Medical Mystery in Tempe, AZ

So if you've heard from me in the past couple weeks I've been either a) out of it, b) screaming in pain, or c) being my normal self, or d) a combination of all three. I have had a little bout of seasonal allergies as spring has sprung in AZ. I got some kind of viral infection with the cough from hell, but instead of getting better I just kept getting weirder and more unexplainable symptoms. So after my first "pain attack" on Monday night, while I was making dinner, Dan took me to the Urgent Care, where they could only do a few things for me because we were self-pay. We basically had a 400 dollar visit to get a pain pill to stop my stabbing pain. The doc surmised that I bruised my rib from coughing all the week prior.

Then I took it easy, rested, just like he told me to, but last night another attack came on. I was at sushi with Melanie, and the pain stabbed me again... this time much worse. It is like someone is taking a knife and stabbing you in the chest repeatedly so you can't breathe. So Dan being the "enginerd" (engineer+nerd if I need to point that out) that he is, consulted his best friend WebMD. After an hour he was convinced I had pancreatitis, my splean had ruptured, and that my gall bladder needed to be removed.

So with that helpful bear griz diagnosis we went to my doctor in the morning and explained all the weirdness, to which he replied "you have pleurisy." Dan yelled out, what about her splean? What about the appendix? Don't we have to dig them out of her?!!! Well no, sir, she has an infection and we need to get it under control. Simple as that. We just walked out of the office the happiest people alive. This has been a bizarre couple of weeks. Pleurisy basically means the lining of my lungs has become inflamed, and instead of gentle friction of the pleuri against the lung like silk, it has become sandpaper, and an infection has resulted. I asked him, isn't that what pioneers died of? Yeaaaah. OH - and Nate Dawg - Lebron James just had pleurisy so bascially we're pleurisy buddies. Pretty awesome.

So now we're at home, nerding it up, resting, relaxing, and I'm going to get better soon!!! Yay! And pictures of the progress on the condo will be coming soon, just need to download them.

Dan you're the best caretaker and you saved me from getting more sick and miserable! I love you!