|
In the summer of 1990, I was working as an assistant surveyor for the Town of Markham between my first and second year of engineering studies at the University of Toronto.
Over the summer I experienced some pains down the middle of my back that I attributed to muscle pains resulting from heavy lifting (not uncommon with this job) or working out. The pain was not a "lightning-bolt" type of pain, but more of a dull deep ache (sort of like being hit by a sledgehammer) right at the edge of my left shoulder blade near my spine. After a day or so it went away, so I didn't worry too much about it. I didn't experience any shortness of breath or other symptoms, so the thought of it being something lung related (or non-muscle system related) didn't even cross my mind.
Then one day while experiencing the pains in my back, I was laying flat down on my couch watching TV when I noticed that I could hear my heartbeat. But it wasn't the normal "thump-thump", but a thump-thump with alot of "slosh-slosh" around it. This freaked me out. Perhaps it was not a problem with my back muscles, but my heart! I immediately went to the hospital.
The doctors listened to my heart, and without the help of an x-ray diagnosed me with pericarditis - fluid around the heart. This was serious. A friend of the family had this and he was very restricted in what he could do. An echocardiogram was booked for a few weeks later, and they sent me home with some anti-inflammatories.
Maybe a week or so before the scheduled echocardiogram, the pain returned and I went back to the hospital fearing that my heart was in serious trouble. This time, the doctor did a full examination (including a chest x-ray) and came back to me saying "I have good news and bad news. The good news is your heart is fine. The bad news is that your lung is collapsing." In fact, this was quite relieving to me. He said it was a small collapse (2-3%) and that it would probably resolve itself like my previous collapses without any intervention. He told me to come to the hospital each time I had a collapse in the future to document it and see whether they were getting worse or not.
Well, two days into my 2nd year at University it got worse ... alot worse. A 50% collapse of my left lung. It hurt to put my left foot down when I walked. After checking the x-ray, my doctor at the hospital said intervention was needed to re-expand the lung. At the time, I didn't know what "intervention" meant. Thank goodness I didn't.
Left lung ... Part II >>
| 
