Is there a doctor in the house?
So this has been a very....interesting week or two. No knitting progress to speak of, I have way too much school nonsense getting in the way. I did, however, get all of my orders in the mail:
Top: Noro Kureyon, #74
Left to Right: Lorna's Laces "China Blue"... Cherry Tree Hill supersock "Indian Summer", Dicentra Designs "Luthien"
I am very pleased with all the yarns... the Noro is being set aside for a Clapotis, the Cherry Tree Hill is going to become pomatomus socks, and I haven't decided on the other two yet.
Now, read on if you want to hear about my recent scary medical problems.
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.
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So remember when I said a couple posts ago "when I get stressed I buy yarn"??? well the recent increase in yarn buying should've been a red flag for just HOW stressed I am. Monday, I had a huge history midterm, which must have pushed me over the edge. But I'm getting ahead of myself, let me backtrack. For the past couple of weeks I had this increasingly noticeable tightness in my chest, to the point I started having to make a concious effort to breathe normally, because I always felt short of breath. I kept yawning a lot, and I was fidgety, clenching my teeth, twitchy, and had trouble relaxing enough to go to sleep. By monday, I'd stayed up most of the night studying and had a very stressful midterm (during which I must've tensed up so much I pulled a muscle in my back...sigh). Monday night I was so twitchy I had trouble going to sleep. Mind you, I've been making a point NOT to drink too much caffeine, because I started noticing this tenseness and it kept getting worse. I was so uncomfortable that the constant lack of normal breathing and everything else was really driving me crazy, and starting to worry me too, because why would this be happening to my body? Am I dying? I felt like crap!!! So finally yesterday morning I got fed up with not knowing what was wrong with me and feeling like crap, so I headed to the student health center. When the nurse took my pulse I was so worked up and freaked out (on top of being so worried/stressed over my condition, I am terrified of going to the doctor) that my pulse was irregular... my heart was "fluttering", as the nurse put it. "Well, I'm going to have to send you downstairs to be checked out and get an EKG"........ "a what!?" ......... yeah, so by that point I'm so freaked out that I'm trying my best to hold back tears as the really nice nurse led me around to all the places I needed to go. They ended up doing an EKG on me, which I had no idea what that was at first so for those of you that don't know, they basically stuck a bunch of wires on my chest and hooked me up to some machine that monitored my pulse. My pulse was definitely racing cuz I was terrified of having to be hooked up to a heart machine, but after they let me lay there for a while my pulse slowed down and started acting normally. The doctor checked me out and said my heart was healthy it was just speeding up because I have anxiety, and they also took some blood and tested to see if my thyroid was any cause (my thyroid test returned normal). So I chatted with the doctor and told her everything I'd been experiencing and basically told me I have some anxiety problems, and sent me back upstairs to make an appointment in the psychiatric department for "stress management therapy" (I never thought I'd have to see a shrink in my lifetime). So this kind of sucks... I'm still experiencing tightness in my chest and overall jitteryness, but I'm a little relieved to find out that I don't have some severe heart condition and it's only anxiety. It's a pain in the ass though cuz now I have to cut back on caffeine and be very concious of "relaxing"... my appointment with the therapist is set for April 5th. I told them I don't want to be drugged because I don't think I'm THAT fargone, and they said there are other things we can do like mental exercises and even hypnosis (!!!)
So yeah, that's my trauma for the week. I talked to my boss at work and she said not to worry about it, I can cut back on my hours if I need to, and she totally relates to my experience because she had anxiety attacks when she was in college too. Apparently I was like the 3rd person that had gone in already that day for anxiety-related "illness". I guess because of everything that has gone on w/ Katrina and the fact we are living in New Orleans, there are a lot of kids that are having to medically withdraw from school because they can't deal with being here, and a lot of people are getting bad cases of anxiety. Aaahh, college.
In more happy news, I am going home this weekend! Hooray! My dad agreed to come pick me up on Friday and I'm going to just relax, watch Harry Potter, and knit all weekend. I totally need this break.
Top: Noro Kureyon, #74
Left to Right: Lorna's Laces "China Blue"... Cherry Tree Hill supersock "Indian Summer", Dicentra Designs "Luthien"
I am very pleased with all the yarns... the Noro is being set aside for a Clapotis, the Cherry Tree Hill is going to become pomatomus socks, and I haven't decided on the other two yet.
Now, read on if you want to hear about my recent scary medical problems.
.
.
.
.
So remember when I said a couple posts ago "when I get stressed I buy yarn"??? well the recent increase in yarn buying should've been a red flag for just HOW stressed I am. Monday, I had a huge history midterm, which must have pushed me over the edge. But I'm getting ahead of myself, let me backtrack. For the past couple of weeks I had this increasingly noticeable tightness in my chest, to the point I started having to make a concious effort to breathe normally, because I always felt short of breath. I kept yawning a lot, and I was fidgety, clenching my teeth, twitchy, and had trouble relaxing enough to go to sleep. By monday, I'd stayed up most of the night studying and had a very stressful midterm (during which I must've tensed up so much I pulled a muscle in my back...sigh). Monday night I was so twitchy I had trouble going to sleep. Mind you, I've been making a point NOT to drink too much caffeine, because I started noticing this tenseness and it kept getting worse. I was so uncomfortable that the constant lack of normal breathing and everything else was really driving me crazy, and starting to worry me too, because why would this be happening to my body? Am I dying? I felt like crap!!! So finally yesterday morning I got fed up with not knowing what was wrong with me and feeling like crap, so I headed to the student health center. When the nurse took my pulse I was so worked up and freaked out (on top of being so worried/stressed over my condition, I am terrified of going to the doctor) that my pulse was irregular... my heart was "fluttering", as the nurse put it. "Well, I'm going to have to send you downstairs to be checked out and get an EKG"........ "a what!?" ......... yeah, so by that point I'm so freaked out that I'm trying my best to hold back tears as the really nice nurse led me around to all the places I needed to go. They ended up doing an EKG on me, which I had no idea what that was at first so for those of you that don't know, they basically stuck a bunch of wires on my chest and hooked me up to some machine that monitored my pulse. My pulse was definitely racing cuz I was terrified of having to be hooked up to a heart machine, but after they let me lay there for a while my pulse slowed down and started acting normally. The doctor checked me out and said my heart was healthy it was just speeding up because I have anxiety, and they also took some blood and tested to see if my thyroid was any cause (my thyroid test returned normal). So I chatted with the doctor and told her everything I'd been experiencing and basically told me I have some anxiety problems, and sent me back upstairs to make an appointment in the psychiatric department for "stress management therapy" (I never thought I'd have to see a shrink in my lifetime). So this kind of sucks... I'm still experiencing tightness in my chest and overall jitteryness, but I'm a little relieved to find out that I don't have some severe heart condition and it's only anxiety. It's a pain in the ass though cuz now I have to cut back on caffeine and be very concious of "relaxing"... my appointment with the therapist is set for April 5th. I told them I don't want to be drugged because I don't think I'm THAT fargone, and they said there are other things we can do like mental exercises and even hypnosis (!!!)
So yeah, that's my trauma for the week. I talked to my boss at work and she said not to worry about it, I can cut back on my hours if I need to, and she totally relates to my experience because she had anxiety attacks when she was in college too. Apparently I was like the 3rd person that had gone in already that day for anxiety-related "illness". I guess because of everything that has gone on w/ Katrina and the fact we are living in New Orleans, there are a lot of kids that are having to medically withdraw from school because they can't deal with being here, and a lot of people are getting bad cases of anxiety. Aaahh, college.
In more happy news, I am going home this weekend! Hooray! My dad agreed to come pick me up on Friday and I'm going to just relax, watch Harry Potter, and knit all weekend. I totally need this break.
posted by Erin at 10:06 AM
2 Comments:
Wow, Erin, that does sound scary. I have had anxiety attacks myself and they are not fun. Try to take it easy and don't worry! It looks as though you have some gorgeous yarn to play with!
Thanks for the nice compliment about my scarf. I love it!
cutting back on caffiene is hard, but you can try a couple cups green tea in place of a couple cups of coffee. Be sure to drink them before the coffee. There is something in green tea that inhibits cortisol, which is the stress hormone for 'fight or flight'. Coffee, which I LOVE, actually raises that hormone. So try some green tea before a little coffee and see if that works =)
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