There I was a healthy, tall(6'4''), slender(170 lbs.), unsuspecting 20-year old. Healthy as a horse.
Or....at least I thought so.
That day began the same as any other.... I woke up at the same time; cleansed in the same shower; ate the same Lucky Charms; and headed out to work at the same time.
Around noon I headed home to grab a bite to eat.
After eating, I decided to lay down for a quick nap before heading back to work - feeling a little hammered.
That attempted nap changed my life.
A few minutes after laying down, I rolled over on my left side and took a deep breathe.
And it happened.
I'd like to jump in here real quick and just say....who knew napping was dangerous?
Little did I know it's right up there with hammering a bottle of Nyquil then jumping into the ring against Roy Jones Jr. and the Chicago Bears offensive line.
Anyway....I heard a muffled pop followed by pain stemming from the left side of my sternum.
That pain quickly spread to the whole left side of my chest, with a lot of pain just under by collarbone, then into my shoulder and down the left side of my back.
Not knowing what was causing the pain, I laid on the floor attempting to stretch out my chest, back, shoulder....anything to get the pain to subside.
But nothing was working. And by that time, it was becoming increasingly harder to breathe.
It soon got to the point where I had to take short, quick breaths to avoid sharp, stabbing pain.
About 20 minutes into all of this, I decided to wander over to the emergency room. I thought maybe I had just pulled some kind of ligament or muscle in my chest - but wanted to get checked out just to make sure it wasn't anything serious.
I walked up to the ER receptionist, explained my symptoms, and they immediately grabbed a wheel chair and rushed me into one of their back rooms - ahead of some dude whose head was wrapped like a mummy with blood soaked bandages.
That's when I mentally wet my pants.
They quickly took my vitals and then begin hooking me up to an EKG. Following that they took a few x-rays, ran some other tests and two hours later the doc stepped into my widely accessible curtain bordered ER room with the news..............
"You have a torn chest wall," he told me.
That sounded about right to me, so I gladly accepted the 800mg Ibuprofen they prescribed for the pain and went on my merry way.
Later that day, the pain had subsided slightly - although was still causing a great deal of discomfort. At the time I thought it was the 800mg kicking in. I now know that 800mg couldn't touch that pain - instead my body's adrenaline had kicked in making the pain at least bearable.
That night when I laid down to go to sleep I immediately experienced a painful, uncomfortable, bubbling sensation located right along the left side of my sternum - where the initial pain had stemmed from.
When I sat up, the bubbling would stop.
Lay down, and it would fire right back up again.
Not only that, but laying down made it harder to breathe.
There was no way I was getting any sleep laying down. So, I propped myself sitting up on the couch and dozed in and out of sleep over the next 8 hours.
The following morning, Sunday, I attended a church meeting. When I returned home I had a voice-mail waiting for me.
"This message is for Todd. This is (Betty) calling from Thompson Hospital. We need you to come in immediately. Your x-rays were reviewed by one of our specialists and it was found that you have a partially collapsed lung."
Yep, that's right. After all the tests they ran in the ER the prior day - not one of them set of an alarm that I was waddling around with a deflated lung.
Looking back now, I can't blame them. A spontaneous pneumothorax victim is a rare breed. When an otherwise healthy 20-year old dude steps foot in the emergency room and complains of chest pain due to a nap.....a collapsed lung has got to be down the list of things that come to mind.
So, still in my church clothes - I drove myself back to the ER.
To be continued.....
