I had cried hard on the morning of the 29th December, mourning the loss of my cat who died on 27th. That probably didn't help my ribs. I did my spirometer exercises as usual, and then felt I should do something physical. I didn't fancy walking or going to the shops, but felt that a spell of gardening might just make me feel like I was doing something positive. I have a few Angel statues (small) and ornaments left in my garden by it's previous owner. I wanted to clear the area of dead leaves and weeds and along the whole back border of the garden (about 3 metres). It took me about 20 minutes, and I left feeling pleased and certainly the area looked better.
I then went back into the flat and was on the computer booking my Feldenkrais course for 2-9th May 2020 on 'Taking a breath' (most appropriate) and had booked my place, a train ticket and tried to reserve the B&B. Suddenly, and without any warning, I experienced the most searing chest pain. It felt like I had been kicked by a horse. I had pain radiating up my right side of face and head and to my back and also a bit later on, down my left arm. I felt nauseous. I dialled 999 as I knew NHS111 would have done that anyway. Although my inital obs and ECG were normal, the ambulance crew felt that I had been through sh*t storm of some kind and were unhappy to leave me at home. I bought my hospital bag and we went to A&E where fairly quickly I had obs, another ECG and bloods taken. It was then some while before I was given a chest x-ray and seen by a nurse and then the most grumpy doctor ever. I was finally given more oramorph and shortly transferred from a trolley on to a hospital bed and was told at this point I was going to be admitted, but that there would be likely a long wait for a bed. Not long after that I was taken to Clinical Decisions Unit where I spent the whole night awake thanks to an elderly lady who talked all night about a load of gibberish. There was a lady next to me who had abdominal pain, but was given painkillers and my doctor decided not to give me any oramorph, even though I have it at home, apparently he was 'uncomfortable' with this. Not as much as I was. Fortunately I had access to my own medicines (other than paracetamol and oramorph) so took my night meds, and what I could.
In the morning, I had breakfast at just after 8am, but it was not until 11.30am that I was seen by another ED doctor who decided it wouldn't really be advantageous to admit me since I had access to oramorph at home anyway, and that my chest x-ray and bloods were normal. He thought it was possible I had costrochondritis (inflammation of my ribs) because I explained that now the left, rather than the right side felt worse, and that there was a clicking sensation. I had also subluxed my lower left rib earlier on the toilet! The ED doctor agreed I could increase my oramorph and would let my GP know. He also said he would raise the suggestion of me having a hospital bed to help with my back pain. I left the hospital shortly after 12pm, and left for home to have a much needed bath and tried to keep up as long as I could before crashing and having 11 hours of sleep. I also needed 2 hours of a power nap on New Year's Eve, but had no plans to go out.
Here is my account of the event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jScrIoSJ8s
It is now 1st January 2020. I am still feeling very tight in the chest, but it is going to take time to recover from this incident. Indeed my physio text me to say, 'rest, rest, rest'. I am not yet ready to resume rotator cuff exercises. It is obviously going to take me some months to recover from this whole episode, and I really need to see my surgeon for review.
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