Day 3: When Body and Mind Don't Agree

Day 3 of the conference has been interesting, although short. I woke up with my alarm, but felt so out if it that I went back to sleep for another hour. I made it to the convention center to catch the end of a presentation, meet with my presentation group to go over our slides for THE BIG PRESENTATION tomorrow, and get in a solid 2 hours of networking. I wasn't still feeling quite right but couldn't put my finger on it. I figured since I didn't have any concrete sense of what was wrong, I would just push through lunch, two afternoon sessions and a dinner.

Yeah, my body wasn't hearing any of that. I went to a great restaurant which was all organic, free-range, vegetarian/vegan-friendly food with a dear dear friend and a new friend, and by the time we walked back to the convention center, I knew that I was not going to get much else done. I had pain shooting across my back and chest. I decided to do some deep breathing to work through the pain and, surprisingly, it got worse.

That's when it clicked. Pain upon deep breathing, shooting pains in the chest, shoulders and back, feeling lousy - pleurisy. For your non-medical folks, pleurisy is the inflammation of the lining of the lungs which can sometimes be accompanied with fluid filling the cavity between the lungs and the lining. It sounds really worse than it is, but I have to admit it is INCREDIBLY painful and uncomfortable. It's also very distinct, so if you've had it before you know what it is. So I called my doctor in LA to tell her my thoughts and we reviewed my symptoms. She agreed that my symptoms sounded like a textbook case, and we decided to start me on a medrol dose pack (steroids) asap.

So I've been in my hotel room since 3:30 PM EST in my pjs. I've packed my bags, laid out my clothes for tomorrow, gotten out the printout of my presentation, charged my phone and am now resting.

It's hard for me to remember that part of maintaining a healthy lifestyle is taking care of yourself appropriately. I hate having to slow down and stop, but I know that I need to do it. If it were a broken bone, I wouldn't try to use it, so I can't put my body through unnecessary stress out of pride or stupidity. Because I've eaten well all day, I'll have a small, healthy dinner, get rest, and try to recover as best I can. Because recovery is just as much a part of the process as exercise is.

Lupus may have won this battle, but I've got this war.


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Location:Washington D.C.,United States