you said middle figer. That would be the median nerve. Google it for the neuroanatomy.
Well, you're smart to go to the doctor. Sometimes I feel stupid, going in with what I think might be a nervous concern. I've even been made fun of — once. (And I was just a teen, how was I supposed to know? I had a lump in my neck!) But sometimes you get a comment like “You might have malignant melanoma, which is fatal!” And sometimes you hear (God forbid) “Your daughter has a rare autoimmune disease,” and because of those times, I don't hesitate to go in now. Fortunately no doctor I currently have has been anything but cautious, although M's pediatrician told me, “You can't become a ghoul, you must first assume that any symptom is resulting from the most likely cause, not the worst possible cause.” True dat. Just in our case, sometimes it's the worst possible cause, or some weird cause nobody can figure out.
My family history isn't great either. There's a lot of diabetes, which is why I won't give up exercise. Controlling my eating is harder, because the exercise makes me really hungry and I'm a chocoholic.
Well, that's good you can get your steps in at work. It's so much easier in the good weather, isn't it? I can spend a whole day working in the yard, moving dirt or digging. (Although, I've been doing a lot of digging this winter, and I spoke too soon about the sidewalks… it's snowing now. Phhhht.)
I hope you can find a way to exercise that works for you. Stupid, sedentary, anxiety-inducing lifestyle!!
Geocaching can be good exercise, as we learned last fall. Especially when the cache is gone, eh guys?
TRU DAT.
I've found that the high-end $20 pedometers at EMS are sufficient. 10,000 steps is a good target. I've read that walking every day for several months will cause extra weight to start dropping off at the rate of a pound a week. Even if that's not true the extra 300 calories burned per day certainly doesn't hurt and a side benefit is that a more athletic metabolism burns more calories at rest.
Walking 10,000 steps takes me about an hour and a half and translates into about four miles. It used to take me just over an hour but I assume my strides have grown longer as my fitness has improved. Walking faster must result in fewer steps. Unlike most people I have the luxury of walking an hour a day during my daily commute and letting the incidental steps I take work and home make up of the difference.