Carolina is a NINJA CPA blogger.

I stated in my last update that I took a week off from studying due to my grandfather’s death. Afterwards, I started to study a little bit every other day.

Then on August 10th at 11am, I started to have chest pain. I kept working through the day ignoring the chest pain.

I got home and followed my daily routine of playing with my son a little bit, giving him dinner, and putting him to bed.

At 9pm the chest pain got worse, so I decided to lay in bed to rest a little before studying.

Oh my God, the chest pain only got worse and worse; I thought I was having a heart attack or something. However, I didn’t want to go to the ER, so I stayed home and took some pain killers and tried to stay calm.

The pain decreased an hour later of taking the pain killers.

I went to my primary doctor the next morning. He was going to send me to the ER, but I refused to. I hate going to the ER because they charge you more and then tell you that you need to see a specialist.

So the doctor performed a heart rate exam, and told me that my heart rate was a little higher than it should be.

He sent me to see a cardiologist and a gastrointestinal doctor (I was having abdominal pain a month before) and get some blood work done.

It was hard to get an appointment with the cardiologist, but I was able to see the gastrointestinal doctor right away. I got an endoscopy done and everything looks fine in my stomach and intestine areas.

The lab results for the blood work came back good with the exception of the white blood cells, which came out high.

My doctor said not to worry too much about the white blood cells because it could be caused by stress and that we need to wait for the cardiologist diagnose.

He also said that if the cardiology exams come back good it could be that I have anxiety, which I think it is the case because I have had two anxiety attacks in the past.

I just didn’t want to go to the doctor to check if I really was suffering from anxiety. So, now all I have to do is to wait until they find out what is going on with my body.

The chest pain has not gone away. It is still there, minimal, but there. I just believe that my body is telling me that I need a break.

I have never taken a break. I have been working and studying since I was 16 years old. The only time I took a “break” from working or studying was when I was pregnant, but I was studying for my master's degree.

My life just gets better and better. I don’t know what is going on with me, but I don’t seem to catch a break. I don’t want my bosses to think that I’m an individual with too many issues, but everything seems to be falling apart. I haven’t studied anything since I don’t remember when. I think the last time I studied was on Saturday 8th.

This weekend, I put a lot of thought on my next moves. I was thinking on taking a break from FAR studying and just work and spend time with my family. However, I know that if I take a break now from this CPA journey, I will never go back. Therefore, I decided to move (once again) my FAR retake to October 3.

I just need to find the strength and the motivation to keep swimming.