I had been feeling “off” for a few days. My chest felt tight. I was having shortness of breath. Instead of my semi-regular recurring thought where I am just screaming without context, I was having the one where I am trapped in a small box that is shrinking. I was dizzy, headachy, fatigued, anxious, panicky.
I felt like something was wrong with me. As much as I tried to just keep working, typing on my keyboard like nothing was wrong, the reality that something was wrong wouldn’t stop softly suggesting itself.
And then my right arm went numb and my fingers began to tingle.
Unfortunately, I then did the the worst thing I could have done, and I Googled this new symptom in conjunction with what I was already experiencing. Naturally, Google suggested I call emergency services because I could be having a heart attack.
I summoned my husband, tried to remain calm, and he called paramedics while I signed off from work. The paramedics arrived within a few minutes. Which is an excellent testament to the location of our new house. The two men then took my blood pressure and ran a few other tests while they ran through the regular questions. I told them I knew that anxiety can cause a lot of the symptoms I was experiencing, but then my arm went numb which I took as a sign that something was truly wrong.
The two exchanged glances before informing me that anxiety can cause limb numbness as well.
Because of course it could. All of my vitals were normal. In fact, they were better than normal. I was one healthy, anxious perimenopausal woman. As the paramedic talked to myself and my husband the rest of my fear faded away. This wasn’t a heart attack. This wasn’t even anything new.
This was the same anxiety I have literally been dealing with my entirely life, just in the new shiny package of perimenopause.
I signed back on to work a half hour later. Thankfully, no one had noted my brief absence. I then started to wonder if I was going to get a bill for the paramedic’s visit. And if so, how large it was going to be…
[…] Remember the past post where my husband had to call paramedics and I wondered how much this medical bill was going to amount to? Not only has a bill yet to roll in, but I realized the paramedics never IDed either of us or asked for insurance information. Two things needed to establish who we are and how to bill us. […]