Bear in mind that I am not a doctor of course, but this sounds vaguely similar to an experience I had.
A couple of years ago, I was sitting around (IMing with some other VP maintainers, as it happens) when I got an incredibly intense, stabbing pain that radiated throughout one side, like deep under the rib. It started painful, and over the next 15 minutes it became obscenely painful. I started to get dizzy and nauseous from the pain, and almost collapsed. I couldn't even see. It was easily the scariest, most painful thing I have ever experienced.
I finally called my sister to go to the ER, because I seriously felt like it was some kind of serious lung or cardiac event of some kind.
By the time I was seen at the ER, the pain had faded away. I was still scared shitless. The doctor I saw was fantastic, and this is exactly what she said to me after examining me thoroughly, more or less verbatim. I'll just repeat it here:
"This is going to sound unbelievable to you, but it was a type of muscle cramp. For whatever reason, it seems more common in young women, especially shorter women, who spend a lot of time sitting, studying, or at the computer. When I was in medical school, it happened to at least a third of the short women in our class, and nobody else. It happened to me, and believe me, I know why you seriously thought you might die -- it is so, so painful. I went to the ER too when it happened to me. But it actually is just a muscle cramp. It probably won't happen again."
Anyway, that was my experience with a similar-sounding pain of similar duration.
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Date: 2009-10-10 01:15 am (UTC)A couple of years ago, I was sitting around (IMing with some other VP maintainers, as it happens) when I got an incredibly intense, stabbing pain that radiated throughout one side, like deep under the rib. It started painful, and over the next 15 minutes it became obscenely painful. I started to get dizzy and nauseous from the pain, and almost collapsed. I couldn't even see. It was easily the scariest, most painful thing I have ever experienced.
I finally called my sister to go to the ER, because I seriously felt like it was some kind of serious lung or cardiac event of some kind.
By the time I was seen at the ER, the pain had faded away. I was still scared shitless. The doctor I saw was fantastic, and this is exactly what she said to me after examining me thoroughly, more or less verbatim. I'll just repeat it here:
"This is going to sound unbelievable to you, but it was a type of muscle cramp. For whatever reason, it seems more common in young women, especially shorter women, who spend a lot of time sitting, studying, or at the computer. When I was in medical school, it happened to at least a third of the short women in our class, and nobody else. It happened to me, and believe me, I know why you seriously thought you might die -- it is so, so painful. I went to the ER too when it happened to me. But it actually is just a muscle cramp. It probably won't happen again."
Anyway, that was my experience with a similar-sounding pain of similar duration.