Journey to IRONMAN: That One Day I Spent in the ER for Nothing....

I have never considered myself a hypochondriac.  Sure, I HATE being sick or injured, but I am not the person to run into the doctor or jump on the "Im going to die bandwagon," without legitimate reason.  I hate the ER and will avoid it with a passion.  Its costly, long and just not fun....AT ALL.  So 4 days ago when a stomach pain that I have been dealing with on and off for a couple of months really started to hurt, I found myself wrestling with what to do.  The pain is on the right side of my lower abdomen, to the right and slightly down.  Its painful to the touch and I have been dealing with some nausea.

How many of you start thinking appendix?

So here I am with this pain and with the knowledge that if it is my appendix, it could go okay to horrible fairly quickly.  Unfortunately we are not established with a family practitioner, so I call my OBGYN who refuses to see me and suggests I go to the ER.  I then call the local urgent care with the same suggestion.  I called 3 different clinics making sure that I didn't over emphasize my symptoms and without much conversation everyones response was to go the the ER.  So, that is what we did.

At least Evie had fun...

After 6 hours in the hospital getting test after superfluous test, the Doctor comes into the room with a clean bill of health and a stomach strain diagnosis.  A what?  Yep, a stomach strain.  I didn't even know you could strain a stomach.  I was beyond discouraged, embarrassed and frustrated.  Don't get me wrong, I am glad that I didn't need surgery or anything of the sort, but to be in the ER completely healthy with basically a pulled muscle was humiliating.

I know you are all asking, well how did that happen Bethany?  One word

Cycling

I have said it before here on this blog, I am not, nor have I ever been a cyclist.  In the past 2 months I have gone from never riding a bike to riding a bike 2-4 times a week in the aero position (hunched over). These new cycling related pains and strains are completely new to me and apparently mimic appendix like symptoms.

I came home on Monday so discouraged and almost ready to throw in the IRONMAN towel.  I have just barely started this IRONMAN journey and I already have a strained stomach that convinced me an ER visit was necessary?  This does not bode well for me.

3 Days later though, I am reminded that no journey worth taking isn't going to have obstacles and lessons to be learned. IRONMAN is going to be fraught with pains and strains.  Its IRONMAN.

 So.....there you have it.  Another lesson learned on the road to IRONMAN......a very pricey lesson.