Here's to hoping I don't die in my sleep
For about a week I had been under the assumption that I had just pulled something in my shoulder area without realizing it.
I had thought perhaps I slept on my side wrong. But when the pain continued for a whole week I thought twice.
Last night the pain traveled from my shoulder down the left side of my torso. All of the things that usually make sore, cramped, or pulled muscles stop hurting only made it worse. A few things even made breathing difficult.
I just made sure not to lay on my left side and went to bed as normal. Normal until 2am
At 2 in the morning I was rudely awoken by my inability to breath. It took me a moment after being pulled out of sleep to realize that I was not breathing. I had to focus my attentions on making sure I inhaled and exhaled while trying to figure out why I could not do so like normal.
The pain in my side had turned from a mild ache that hurt only if I lay on it incorrectly to an inexcapable shooting pain.
I reached for my cell phone and held it in my hand in case I determined the situation desperate enough to call 911.
After a few minutes the pain relaxed enough for me to breath with a little less effort. But I had to remain sitting up.
Now, it was 2am afterall and my alarm was set for 6:30am to get ready for work so I knew I needed to get back to sleep. After a few foul attempts at laying down I discovered that as long as I lay in the fetal postion on my right side I could lay down. Anything else, i.e. on my left side, stomach, back, cause my breathing to become increasingly labored.
I was feeling mildly better by morning, as I had figured out how to lay while sleeping. I managed a shower and to get off to work where the pain continued. Every move made me hurt. Then the sneezeing fit attempted to start.
I say attempted because I was incapable of inhaling that first deep breathe required for sneezing. It hurt so bad during my body's physical reaction to a tickling nose. It was a fight between my body's natural reaction to sneeze and it's natural reaction to cease doing anything that caused it such great pain.
Eventually we reached a point at work where there wasn't enough desk for all the people scheduled to work (wtf?) so I got to go home as I had told the manager earlier about my night of inability to breath. And since the pain was not going away as I had hoped I ended up in a walk in clinic, as I have not yet found a doctor down here.
A few hundred dollars later... the doc has no reason why I can't breath. I'm kind of scared to go to bed tonight. Just because I've been given pain killers to not realize that I'm hurting, for I hurt most when I lay down, does not mean my body will be any more capable of breathing if I were to accidentally roll onto my left side in my sleep.
I had thought perhaps I slept on my side wrong. But when the pain continued for a whole week I thought twice.
Last night the pain traveled from my shoulder down the left side of my torso. All of the things that usually make sore, cramped, or pulled muscles stop hurting only made it worse. A few things even made breathing difficult.
I just made sure not to lay on my left side and went to bed as normal. Normal until 2am
At 2 in the morning I was rudely awoken by my inability to breath. It took me a moment after being pulled out of sleep to realize that I was not breathing. I had to focus my attentions on making sure I inhaled and exhaled while trying to figure out why I could not do so like normal.
The pain in my side had turned from a mild ache that hurt only if I lay on it incorrectly to an inexcapable shooting pain.
I reached for my cell phone and held it in my hand in case I determined the situation desperate enough to call 911.
After a few minutes the pain relaxed enough for me to breath with a little less effort. But I had to remain sitting up.
Now, it was 2am afterall and my alarm was set for 6:30am to get ready for work so I knew I needed to get back to sleep. After a few foul attempts at laying down I discovered that as long as I lay in the fetal postion on my right side I could lay down. Anything else, i.e. on my left side, stomach, back, cause my breathing to become increasingly labored.
I was feeling mildly better by morning, as I had figured out how to lay while sleeping. I managed a shower and to get off to work where the pain continued. Every move made me hurt. Then the sneezeing fit attempted to start.
I say attempted because I was incapable of inhaling that first deep breathe required for sneezing. It hurt so bad during my body's physical reaction to a tickling nose. It was a fight between my body's natural reaction to sneeze and it's natural reaction to cease doing anything that caused it such great pain.
Eventually we reached a point at work where there wasn't enough desk for all the people scheduled to work (wtf?) so I got to go home as I had told the manager earlier about my night of inability to breath. And since the pain was not going away as I had hoped I ended up in a walk in clinic, as I have not yet found a doctor down here.
A few hundred dollars later... the doc has no reason why I can't breath. I'm kind of scared to go to bed tonight. Just because I've been given pain killers to not realize that I'm hurting, for I hurt most when I lay down, does not mean my body will be any more capable of breathing if I were to accidentally roll onto my left side in my sleep.