"Severe non cardiac chest pain"

I have had severe chest pain for  3 weeks.

  Doc and I determined today that it is respiratory and most likely pleurisy.  ;(

  Pleurisy is  when the lining of the lungs gets damaged or narrowed I believe.

They did a lung function test on me. The nurse said "No, not like that, you have to blow as hard as you can and for as long as you can!" She was surprised I guess that was the best I could do. We tried again. Still pretty bad. She printed out a sheet. My lungs are only operating at 73% of their function!

Then, for the first time in my life I had to receive a breathing treatment. I thought about birthmother who has been on oxygen for more then 2 decades. I thought about how neither of us have ever smoked.

And I thought about how serious a problem air pollution is in Baltimore.  Birthmother has been in Baltimore since she was 3 but spent the first 3 years of her life in NM.

They re-did the lung function test. After the treatment my lungs were operating at 93% of their capacity. She gave me an inhaler and expects the chest pain to go away.

So, that is the highlight of today's doc visit. I also have to do outpatient hospital surgery. She is having me get 2 procedures done at once so as I don't have to be subjected to anesthesia more then once.

Oyyy. Well,you know, I thought, that after I received my Medicare (in 04) that I'd get much better medical care.  And My doc (technically she is a nurse practitioner) is fantastic. 

She explained that nurse practitioners get very different training then traditional m.d.'s She said her training included a holistic, alternative approach apparently with excellent training in listening and bedside manner.

Conversely, even though Medicare has opened many, many doors for me, one really needs to shop around with these specialists until they find someone who is not condescending or abusive or just plain incompetent!

I did the Dr. Oz "real age test" (www.realage.com) or is it www.trueage.com well u can find it if you google. I tested at 59 years old. Funny thing is in my support group online for fibromyalgia, most of the girls feel a minimum of 80, so "59" ain't bad from their perspective!

Time for my nap.