Today was a bit of a scary day. 

At about midnight, I woke up sweating with chest pain, I got up and had a glass of water, opened a window, then tried to go back to sleep.  An hour later, the pain woke me up again.  This morning I was tired and the pain was still there, I took a few ibuprofen tablets and tried to relax.  I called my doctor to see if he could see me today and he said, "it sounds like you should go to the Emergency Room."  I drove down the street to United hospital and was admitted around 14:50 and waited an hour or two after describing my symptoms and seeing a few ambulances unload and a few young paramedics usher some old ladies with ailments. 

I felt a little awakward sitting there waiting with chest pain, but I was hooked up to an EKG, IV tube, and blood draw.  After a chest x-ray, blood work, a few EKG print outs and five bandages on my arms from needles (the interning Paramedic was a little shy with the needle, so I made light of the situation to make him feel better). 

The blood tests showed that the enzyme indicating a cardiac arrest or aerterial damage came back negative.  The ultrasound later taken of my heart didn't show anything too serious, but some irregularities in my EKG showed a likely diagnosis:  Acute Pericarditis.  (It sounds scary but isn't that bad at all!)  The doctor even joked, "if you had anything serious, like a heart attack, you'd be dead now, so it rules that out."

Anyhoo, all I have to do is take three tabs of ibuprofen every six hours (Pericarditis is extra fluid in the tissue sac surrounding the heart), the problem was likely a leftover from my cold from a week ago--so it was more than just a little cough after all. 

Take care of yourself kiddos!