To quote my father, who said that after we had a car accident.
A week ago, a condition I’ve been dealing with reared it’s ugly head. It’s embarrassing to talk about, but I think those are the things that NEED to be discussed. That event brought on a concatenation of events that I’m still trying to heal from, both mentally and physically.
Well what is it? The condition, diagnosed through one of my own staff doctors at the school of medicine is called proctalgia fugax. I started having flares of this condition after going to a concert last year. I didn’t seek any treatment, as there are no real treatment options specifically for it.
While on the way home it started to increasingly become difficult to sit, as a burning pain seemed to become more and more intense in the area of my tailbone. It came to a point where I was forced to stop. I got out on an off ramp of the interstate to try to walk it off, but it was of no help. I then tried to lay down, no change. My girlfriend claims I passed out between walking it off and laying down, but I have no recollection of this.
From that point forward, this intense amount of pain would happen unexpectedly and at any location. I began to get this urge in my mind when these attacks would happen. As if it was one of those built in instructions from when we were neanderthals. It told me to use my muscles to try to have a bowel movement. That doing it would make the pain go away. This became my immediate reaction when the pain would start to happen.
Over time, the pain and effects of this condition lessened. To the point where I barely felt it the last time it happened. I thought I was over this, but I thought wrong.
I was woken up from the pain coming on last Sunday, and did what I normally do. But this time it came on stronger than it ever had. What happened to me is up for interpretation. To my memory I went from sitting on the toilet to waking up on the floor, face down. I had no visual memory of moving from point a to b. I did however have audible memory of crashing sounds.
With my history of seizures, I was very concerned that I had just had a seizure. When I got off the floor I received a couple other surprises. My back was red in an area on my shoulder, full of scratches and gouges. Then came the pain. I had some severe pain coming from my right rib area, directly under my breast.
My MD faculty at the school of medicine urged me to go to the emergency room, but the stubbornness in me refused. There isn’t much that can be done for broken ribs anyway. Why go? The next day I went, as I woke up with more intense pain than I had been feeling. They confirmed what I had though, diagnosing a “rib contusion / minor fracture.”
I’ve taken the week off of work, and the pain has slowly gotten less sharp in intensity, but it does remain.