February 26, 2009
The day started like any other, get the kids off to school and wake my husband up for work. Well the kids got off to school just fine but my (42 yr old)husband who hadn't been feeling well for a few days and had a fever. So we assumed it was the same virus that had struck our 4 year old a few days ago so he went to our local urgent care center to get checked out.
After describing his symptoms which included head congestion and cough as well as the fever they ran some typical tests, chest x ray blood work etc... They discovered that he had double pneumonia, his sugar was over 300 and his oxygen level was low. So then it was time for the Emergency room. He wasn't aloud to drive himself he was sent by ambulance.
Naturally, after getting to the ER he was admitted and it all became a whirlwind of what seemed like a nightmare hitting us all at once. We were told within the first 24 hours that he was there that he was now diabetic and that there was a spot on the chest x ray that looked suspicious. (he was a smoker for 27 yrs)The next set of tests would tell us the results. First there was a cat scan which confirmed there was definitely pneumonia and a suspicious spot. Then they did a bronchoscopy to confirm that it may be a tumor and that he should have it removed but not before several other things had to be confirmed. The following day they did removal of the fluid in his lungs using an ultrasound and a needle to confirm that there were no cancerous cells in the fluid. (there weren't Thank God!!) Then he also had another cat scan but this time of his abdomen to see if anything showed up there, which again Thank God everything came out good. So they decided to schedule him for surgery the next day depending on the outcome of yet another test right before they cut him open.
The procedure was to make a small incision in his neck to remove a lymph node located in the middle of his chest, look at it under a microscope and determine if they were going to proceed with the 4 hour surgery. If the lymph node tested positive for cancer they would close him up and recommend him for radiation and chemotherapy and the cancer would be labeled as stage 3. If it is not cancerous they would proceed to roll him over on his stomach and remove 1/3rd (the upper lobe) of his right lung and re sect the bronchial tubes to connect them to the remaining part of his lung.(lobechtomy and resection)
After only 45 minutes the Dr. had come out of surgery, our hearts sunk!
