Today...an Anniversary

Today is August 31st, 2010.  One year ago today I visited my primary care physician with a cough and some chest pain.  I had already self-diagnosed myself with Pleurisy (an infection in the lining of the lung that causes pain when coughing, generally reserved for old men who smoke).  Seems like a silly diagnosis in hindsight but I had had it once before and the symptoms fit.  It was the first day that teachers were to be back at school and at that point I'd been coughing and uncomfortable for several weeks...it didn't make sense to me to start the school year sick.  My Doctor seemed comfortable with my self diagnosis but ordered a chest x-ray to rule out things like pneumonia.  My appointment wasn't until late in the day so the radiologist had gone home and wouldn't see the x-ray until the next day.  No big deal right?!  The following day I received a message on my phone from my doctor asking me to call about my x-ray.  I remember thinking this was odd but wasn't too worried about it.  We played phone tag that day and I finally got her on the phone the following day (Wednesday, Sept. 2).  "There is something on your x-ray.  We don't know what it is, it could be as simple as a shadow.  I've ordered you a CT Scan for next Tuesday."  What?!  We tried really hard to spend the next 6 days without stressing out, of course it was a shadow, it couldn't possibly be anything worse than that, I just have a cough.

When my CT scan was finished the technician told me that my doctor would call me within 48 hours with the results.  She called me an hour and a half later and had already scheduled me an appointment with a thoracic surgeon at The Brigham and Women's Hospital.  "You have a very large mass in the right, center of your chest".  Again, What?!  The diagnosis process began there.  I'm sure I'll write more about it in the future but for now that's enough for me.

So, today is the one year anniversary.  In many ways it feels like 10 years.  I have been through so many tests and procedures and nightmare situations and yet here I am today living.  My family has been living this nightmare of a roller coaster ride with me and I thank them everyday, not always verbally but always in my heart.  I am here today for a number of reasons but my family gave me the biggest reason there is to keep fighting, always keep fighting.  I am here today living my life to the best of my ability each and every day.  Taken life one step, one day at a time.  Appreciating the little things as well as the big.  Today it has been one year and I look forward to being here to see many, many more of these "anniversaries" come and go.