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Gabe's Heart Problem
qpcnsldsf
Registered User new member
Registered User new member
A few months ago I began feeling some weird sensation around my heart area. It wasn't pain, and it wasn't an itch, it was some weird sensation, like I was simply more aware of its presence. It would vary in intensity -- some days I wouldn't feel anything at all and other days the feeling would spread across my chest.
It's still there and I haven't had it checked out, because as much as strange medical problems scare me, hospitals and everything that has to do with them scare me more. I fear them so much, and the mortality they make too clear, that I can't even watch any TV show set inside a hospital (this included Scrubs). I'm afraid of getting sick by just being in a hospital, of being stuck in a bed with no visitors for 18 hours doing nothing but staring at a white wall, of picking up a superbug just by touching something, of surgery, of heart surgery, of WAKING UP DURING heart surgery -- these are among my worst fears. I carefully watch my weight, I exercise every day, I avoid anything with cholesterol in it like the plague, to avoid THIS EXACT THING from happening to me. I don't want anything wrong with my heart!
But aside from going inside a *gulp* hospital, there didn't seem to be any help out there to find out what I had. I couldn't describe the sensation because there was no word for it, so there was nothing to type into a searchbar. Then I remembered, "wasn't there a Penny Arcade strip where Gabe was suffering something similar?"
I found the strip in "Birds Are Weird" and indeed, Gabe was describing my symptoms exactly.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/12/01
It wasn't made-up, as the title made clear; it was something Mike Krahulik was suffering as well at the time. But neither the strip nor the newspost, nor anything before or after it, give any specifics on what Gabe/Mike had or how he was cured of it.
There are no gaps in the strip schedule from this time, nor is there a strip sequence about Gabe suffering heart surgery, nor is there anything that mentions there was a problem after he saw the doctor the first time. I need to know what exactly this thing is that Gabe had then and that I have now. I would E-mail the PA guys if I thought that would work, but they are probably too busy to respond to me, and if they did, I'd probably get some joke answer to mess with my head: "Yeah, he died, we're on our second Gabriel now."
Anyway.....does anyone know what Gabe had? Anyone?
It's still there and I haven't had it checked out, because as much as strange medical problems scare me, hospitals and everything that has to do with them scare me more. I fear them so much, and the mortality they make too clear, that I can't even watch any TV show set inside a hospital (this included Scrubs). I'm afraid of getting sick by just being in a hospital, of being stuck in a bed with no visitors for 18 hours doing nothing but staring at a white wall, of picking up a superbug just by touching something, of surgery, of heart surgery, of WAKING UP DURING heart surgery -- these are among my worst fears. I carefully watch my weight, I exercise every day, I avoid anything with cholesterol in it like the plague, to avoid THIS EXACT THING from happening to me. I don't want anything wrong with my heart!
But aside from going inside a *gulp* hospital, there didn't seem to be any help out there to find out what I had. I couldn't describe the sensation because there was no word for it, so there was nothing to type into a searchbar. Then I remembered, "wasn't there a Penny Arcade strip where Gabe was suffering something similar?"
I found the strip in "Birds Are Weird" and indeed, Gabe was describing my symptoms exactly.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/12/01
It wasn't made-up, as the title made clear; it was something Mike Krahulik was suffering as well at the time. But neither the strip nor the newspost, nor anything before or after it, give any specifics on what Gabe/Mike had or how he was cured of it.
There are no gaps in the strip schedule from this time, nor is there a strip sequence about Gabe suffering heart surgery, nor is there anything that mentions there was a problem after he saw the doctor the first time. I need to know what exactly this thing is that Gabe had then and that I have now. I would E-mail the PA guys if I thought that would work, but they are probably too busy to respond to me, and if they did, I'd probably get some joke answer to mess with my head: "Yeah, he died, we're on our second Gabriel now."
Anyway.....does anyone know what Gabe had? Anyone?
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Your assumption that you have what another guy described in a comic 10 years ago is not a good diagnosis. Even if you figure out the details of his situation, there's a good chance it has nothing to do with you.
Furthermore... let's even assume that you find out exactly what he had and how he treated it and you happen to actually have the same thing and can treat it the exact same way (which is A LOT of assumptions). You're going to need to see a doctor anyways for the treatment. If it's pills, you'll need a prescription. If it's some other treatment, you need a doctor to administer it. So you might as well bite the bullet and go see a doctor now and get a proper diagnosis. I know it's not what you want to hear but it's the only real option you have.
I doubt there's much I can say to ease your fears. All I can tell you is my cardiologist quite literally saved my life, and I trust them more than 99% of the people on this planet.
Long story short, they hooked me up to a monitor, ran some [very non-stressful, non-invasive] tests, and came to the conclusion that I had something that just meant my heart would sometimes throw in an extra beat in there when it didn't need to, and that I was probably born that way and it was common and no cause for concern.
So, you know, it could be more serious than that, but it could also be nothing....in which case, yay! You would know, and would no longer have to stress about it.
We are not qualified to diagnose you, go speak to a professional.