gridlockjoe | Sorry for the lack of updates...

I've just felt like heck this week.

Sunday night, I woke up with sharp pains in the left side of my chest. I rolled over to my right side and the pains got better, so I went back to a fitful sleep.

Monday, I was lethargic all day. It hurt to breathe in anything more than short bursts of breath. And I still had the muscle pain in my left side.

Tuesday morning, I called my doctor for an appointment. They squeezed me in right before he left for vacation to Lithuania. After listening to my chest, he told me it was probably pleurisy (an inflammation of the outer lining of the lung). Thankfully, he ran an EKG to be sure it wasn't something more serious -- and it wasn't.

So I'm now hopped up on Celebrex and Tylenol. The muscle pain is gone from the left side, but it's now present in the left shoulder (probably because of the contorted position I have to sleep in to be comfortable at all). It still hurts to breathe, although a little less today. And at my naptime today, I was able to sleep on my left side with a minimum of discomfort.

Viral pleurisy normally passes in about 7 days, so I'm hopeful I'll be out of the coughing-fever-hurts to breathe stage by then. I'll still be exhausted thanks to the lack of quality sleep over this week.

Aaugh - I HATE BEING SICK!