This has been quite a week for me; I ended up in urgent care on Thursday morning after going for a run sans inhaler for the first time in over 7 years. I had not had trouble with my asthma in over 7 years, so I had not refilled my inhaler prescription. I considered myself “cured” — a term that my overseeing physician was quick to correct me would never be the case. One could never be “cured” of asthma. Once an asthmatic, always an asthmatic. Nevertheless, the asthma attack that brought me to urgent care was a stark reminder of the importance of taking care of our health, especially when we are busy and stressed, even if it means rearranging our schedule and/or priorities.
Of course, the irony of my asthma attack was that it forced me to show up late and almost miss my Respiratory Anatomy and Physiology class.
I maintain that I am not one to stress. However, while I do not feel anxious or nervous at all, my body might be feeling something different. At the moment, I have been dealing with the typical signs of appendicitis for somewhere between 24 and 48 hours. While I want to believe it’s some kind of muscle pain, perhaps associated with my run, I cannot ignore it due to the precise location of the pain.
At times like these, I am reminded that as much as I prefer to be laid back and go with the flow, I have a schedule (more or less) and a long list of tasks that are prioritized appropriately according to my schedule. And, when it comes down to it, a trip to urgent care or the ER for an appendectomy do not fit into that schedule, especially considering that 2 looming exams need to be studied for and I am losing a full day for the Interview Orientation workshop tomorrow morning (2/20). As much as I will protest and do my best to avoid it, I will accomodate these things into my schedule if my life depended on it — which it could.
At this point, I am going to bed and hoping to wake up without this pain and without any other signs or symptoms. Tomorrow is a big, important day for many, many people and I want to be a part of it.