Mystery Pains

I am beginning to worry that I am a hypochondriac. I am not feeling well, and I worry that it is something really bad. I always imagine the worst when it comes to feeling a little sick. After my bump in the night fears, I am nervous to go to the doctor again. Hubby says I am just getting old. Maybe there is some real truth to it.

Since January, I have had little black spots in my vision. They come up occasionally, move across my vision, then disappear. It is annoying, but hasn't caused any other problem. I Googled black spots (I guess I did not learn from the last incident), and it says it is just a sign of getting older. Today, though, I did decide to e-mail my eye doctor to see if he thinks I should come in for a check up.

Last night, my right thumb started hurting. It was hurting very badly. It did not look swollen and I did not bang it. I could just barely seem to move it. When hubby touched it, I thought I was going to cry. It still hurt this morning, but I heard it pop around lunch time. It is feeling much better now.

The left side of my chest hurts. It hurts from under my arm down the side of my chest. It feels like a muscle ache. I have felt around and there are no bumps. I really have no idea what it is. It started last night too, but before bed. It is not from sleeping in a bad position.

I wish my best friend was a doctor. I wish I knew someone who could say "Don't worry." For now, I guess I will just try to rest and hope it goes away. The groin pull I had a few weeks ago went away. Maybe I really am getting old.

A Bump in the Night

This past Sunday night, I was sitting on our sofa watching a movie and wondering why my upper arm seemed to hurt. I reach up to my left armpit to try to rub out the muscle when I felt the bump. There was a rock hard lump about the size of a pea in my left armpit. It startled me so much that I went upstairs, woke hubby, and asked him to feel it. He said he couldn't feel anything. I tried to see if I could see anything in the mirror, but it just looked like my normal armpit. Since there was nothing I could do at 10pm on a Sunday night, I went to sleep.

I woke Monday morning, and the lump was still there. I decided I would call the nurse hotline provided by our health insurance company. The lady was really nice. I could hear her typing on the computer to get further information. She advised me to wait a day and see if it was still there. I decided I needed a second opinion, so I went to Google.

The internet is a horrible place for medical advice. I typed in "lump in the armpit" and immediately got a thousand hits on cancer. The lymph nodes are located in the armpit region, and a lump may indicate a built up of cancerous cells. All of these sites seemed to scream BREAST CANCER at me. I was scared out of my mind, so I called my regular doctor for a same day appointment.

I arrived at the doctor's office at 2pm. I have to doctor check the lump which was now harder to locate because the swelling had gone down. Basically, I rushed to the doctor and spent $121.00 for nothing. She said it was too close to the skin surface to be a lymph node. She suggested it may be from shaving and would probably go away in a day or two. She was right - the thing was halfway gone when I got to the doctor's office.

I felt like an idiot, but I guess it is better to be safe than sorry. I think next time I will just listen to the healthline nurse and wait a day. No more Dr. Goggle for me.