"The world's on fire and it's more than I can handle"

Actually, my chest is on fire, or it feels that way. About a week and a half ago, I woke up with severe chest pain. I didn't really think anything of it, because this has happened to me before back in the good ole days of walking pneumonia. Yes, my friends, I miss those days. A chest X-ray, some antibiotics, a little bedrest, and you're up and about in no time...and then in bed for another four days. But I digress.

I didn't go to the doctor then because I don't fancy steroids, and super huge doses of Motrin (aka Advil) really don't do it for me, and all the other anti-inflammatories are sulfa-based, and I'm allergic to those. Well, today whilst I was getting my dance on in jazz, I got the sharp pains in my chest again, only this time it was on my left side instead of my right, and to top it all off, I had some shortness of breath and near passing out to boot. If class had gone all the full amount of time, I wouldn't be typing right now - I'd be in the hospital, my mom no doubt freaking out because someone would have called her saying her daughter had collapsed in dance.

After class, I went to the doctor, and they respected my wishes of no steroids. Why don't I like steroids? Well, I don't dislike them in small amounts, but I had to take so many back in the days of Mono Part 2 (The Mono Strikes Back) and Mono Relapse (The Return of the Mono) that I started getting shaky toward the end. I know over the past year or so, I've had at least three steroid packs, possibly four. That's whack. This time, however, I'm actually still physically active, and I really don't want to bulk up, so no 'roids for me. Do they call them 'roids now? I think if not they should.

Now I'm supposed to vegetate for a day or so, so The Tina is running meeting tonight, and I'm watching what I'm sure will turn out to be sub-par action movies. Worse things have happened.

Thursday, I get to see my obgyn! Woot! I just love getting my rack checked out. I've already been told it's probably cystic fiber something-or-other (which is doctor talk for "not cancer" I think - usually they just tell me "not cancer"), but they still think I should let him look at it. I'm not really worried. Of all the cancer my family gets (and believe me, we get some cancer), breast cancer is one that we don't get. We do, however, get benign breast tumors and whatnot, so odds are I'm just going to be the youngest in my family to have one of those (I think I beat my mom by about 10 or 15 years, and I know I beat my grandmother).

The moral of the story: It helps to do that monthly self breast exam. Your gyno sees your breasts once a year. You see them everyday. You're way more likely to find something abnormal.

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