Wow. What a day today has been. It started out horribly when I woke at 0200 with a screaming stabbing pain in my chest. It was very reminiscent of the pain I suffered when I had gall stones. Since I no longer have a gall bladder, I knew that wasn't the cause. The pain was so bad I ended up dry heaving on and off for a few hours before I finally managed to fall back to sleep. When I woke up later in the morning, the pain had subsided considerably and I was able to get on with my day. I chalked it up to really bad gas/heartburn/indigestion and figured it would resolve itself as the day wore on. Unfortunately, that was not the case. While the excruciating pain never returned, I felt like crap all day long. It was as if I had been kicked or punched in the chest and my sternum was badly bruised. I tried to tough it out, but I started feeling worse and worse. At about 2000, I finally asked Mr Moo to take me to the immediate care clinic so I could get checked out.

Since I was complaining of pain in my chest, they gave me an EKG test to make sure nothing was wrong with my heart. The results came back totally normal so we ruled out a heart attack or other heart issue. After some poking and prodding, the final diagnosis was gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). I was a little surprised by this since I was only exhibiting one of the giant list of symptoms and it wasn't even one of the major ones. I wasn't tasting acid, burping, regurgitating or coughing. However, based on the location of my pain and the tenderness of the area, there really wasn't much else it could be. I am now the proud owner of a bottle of prescription strength Prilosec. I have to take it twice per day for a week then once per day until I follow up with my regular doctor. All this the day after I had a physical and was given a totally clean bill of health. Figures.

I need to finish up this entry with a big THANK YOU to my darling husband, who has totally stepped up to the plate tonight. Since walking around made the pain worse, he took over the Thanksgiving preparations and did all the cooking we needed to get done before tomorrow. I love you, Mr Moo!