my rib and the journey to heal it

Soooo my rib has been hurting since Saturday morning (the 6th)...

I don't know how, so don't ask... it just hurt when I woke up in the morning...

At first, it felt like that side cramp you get when you run a lot and you need water...so I drank a lot of water...it didn't go away...

instead, it got steadily worse. It got to the point that I couldn't breathe out fully, there was a bump on my chest UNDER my breast, (this is important, you'll see why...), and then I couldn't sleep well anymore.

After talking with the parents, they wanted me to go to the health center here on campus. So I did, being the obedient daughter and all.

I waited for 30 minutes to see the nurse, and then as soon as I said I could feel a bump UNDER my breast, she wanted to feel it. After poking around, she said there's a lump and she wanted the other nurse to check it out. So I obligated and went and waited for the other nurse. She and the other nurse discussed amongst themselves and then she asked me when my last period was...I told her, then she said oh, your breast might be hurting because of that, sometimes that happens. I'm like...my breast isn't hurting, it's my rib. She said, "I understand that, but you have a lump in your breast, so we would like you to come back tomorrow and see the other nurse."

"But it isn't in my breast, it's my rib."

"Ribs are on the side of your body."

"Um, they start in the middle of my chest."

"Yes, I understand that, but we want you to come back tomorrow to check on that lump in your breast, please take this Motrin and come back tomorrow.

"But it has nothing to do with my breast! I feel popping and it hurts when I move so it has to be my rib."

"Yes, I understand that, but I felt a lump in your breast."

at which point I just took the motrin and left.

So today, I decided to go to Urgent Care and have it checked out (with much urging from my parents).

So Goofy took me and we drove around for nearly 2 hours trying to find it (jesus christ I have bad luck with urgent care) and then when we got there, the examination room was SCARY.

I mean, white walls, flickering light, little mexican nurses, scary. It looked like a place that I'd wake up in two hours later with my kidney missing.

Then this kindly looking mid-50's woman who was the doctor came in. She felt the bump and said she feels the rib.

I'm like, "HALLELUJAH! Yes, it IS the rib."

So it's costochronitis which is a virus that causes the cartilage between my rib and septum to swell...so it's like a cartilage cold...so I have to take prescription-strength Motrin and then it'll go away in a while.

All that hassle, and I end up having to take Motrin. I guess the health center DOES know what they have to prescribe, even if it's for the wrong thing.

Good times.