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My Breasts - My Poison: Part 4

© Kathern Welsh

A Year Off Work!

The bronchitis seemed to clear up after yet another large and extended dose of antibiotics, but I was left with extreme weakness and fatigue. It was very hard to describe how I felt but I just generally felt bad. Since I had taken so many courses of antibiotics over the past years, my doctor thought I might have a severe yeast infection, and all the diagnostic tests she performed seemed to support that theory.

I went on a very strict diet, as described in the book, The Yeast Connection, and also took Nystatin for the next year.

I slowly improved, but was unable to work for about 6 more months. It was a long, hard painful year, but with proper diet and more natural herbal remedies, I did improve.

During 1987 and 1988 I worked various part-time jobs, barely making ends meet. Sometimes, regrettably the ends didn't meet well enough and for a time I found myself without a home. I thank God my children were able to stay with their father and I had a girl friend who let me move in with her and her children while I got back on my feet. All during this period, I continued battling the tiredness, fatigue and increased muscle and joint pain, along with recurring sinus attacks.

Heart Attack?

Then suddenly, in March of 1989, I was hit with something new! We went to a dance and were dancing and having a great time. During a fast number, a sharp pain ripped through my chest and took my breath away. It was a searing, shooting pain and only lasted a few seconds but it left me breathless and I had to sit down. I was perspiring, short of breath and extremely weak. I couldn't dance the rest of the evening, and we finally went home. The next morning I awoke extremely exhausted and just laid around the house all day. My arms felt like heavy weights attached to my shoulders and any physical exertion, even walking across the room, wore me out. These symptoms continued for the next two days. Since they hadn't subsided any, I called the "Call a Nurse" line and she told me to go to an emergency room at once.

As soon as I arrived and relayed my symptoms to the nurse on duty, I was whisked into a wheel chair and taken directly into a coronary unit where nurses and doctors immediately surrounded me. I was swiftly attached to monitors, given nitroglycerin and an EKG. Blood was drawn soon after that, and then I lay there in silent fear, wondering what was happening. I knew they thought I'd had a heart attack and I didn't know how I would handle it.