Out of the blue, I started having sharp, stabbing pain and a weird rubbing sensation to a localized area in my right chest. It only hurts at the bottom of a deep exhalation, but it's intense enough to cause me to jump and/or make my arms to tingle. I took a few days off of working out (stabbing lung pain made it REALLY HARD to do swim intervals anyways), popped a few Advil, and hoped it would go away.
Being an RN, I was pretty sure of what it was, but when it didn't go away after a week, I made an appointment with my PCP. They did an EKG, took some blood for coags to make sure I didn't have a PE (pulmonary embolism), and a physical examination. Basically everything was negative except she auscultated a slight friction rub.
MD said what I had been thinking: pleurisy. I'm still not quite sure where it came from, because I haven't felt ill other than the chest pain. And I've had my share of PPD tests for TB, all of which have been negative. So, pleurisy out of nowhere?? Super?
Apparently Advil is curative for my type of pleurisy, so I've been keeping on top of them. For the most part, I've been able to complete my workouts. Did 2:15hrs on the bike, a 1hr swim, and a 1:20 run this weekend. The only one that hurt was the run--I even started to feel light headed from not breathing deeply enough around mile 7. But I toughed it out, and the pain went away with another few Advil.
Here's hoping the lung friction subsides in time for Lobsterman! Otherwise it's going to be a painful fight for that sub-3hr PR I'm chasing...
No comments:
Post a Comment