Okay so remember a couple of days ago I said that I would be starting my couch to 5k program? Well, let’s just say it got off to a rather bumpy start and I’ll have to put it on hold for at least 2 weeks. Yeah Your boy almost died!! Okay here’s what happened. I was at work running on the trail behind our office. I was a little winded but I thought that was because I hadn’t seriously run in a while and it was a little chilly and windy out. No biggie right? I mean I’m a former military man, I’ve run in worse conditions right?
Anyway, I enter the last lap and all of a sudden I have to stop and start walking. I mean my chest is hurting when I take a deep breath, I can’t catch my breath because my chest is hurting and I’m going down fast. Luckily my co worker was running with me and told me to stop and lay down so that my lungs could expand, or something while she called for help. the security officers come and take us back to the office. By this time I have caught my breath but it’s still hard to breathe. I can’t for the life of me figure out why. This has never happened to me before and we only did like a mile at a simple pace that included walking.
So I catch my breath and I’m breathing normally and all but my chest is still pounding and tight. Now i’m only 32 years old so I know this should not be happening. At this point I don’t even go back into the building, I see my supervisor coming back from lunch and immediately tell her I’m having chest pains and going to the ER. Without hesitation she says “Why are you still here? You better go and call me when you get there! And don’t step foot on this campus until you are cleared by the doctor.”
I leave and drive myself to the ER because I wanted to go someplace close to home just in case it’s serious and have to get admitted. Don’t judge me or my logic, that’s just the way I think okay. I get to the ER and they take me in, run all kinds of tests and take about what seemed like 5 pints of blood only to come back and tell me that everything is normal. The only thing is that I have a slight infection in my chest cavity that is causing the tightness when I take a deep breath. Whew!! I thought for sure I was dying!! They give me some antibiotics and pain pills and send me on my merry way. No strenuous activity for at least 2 weeks.
I am so happy that I’m fine. I was having slight chest pain a few weeks ago but it was never bad and was after I ate something spicy and didn’t linger so I chalked it up as heartburn. I guess I never really got over a cold that I had a few weeks ago. Oh well, thankfully I’m doing great and I’ll be back to training for my 5k in 2 weeks.
