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| First X-ray of lungs (January 25th 2008) |
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| First X-ray of lungs (January 25th 2008) |
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Actually lets back up. November of 2007 is when it really started. "Night Sweats" was the first
of the side effects. Most nights in October and November I would wake up 2-3 times a night drenched in sweat. One day in late
November I decided to go to a doctor and tell him my symptoms. The sweats; the fevers which started at 5pm every evening;
the massive headaches that would last for hours on end; the weight loss; the vomiting daily. You would think that a doctor
would want to look into this, but he basically saw a 135 lb kid who looked like an addict (due to the weight loss) and didn't
even bother to get me tested. Oddly enough when I went home that night I plugged in the same symptoms on a medical site, and
the results of possibilities were "TB" or "Leukemia", fairly crazy stuff actually. But I shrugged it off
as a bad bad flu.
I didnt really get "worse" throughout December and I figured the reason of the sickness I was feeling was simply the effects of working the Christmas rush my company was experiencing. I LOVE the Christmas season. I get to work 60 hour weeks and make a very decent living during those months. I usually overwork myself so this wasnt shocking to me that I was sick.
In late December my wife and I took a gorgeous trip to Orlando and stayed at the Animal Kingdom resort. By the way I strongly recommend this resort. You literally wake up to giraffes outside your window, just like in the video. Was the best money I ever spent IMO! (i need to add a lingo page). I found myself tiring very early in the evenings after walking the parks and when I returned home I found myself very exhausted for a solid week. It wasn't until January 25th til I finally would see another doctor.
January 25th, 2008
The night of the 24th God spoke to me. I am not claiming to be the best Christian in the world, I know my faults, but I also know when I'm being talked to. That night I was being YELLED at basically by God. For over 18 months in a row, not ONE day would pass where I wouldn't get up, get a cup a coffee, and do the books for my business for the previous day. It was the best part of my day. That morning on the 25th I got up, called Solantic and told them that I needed an X-ray immediately and asked how much that would cost to pay. By 8am I was getting my X-ray. I didn't get any coffee, I didn't sit at my desk, I didn't even brush my teeth. I put on a shirt, some jeans and just left. On the way there God talked to me again and I said out-loud to myself "This is going to be longest day of my life". I had no clue how severe I was sick, but I knew that whatever was coming was going to life changing. This was confirmed to me very quickly. A nice man who was doing my X-ray was joking around with me about the weather that day and his face dropped like he just saw someone die the very second he saw my X-ray. I was watching him watch his laptop screen in sheer pain. I asked half joking, "you OK? heh" The man's lip quivered and he said that he better have the doctor talk to me. I asked what it was and he simply said that he due to him not being a doctor he is not allowed to read the X-rays to the patients. He knew that I knew that it was serious. Sure enough minutes later I had the doctor tell me to go directly to the hospital. All HE would even say is that they need to see the DVD of the x-ray and then they would be able to tell me what was wrong. When I was leaving the 3-4 people ( the X-ray man , 2 nurses and the doctor) who had seen the X-ray all looked at me with this look I will never forget. One lady started to cry and left the room not knowing I had noticed. I left and called my wife and told her to meet me at the hospital, and then I called my father. I told him that from what I saw it looked like a collapsed lung (wrong) and that whatever was wrong it was really serious.
When I got to the ER a trainee tried to insert an IV into me (one of over 4 dozen needles I'd experience in the following weeks) but somehow BOTCHED it so bad that when the nurse took it out, my arm swelled 6 inches in 3 seconds. My wife ran to get the nurse who had left momentarily and fell on her way out the door. She said she blacked out because she thought I was dieing. When the nurse saw my arm she said AND I QUOTE "Ive never seen anything like that before!" , therefore making ME pass out. I thought I was actually dieing right then. I came too and they fixed my arm and then they took me for my CT scan. I then found out after all these years that I am allergic to Iodine! I threw up all over myself during the scan and had welts on my left arm (right arm had the swelling from the previous hour).
The next hour an ER doctor came in to confirm that from the scan I have a "football" sized tumor in my chest. They had made arrangements for me to be taken to the main hospital downtown.
That evening at the downtown ER they drained nearly two liters of fluid from my side(shown in the picture). I might ad THAT THE NEEDLE THEY USE IS ABOUT EIGHT FEET LONG! lol
I didn't care. I was needled up and didnt feel a thing and was felt a relief that is indescribable. The night sweats have yet to come back. In fact, since that night I have not had any of the previous symptoms. It was the fluid which was causing me all the problems the past few months. They told me that day that had I not come in, I most likely would of not woke up one night, and simply died. They estimate it could of very well been less than a week. God really spoke to me that day, and I did something which I hadn't done in quite some time; I listened.
I didnt really get "worse" throughout December and I figured the reason of the sickness I was feeling was simply the effects of working the Christmas rush my company was experiencing. I LOVE the Christmas season. I get to work 60 hour weeks and make a very decent living during those months. I usually overwork myself so this wasnt shocking to me that I was sick.
In late December my wife and I took a gorgeous trip to Orlando and stayed at the Animal Kingdom resort. By the way I strongly recommend this resort. You literally wake up to giraffes outside your window, just like in the video. Was the best money I ever spent IMO! (i need to add a lingo page). I found myself tiring very early in the evenings after walking the parks and when I returned home I found myself very exhausted for a solid week. It wasn't until January 25th til I finally would see another doctor.
January 25th, 2008
The night of the 24th God spoke to me. I am not claiming to be the best Christian in the world, I know my faults, but I also know when I'm being talked to. That night I was being YELLED at basically by God. For over 18 months in a row, not ONE day would pass where I wouldn't get up, get a cup a coffee, and do the books for my business for the previous day. It was the best part of my day. That morning on the 25th I got up, called Solantic and told them that I needed an X-ray immediately and asked how much that would cost to pay. By 8am I was getting my X-ray. I didn't get any coffee, I didn't sit at my desk, I didn't even brush my teeth. I put on a shirt, some jeans and just left. On the way there God talked to me again and I said out-loud to myself "This is going to be longest day of my life". I had no clue how severe I was sick, but I knew that whatever was coming was going to life changing. This was confirmed to me very quickly. A nice man who was doing my X-ray was joking around with me about the weather that day and his face dropped like he just saw someone die the very second he saw my X-ray. I was watching him watch his laptop screen in sheer pain. I asked half joking, "you OK? heh" The man's lip quivered and he said that he better have the doctor talk to me. I asked what it was and he simply said that he due to him not being a doctor he is not allowed to read the X-rays to the patients. He knew that I knew that it was serious. Sure enough minutes later I had the doctor tell me to go directly to the hospital. All HE would even say is that they need to see the DVD of the x-ray and then they would be able to tell me what was wrong. When I was leaving the 3-4 people ( the X-ray man , 2 nurses and the doctor) who had seen the X-ray all looked at me with this look I will never forget. One lady started to cry and left the room not knowing I had noticed. I left and called my wife and told her to meet me at the hospital, and then I called my father. I told him that from what I saw it looked like a collapsed lung (wrong) and that whatever was wrong it was really serious.
When I got to the ER a trainee tried to insert an IV into me (one of over 4 dozen needles I'd experience in the following weeks) but somehow BOTCHED it so bad that when the nurse took it out, my arm swelled 6 inches in 3 seconds. My wife ran to get the nurse who had left momentarily and fell on her way out the door. She said she blacked out because she thought I was dieing. When the nurse saw my arm she said AND I QUOTE "Ive never seen anything like that before!" , therefore making ME pass out. I thought I was actually dieing right then. I came too and they fixed my arm and then they took me for my CT scan. I then found out after all these years that I am allergic to Iodine! I threw up all over myself during the scan and had welts on my left arm (right arm had the swelling from the previous hour).
The next hour an ER doctor came in to confirm that from the scan I have a "football" sized tumor in my chest. They had made arrangements for me to be taken to the main hospital downtown.
That evening at the downtown ER they drained nearly two liters of fluid from my side(shown in the picture). I might ad THAT THE NEEDLE THEY USE IS ABOUT EIGHT FEET LONG! lol
I didn't care. I was needled up and didnt feel a thing and was felt a relief that is indescribable. The night sweats have yet to come back. In fact, since that night I have not had any of the previous symptoms. It was the fluid which was causing me all the problems the past few months. They told me that day that had I not come in, I most likely would of not woke up one night, and simply died. They estimate it could of very well been less than a week. God really spoke to me that day, and I did something which I hadn't done in quite some time; I listened.
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