Wednesday, April 5, 2006

A little scary

Two weeks ago we had a little scare at our house. It all started with what I thought was a lung infection, but it turned into something much more stressful.

I went to the doc because I thought I had pleuritis. Nothing major, but I wanted something for the pain. Well he thought we should have a CT scan done to rule out a blood clot. No biggie. So we have it and wait for the results. And wait, and wait, and wait. You know doctors have their own time line of life. Whatever. Finally after 3 hours of waiting, he calls and says "you can rest easy tonight knowing there is no blood clot". Uh, I knew that, but feel free to bill my insurance. But then he continues with "but there are a few things we need to get looked at." Okay, do I not have a heart, because I've heard that one before. Nope. Heart's accounted for. It's what shouldn't be there that worries him. "You have a lump on your right breast, 2 masses around your thymus, and 3 spots on your left lung." Yippie! What's a thymus again? I took anatomy, but I'm drawing a blank. Actually adults don't have a thymus, it shrivels up and dies when you hit puberty. But before that, it makes your T-Cells that fight infection. Now you don't have to take anatomy. Feel free to send me your tuition check.

So now I'm freaking out. I automatically think I have cancer. No way, I feel fine. I really do. So the last few weeks we've been through 2 mammograms, 1 ultrasound, 3 doctors and several vials of blood. And finally yesterday we get the news.... All is well. The lump on the breast is necrotic tissue. No worries about that. The thymus masses are remnant thymic tissue, weird, but not a problem. And the lung spots are granulomas from a previous a-symptomatic fungal infection. Whew. I think we're all breathing a huge sigh of relief.

I guess it takes something like this for me to wake up and realize what's important. I just hate that I'm that way. I think I've learned my lesson.

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