Worst day of my life...

One morning I wake up with pain in my right shoulder. It doesn't feel quite right, but I have a busy day so I do my best to ignore it. It's my right shoulder, not my left so it's probably not a heart attack and I'm fine. Right?

I go to work the next day (I'm a graduate student in a genetics lab). The pain gets much worse whenever I take a deep breath, so I drop by the student health center. They tell me it's likely just harmless shoulder pain since I've been working out more than usual. I go back to lab, despite my concerns, and get back to science. (But seriously, can we take a moment to appreciate how unlike a real lab this image is? What's with her pipetting technique? Why are those tubes not labeled? Stopper those erlenmeyers!) Anyway....

The pain gets much, much worse that evening. I can't sleep because I can't get comfortable. I can't breathe deeply and the pain is spreading down my side and across my chest. But I'm stubborn so I go to lab the next day and work a standard 9-hour day. (You would think a smart person would have realized this isn't "pulled muscle" pain a long time ago, right?)

Around 9pm on the third day of pain it hurts so bad I can barely breathe, move, think or talk. I look at my boyfriend and say, "We're going to the emergency room. This isn't a pulled muscle." (Duh.) I drag myself to the car with his help and off we go.

We're in the ER for 7 hours. My boyfriend is so concerned he doesn't sleep. I can't even rest my head on his shoulder because it feels like I'm getting stabbed in the side and chest. I just sit immobile for 7 hours, crying quietly, trying to breathe as little as possible.

I'm finally brought into a room to see a doctor around 5am. After an hour of being in the room by myself he arrives and asks me lots of injury-related questions even after I explain that this is NOT an injury. He tells me to lay down on the table and, when I try, I see actual, twinkling pain-stars and start screaming. I have never hurt that bad before in my life. Felt like a sword through my chest.

I'm wearing a heart monitor that instantly starts beeping and a whole bunch of nurses peer in through the curtain. The doctor briskly asks for an IV and pain meds so he can complete the examination.

They get me hooked up and give me dilaudid - a strong narcotic. I don't drink alcohol at all (never had an alcohol buzz in my 25 years of life) and I've never tried any drug legal or otherwise stronger than tylenol. After the first dilaudid injection I'm FLYING. Like... "Why are there so many pretty colours? Hehe Mr. Doctor, Sir, your stethoscope is suuuure shiny" FLYING. Boyfriend thoroughly enjoys seeing me high for the first time.

Boyfriend leaves to go get a few things from home and take a nap now that I'm being seen to and I'm not in as much pain. It's about 8am. I'm subjected to a series of ultrasounds, X-rays and a CT scan. At first they aren't certain what's going on and then around noon....

...turns out I have a pulmonary embolism (blood clots in my lung). According to some sources, PEs are responsible for about 15% of sudden deaths. The doctors won't let me stand up or move and are telling me to remain as calm as possible until they can get me on blood thinners. They tell me I'm very lucky to have caught it before real damage was likely done.

Meanwhile I've been trying to call my boyfriend and getting no response. I text him several times asking for certain items since it looks like I'll be in the hospital for at least a few days. I get a few short, clipped answers. Finally, he says he's running "errands"(?). I pass out until he shows up around 1pm.

He wakes me up and (as calmly as he possibly can) tells me there was a fire at our apartment. As far as anyone can tell we lost everything. He arrived at home, after a night of no sleep in the ER, to find the fire department picking through the ashes. Thankfully, only our apartment was affected and no one in the building was hurt. He then spent several hours dealing with the department and the insurance company trying to figure out what to do next...

Total shock. There's nothing in the manual for how to deal with this. I don't even know how to feel or what to think. There's nothing left and nothing I can do about it. What does one do?

Turns out the answer is "call State Farm". Our insurance is awesome. I can't say enough nice things about our experience with State Farm. Just FYI: Renter's insurance is super cheap (<$10 for us). If you're renting, you should totally jump on that.

When the shock wore off, we started reaching out to friends, family and coworkers to let them know what happened. The outpouring of love, offers of help and genuine concern stunned me almost as much as the fire. You never know how valuable your friends are until you need them.

A few weeks have passed and insurance has covered the maximum loss on our policy and then some. We have a new apartment (our landlord had an empty space available and transferred our lease...did I mention how awesome everyone has been?) and we are slowly rebuilding.

For anyone who is wondering, we still don't know the cause of the blood clots or the fire. The former was likely caused by a number of factors including the birth control I was using. The latter was electrical in origin but no one can agree on what actually started the fire.

I'm just glad we're both safe. I'll be on blood thinners and in pain for several months but we're expecting a full recovery. My boyfriend is my hero for how he handled this whole situation, essentially on his own, while taking care of me during my hospital stay.

This is not how I planned to make my imgur debut but browsing imgur kept me sane through the pain, the ER visit, and the hospital stay. An imgur post was the first thing to make me laugh after everything went to hell. If my post can act as a cautionary tale to anyone and prevent even worse heartache, then it was worth it.

ETA: Just wanted to say a heartfelt thanks for the kind comments :). Honestly, this could have been so much worse and I'm just glad there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Also, for those who think it's a State Farm ad: I really just do want to give them a shout-out for the excellent customer service. I'm sure there are lots of other great companies out there with equal or better service who would be just as awesome. I just didn't even know renters' insurance was a thing until my landlord required it and wanted to spread the word.

Also, I am /not/ a medical professional so I won't make at attempt at any medical advice. After this experience (and hearing the experiences of others), I'm going to suggest that my friends on hormonal birth control talk to their gynecologist or principal care physician about the symptoms of PEs. I was incredibly lucky that my prognosis isn't much worse and catching it quickly seems to be half the battle.

Lastly: sorry for the novella! I found it cathartic to write it all down. Everything seems less surreal now and I'm less concerned that I'm just putting off the emotional processing this has required. Everything's going to be okay and I thank you all for the comments and support!

tl;dr: Listen to your body! If it's telling you something is wrong then don't let someone convince you otherwise. Also, if you are renting, get renter's insurance!!! It's incredibly cheap and can mean the difference between devastation and a setback.