My parents helped me move back in to my dorm room and said good bye (mom ALWAYS cries... so do I though). And I jumped right in to prepping for the fall semester. It was the best time to enjoy bonding with my friends before the hoards of residents came back for the school semester.
Oh... So here's a little bit of background info...
Say hello to Kerr Hall... my home during college.
Kerr houses just under 1,000 college students... wait... let me slightly rephrase that. Kerr houses just under 1,000 college freshmen. Now... to put that into perspective, that is pretty darn close to the population of my hometown. And they all live in ONE BUILDING.
SO. Just imagine what was running through my mind when I got hired to work as a Resident Assistant at this hall.
Oh. My. God. (Yep... that basically covers it).
Welp... as you can guess, I pulled through. I got to Kerr Hall and I LOVED IT! Like I said already... the people I worked with quickly became friends and then family. I can't even begin to tell you how blessed I am to have had them in my life then and still.
Please excuse me as I have a quick trip down memory lane now....
Ok. Thank you. Back to it...
So I get back to school for my second year as an RA. Training begins, and we have to walk ALL OVER campus to get to sessions. UNT's campus is pretty spread out, and our sessions were on the opposite side of campus from Kerr. I would walk, with the other 22 staff members to sessions. And man, did that trek wear me out. I could barely walk and talk at the same time. I was almost gasping for air, sweating, and panting by the time we arrived at our destination. Aw... who am I kididng... I would be huffing and puffing just from walking to the next building over!
I thought, "damn... I didn't know I was this out of shape. This is just embarrassing!"
I felt... so weak. And on top of it all, I was falling asleep in my training sessions! I. Was. Exhausted.
Oh, and I still really couldn't breathe because I was STILL SO congested! I would blow so hard to get the junk out of my head to no avail. I was in a constant fog.
And then I started noticing this deep, aching pain deep in my chest. It was like my chest was bruised... and I felt it more and more with each breath. I guess that is the best was I could describe it... The pain was pretty subtle at first... and then basically constant.
Through most of this training time, I was still on the antibiotic that the ENT in Tyler had prescribed. And I knew I did NOT want to go back to see that man. He was rude, dismissive... ugh... Why pay the huge cost to see a doctor that didn't even seem to care? So I cancelled my follow-up appointment and decided to see a doctor at the Health Center on-campus. After all, I had already been paying for those services in my student fees. Seemed like the smarter choice to me.
School hadn't begun yet... so I anxiously waited for the day that the Health Center opened. The moment they did, I was there.
After checking in, a nurse got my weight and vitals and got me into an exam room. I told her about my symptoms. She seemed so understanding and concerned and so... nice! She wrote down each thing I told her.
Then she went to get the doctor, and I began to think, "Ok! This might be going somewhere now~" After a few minutes, an older, squatty woman came in with all completely gray hair that just about touched her shoulders. I gave her, just like I gave the nurse, a rundown of my symptoms.
The summer-long congestion, the severe ear infection, ALL of the different antibiotics, and the numerous rounds of steroids.... and now this aching in my chest.
And then...
No response really. Nothing more than a "huh".
After all that...? the detailed laundry list... the desperation in my voice... all I got was a "huh"?
She had me do a bunch of weird breathing (you've done it before too) while she listened with her cold stethoscope on my chest and back.
I listened to the silence... and my breathing that seemed so loud in that moment.
Finally she took the buds out of her ears and wrapped the stethoscope back around her neck.
"Well... you should just take some Mucinex for that congestion. And... I don't know why your chest is hurting... so... take some Tylenol."
"Mucinex? But I have been on SO MANY antibiotics so far, and they haven't helped at all!"
The woman didn't even give me a response. Had no empathy. Maybe she was preoccupied. I don't know... maybe she just didn't care?
"Why bother?" I thought. I could tell I wasn't going anywhere with this one. I left. And immediately made an appointment with a different doctor at the Health Center. One that I had seen before and felt comfortable with. Maybe she would make something happen?
Take a Tylenol?
REALLY?!?!
