in which she uses too many hyperlinks

Y'all, I swear I am not a hypochondriac. I want to be well and feel good. But I am falling apart, yo! After finally procuring a corticosteroid for my nasty eczema (which made it 98% better in a matter of hours- go, modern medicine, go!), I have settled on an allergy symptom system of 400mg guaifenesin (basically, Mucinex) and 10mg of phenylephrine (basically, Sudafed PE) twice a day, and a sinus rinse system, which yes, Jule, makes me feel like I'm drowning but actually helps a ton. Thanks for the recommendation. I can pretty much breathe when I'm vertical now, although my throat is always killing me by the end of the day. However, a couple of days ago I pulled a muscle in my back- I swear, by coughing (!!!), and my latest WTF!? symptom is this:

For the past 3 days I have been awakened around 6am by a ebbing/flowing sharp pain in what I assume is my diaphragm muscle. But it's not like a spasm; it takes around 8 seconds to make its cycle. I can feel it coming on, I wince, it subsides, I take a deep breath, and it happens again. Since it's so early, I try to breathe through it and hope it will go away, but I finally have to get up. Once I'm sitting or standing it goes away, so I try to go back to sleep, but am awakened by it again, until finally I just have to stay upright.

Any ideas? I've been taking the Walgreens nighttime cold multi-symptom stuff at night (325 mg acetaminohen, 2 mg chlorpheniramine maleate, 10mg dextromethorphan, and 5 mg phenylephrine) to help me sleep but I don't think any of that stuff would cause diaphragm cramping. *scratches head*

So, I leave tomorrow for 25 days. I KNOW![/Monica] New Orleans, Boston, Los Angeles. The good news is that I get to see Amy in New Orleans, and I haven't seen her since I moved so I'm totally psyched about that. The bad news is packing for 3 and a half weeks and 3 different climates is a pain in my ass. Today I am going to be very busy running some last-minute errands, cleaning the house so my roommate doesn't have to come home to my sloth, packing, watching my stories, doing one more load of laundry, syncing my iPod, picking out books, etc etc etc. I guess it's a good thing I'm already up and at 'em.

I'll keep in touch from the road. Cheerio!