much ado about nothing

Yesterday after work I did my usual stuff, starting the fire, starting the dishes, filling the bird feeders. Then I decided to make a trip to the garden shed to bring in wood. I carried in 2 loaded slings (one in each arm for balance), which filled the wood box. But as I was putting the wood in the stack I noticed a pain in my chest, which persisted when I came inside. It wasn't bad, but it did hurt each time I breathed in. Now the normal thought in this situation is "oh, I strained a muscle." The normal thought for someone who's had a heart attack is "uh, is this a strained muscle or a heart problem." Of course, as soon as you think "heart problem" a stress response kicks in and you begin to sweat (another symptom of heart attack), your heart rate goes up (another symptom), and you might even feel a little woosey (yet another symptom). Now I thought it was a strained muscle. But my heart attack didn't present with much pain. Being home alone and starting to feel unwell you have a few minutes to decide, do you feel lucky punk?

Because derien would kill me if I died of a heart attack due to not calling for help, I ended up spending the evening, night, and morning in the ER. I got multiple EKG's. I got multiple blood tests at different points to test for elevated enzyme levels. Then this morning I finished up with a stress echocardiogram.

It wasn't my heart. All the EKG's and blood test showed normal. The conclusion on the stress test was "all normal" and my favorite line "Above predicted exercise capacity for age and gender."

The left side of my chest still hurts every time I take a deep breath and sneezing is no fun. I will be taking the next few days off from exercise, so I don't stress that muscle more than necessary with deep breathing.