When I was a freshmen in college I had trouble getting up for my 8am biology lecture. I was convInced I had Epstein Barr syndrome (aka Chronic Fatigue Syndrome). I went to the student health center and detailed my abnormal sleepiness to the staff. They took my blood and ran the requisite blood tests. When I came back the next week for my results the nurse informed me that the test came in negative, and that I did not in fact have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I processed the information for a beat, and then replied "Maybe you should draw blood from my other arm."
Anyway I was reminded of this time when I read this brilliant article below. See excerpt and click on the link to read more:
I had my first heart attack when I was 18. I was striding across campus when it hit, like a bomb going off in my chest. My left arm went numb, and it got harder and harder to breathe. I was used to being sick -- by the time I started college, I'd already had skin cancer, meningitis, pancreatitis and blood poisoning -- but this was a whopper, and I was knocked over by the crushing pain. This was different. This could kill me, kaboom, right there on the quad.
I had to get to a hospital. I still don't know how I got to the student clinic, how I got across the campus and up the stairs, but I did. I staggered through the double doors and collapsed into a chair.
"I'm having a myocardial infarction," I gasped, when I was finally ushered into an exam room. "Heart attack," I added, when this failed to produce a crash cart.
"I know what a myocardial infarction is," the nurse said, casually taking my vitals. "You're not having one." She pressed a stethoscope to my chest.
"Well, it could be a stroke," I conceded.
"You're not having a stroke."
"I think we should run some tests."
"Haven't we seen you in here before?"
"Once or twice."
The nurse stood up and placed her stethoscope in her pocket. "You're fine," she said. "Your vitals are normal. You're a perfectly healthy 18-year-old girl. I promise you're fine. Go out, take a walk. It's a gorgeous day and you're not dying."
It was a gorgeous day, and I wasn't dying. I'd been spared, by fate or just dumb luck. This, too, had happened many times before. The skin cancer turned out to be ballpoint ink; the meningitis, hay fever; the pancreatitis, too many candy bars; the blood poisoning, ill-fitting shoes. I did not have lupus, multiple sclerosis, Huntington's disease or Hodgkin's, Crohn's disease, diabetes, myelitis or muscular dystrophy.
http://www.salon.com/mwt/excerpt/2008/06/21/jennifer_traig/
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