July 29, 2002
11:20 a.m.

I can't believe it's been this long since I last updated the site. It's not like I've been doing much of anything. It seems like I just turned around and it was a week later.

You haven't been missing much, anyway. I did have a strange incident last Wednesday, though. I was driving to church that night, just like normal, when I started having breathing problems. I had been having difficulty breathing for the past two weeks, but it was only occasionally. It felt like there was a weight on my chest and I had to breathe deeply to get air into my lungs. I figured it had something to do with the Metabolife I was taking, so I stopped using it a few days before.

This time the symptoms were much worse than before. Not only did I have trouble breathing, but was also light-headed. There was a strange tingling sensation in all my extremities. I seriously thought I was going to pass out right there on the highway. It seemed to take an eternity to get to church and I was really scared because I had no idea what was going on.

When I got to church Jenna and Rebecca (who's a doctor) helped me out a lot. Rebecca gave me some candy bars (in case it was my hypoglycemia acting up) while Jenna called my mom to come get me. My mother took me to Bedford's emergency room. It seemed like they tested me with everything imaginable. I had to have blood drawn from my hand (the veins in my arm are tiny and buried pretty deep; it's very hard to get any blood from them). I also had to pee in a cup, get a chest x-ray, and an EKG. The barrage of tests all indicated there was nothing wrong with me. They told me to go to the doctor anyway.

I was examined by a doctor the next day and he also couldn't find anything wrong with me. He seemed to think I either have mild asthma, or I had a severe panic attack (because of my history of anxiety problems). However, I'm pretty sure I don't have asthma, and I've had enough panic attacks to know what they're like for me. This was something different.

Anyway, the doctor gave me some prescriptions and sent me on my way. I've still had trouble breathing occasionally, but nothing as severe as the emergency room incident. Also, I've noticed that my breathing trouble always starts while I'm sitting down. Long car rides are especially problematic. I don't know if that means anything, but I'll be seeing the doctor again in a few weeks. I hope he can figure it out. I'm going on vacation at the end of August, and a 10-hour car ride to Boston is going to be torture if I don't remedy this situtation.

Some coworkers and I went bowling on Friday. I went along just to get out of the house. I'm not a big fan of bowling because I'm extemely bad at it. My score for our first game was 29. Most people can bowl at least 100 through dumb luck alone. Although I got slightly better as the night went on, it was still an incredibly sad thing to watch. My friends just looked at me with pity and gave me reassuring pats on the back. But it was all good. At least I didn't just sit around watching tv all night.