What happened...It all started on Tuesday night.
Got home a little later than usual, not because of extended quality-time with my beau, but because of extended time at work. For some reason, work got so hectic towards the latter part of the day. All of a sudden, I found myself juggling multiple tasks-- while keeping an eye at the clock that was ticking 6pm, then 6:30 then 7:00... all the way til about 8.30.
Started feeling a little tightness in the chest area but chalked it up to fatigue and not eating on time.
So when I got home, after resting for a bit and catching up with my family, I went to bed.
Woke up at 1 am in a terrible fright-- I couldn't breath. My chest felt like there was a 2-ton weight pushing on it. I had to fight very hard to get each breath in. I hurriedly called my mom's room. She rushed in with my dad, and they rushed me to the ER.
My dad drove like a madman. He blew the horn on every car that attempted to block his way and he ran every red light we passed. My mom later on realized he shouldn't have driven. We should've just woken the driver and had him take us (in our rush, we didn't even think of that). Since my dad was tense because he's worried about me, he wouldn't have been in tiptop shape to drive.
Western medicine says...In the ER, the doctor hooked me up to an oxygen tank and gave me a pill to take. Later on, I found out it was valium. No wonder, after a few minutes, I zonked out -- as in, out cold. My body felt like rubber when I woke up.
Later on, when the tightness was considerably ebbed, they confined me to a hospital room for 1.5 days under observation. The tightness was mostly gone, though I had a difficult time taking deep breaths. The cardiologist had me take some heart tests, ruling out the heart-attack option, and some x-rays too.
The tests came back to say that I'm normal, except that one of my heart's valves doesn't open and close properly, thereby causing that feeling when I get tense, stressed or tired. I've apparently had this since birth. The doc though cannot explain why this was only triggered now. He probed me further about the circumstances before this happened, but, to be honest, I really didn't think I was
that stressed. I mean, I've been more stressed in the past, and I felt fine.
It's not necessarily about work
daw, but work is the largest possible contributor. Other factors are emotional stress, like fighting with someone or feeling bad or, the worst of all, worrying. All that will strain my heart and cause the tightness to happen again.
So now, after I've been discharged, the doc said we'll monitor it and, should the tightness happen frequently after today, I have to go back. Most probably to be hooked up to a heart monitor and/or to take some drugs for the thingie (otherwise called the valve).
Chinese belief says...Not many people know that my family is devout Buddhist. Partly because my mom's side of the family is brought up in the Buddhist faith (with my mom and her siblings all attending Buddhist schools in their teens) and because both sides of my family is deeply rooted in our Chinese culture, my family attends mass at the Buddhist temple every Sunday morning, no fail (unless, of course, we're out of the country or something...). If it weren't for my friends and for attending an Opus Dei university, I wouldn't come to know the Catholic religion.
Anyway, the buddha to whom we usually pay our respects had earlier warned me (through a medium) that this lunar year is going to be a very bad one for me, especially in terms of my health. He gave me 3 pieces of gold paper to burn for 3 consecutive days, which would lead the holy army to come and protect me from evil spirits. He then also gave me 4 extra pieces of gold paper, with the instruction to burn 1 along with 36 sticks of incense, then call his name repeatedly, whenever I have a problem. Don't be scared, he said, I'll be there when you need me.
For some reason, my parents and I forgot about this Tuesday night as we rushed out of the house. When I got settled
na in the hospital room, M, who has a third eye that can see and hear the buddha, asked my mom why we didn't do as told (referring to the instruction above). She also advised me against attending very very happy and very very sad occasions/events, such as attending weddings or grand birthday celebrations, visiting a sick person, attending a funeral, etc. Because my system is very susceptible to attacks of the evil nature. As much as evil is present in bad occasions, evil is lurking around during good times too.
Before dismissing this as hoolabaloo... How else can one explain why that valve thing only happened now? As stressed as Tuesday's work day may have been, I've been through tougher, more stress-packed days. In fact, before Tuesday, I've been quite free at work, and my hours are even shorter now than before in Citi. I've also been through sadder, more emotionally straining moments (my friend's death last year,for instance). I wasn't fighting with anyone that night, and the most I could worry about in my life was the fact I had no money to shop, which I wasn't worrying about-- not that it's really anything to worry about in the grand scheme of things. :P
As I've chosen to do over and over before, I'll just take both explanations to heart and follow them judiciously. After all, it's not like they're contradictory. I just have to take better care of myself, especially throughout this lunar year.
That's all, folks. Now I have to go back to the bed and rest up. :) It's been a long long couple of days..
