Heart Attack or Panic Attack?

Is what it felt like this morning when I woke up and packed my bags to leave. For some reason I was terribly, terribly sad to leave my folks and Adelaide – even more so than last time and this time I’ll see them in 6 months. Go figure.

I did have a moment of fear right before I left when I suddenly had sharp pain in my chest/shoulder and my whole left arm. I got short of breath and started worrying I was having a heart attack. We did research online, and called the ER, but I didn’t want to miss my flight which would create a domino effect to all my flights/layovers. Of course I didn’t want to die on the flight either.

Amy suggested it might be a panic attack, which baffled me at the time because although sad, I wasn’t any more sad than other times of saying goodbye in my life, and if I was going to have a panic attack it should have been in December before I left with all the stress at work than after 5 weeks of R&R.

The pain was off an on for the next 8 hours, and I did take my flight to Sydney. It finally went completely away. I have no idea what it was, but now I’m thinking—maybe it was a panic attack cause I'm still alive. Honestly the pain caused me more panic than what I felt before the pain, but who knows? Anyone ever have one before?