I randomly get pains below the sternum area. For awhile, I thought this was a hernia. Hell, it could still be a hernia, idk, but I feel like that would have given me more problems in the 5-6 years I've experienced it. I actually posted about this on Facebook years ago, and someone was like, "That could lead to sudden bowel death; go to a doctor." And I should have, because it would have cost a lot of money, but at least I had money at that point. Hell, I had savings and some hope at that point. RIP 2021 Hopeful Me.
But apparently this can literally just be anxiety. Is there anything anxiety can't do to the body???
I would make some sense for it to be anxiety, because I feel riled up about a conversation (actually, today was 2 different upsetting convos) with my mother (which is most days, sure), but I also handled a mysterious substance earlier that turned out to be poop and I don't like that. I didn't actually touch it, but it was on a couple of leaves and I got rid of the leaves and touched those (although I washed my hands after). I thought the weird little grenades could be some type of larvae, although poop was my first instinct, I just didn't think of what would poop on top of a plant. Hornworms do. Duh. Seemed so obvious once it occurred to me to ask the Duck what hornworm poop looked like. Which. Omg. I couldn't find a picture, only a video. I didn't need to see that! I can't get that caterpillar rectum out of my head. And now we'll have to hunt for them, and hornworms are gross. Caterpillars can be cool, but those chonky green tomato chompers are pretty gnarly. Luckily, they're less harmful than a lot of other tomato pests. Apparently, their poop is beneficial for the soil, although I guess that's just true of poop. Why is it healthy to eat things grown in poop? I know that it gives nitrogen to the soil, but idk why it doesn't cause bacterial problems.
Another cause of the sternum pain could be a pulmonary embolism, which does not help the anxiety, especially since my friend had one last year and said she would have died if she hadn't gotten medical attention when she did. Although, again, this has been ongoing for years, so I'm guessing it's not that.
