October 14, 2011

There's no wall space in the house, but Mr. B
and I bought four pieces of fiber art from a
woman at Bayou City Art Festival.

I was in my craft area last night when I began to feel bad. At first I thought it was just because it was warm upstairs, so I turned the AC down. In the back of my mind, I knew what was going on, but I don't have time to be sick. Sure enough, after an hour or so of denial I was in the house asking for Mr. B's help. It was about a dozen years ago when I got pleurisy for the first time. I'm remember the chest pain being so intense I thought I was having a heart attack. Mr. B took me to the hospital, were we were told it was only pleurisy, which now happens in the fall almost every year.

Welcome to Pleurisy 101. As it has been explained to us, we all have a sac between our lungs called the pleura. An inflammation of the pleura is called pleurisy, which causes chest pains because the sac expands and presses against the chest wall and lungs. The pain is awful, plus it's very painful to breathe. I've been told my pleurisy is caused by anxiety and stress, although there can be much more serious causes. We've learned that when I get pleurisy I need to take Aleve to reduce the inflammation, and stay in bed, propped up on pillows. Class is now dismissed.


Today I'm creating nothing. My Women of Wine event is 10 days from tomorrow, which I'm pretty sure is part of my stress, along with a million events that are on my fall calendar. I normally get pleurisy this time of year because I've overbooked myself. I must learn to say "no."