A Little Scare

  This past June 9, I had a bit of a scare with my health. I was at work and coughed a little bit and spit up a bunch of blood. I did that a few more times and contacted my coordinator and my doctor. They both said I needed to go to the ER. I had already convinced myself that I was dying of lung cancer. Being immuno-compromised puts me at a much higher rate for cancer. When I go to all these tests I have done, they are checking for cancer. The only thing I knew of that caused you to cough up blood was cancer or TB. I knew that I didn't have TB, because I had been tested like 15 times for it and they were all negative. I decided not to tell anyone, except Paul, that I was going to the ER. If I had cancer, I wanted some time to think about it before I told anyone. I check-in and am assigned to a room with a super nurse named Karen. She drew a bunch of labs and cultures and sent me to have a chest x-ray. The chest x-ray was negative, so now they were all confused by what would cause me to cough up blood. I had coughed up a few samples by this point. I went for a CT Scan and waited for the pulmonologist to come back and talk to me. I had already decided that I would go to Hawaii before I died, it is the top thing on my bucket list. The doctor came in with a smile! It appeared that I had a really bad case of bronchitis, I never knew that could cause bleeding.  They gave me some IV antibiotics and they wanted to admit me. I refused to be admitted because they weren't going to do any further testing and I could take antibiotics at home. My nurse advocated for me and they finally agreed to let me go home. I had an appt with my doctor already scheduled for the next week and I am super compliant. Needless to say, I am ashamed that I immediately thought the worst when God has been so good to me. I was reminded that I work with wonderful people like Christina and Roxanne that always take care of me and check on me. I don't want to think about the worst case scenarios anymore. I am thankful to live right next to the best medical center in the world. I am in good hands, God's hands.