The Spots on My Lung
May 10th, 2006 at 10:22 pm by Susie
Tonight I finally get to see a doctor over at the same hospital where I recently spent the night. He takes a look at the results from the ER CAT scan and says, “Ever travel to any third world countries?”
I say no.
“Ever have tuberculosis?”
Nope.
“Ever smoke?”
God, no.
“Ever been exposed to asbestos?”
First I say no, then I remember: when we were kids, we used to play on this giant clay hill at the gypsum plant next to the park. I found out later the stuff has asbestos in it.
“I thought you had to be a smoker for it to affect you,” I say.
The doctor looks at me. “Anyone in your house smoke when you were a kid?”
“Actually, yeah. Both parents.”
“Well, there you go,” he says. “Hardly anyone has led a truly smoke-free life.”
Then he asks if I’d been feeling okay lately. I say yeah, because other than being tired all the time, I am. But I’m always tired; I have narcolepsy, remember?
Then he tells me he’s ordering a tuberculosis test. I protest; I haven’t been around anyone with tuberculosis, unless one of the junkies on the corner coughed on me on my way to work. “I mean, really, what are the odds of me having TB?” I say.
“It’s highly unlikely, but from what they describe on the CAT scan, it’s the kind of thing that’s usually either from tuberculosis that’s healed, or asbestos exposure,” he says.
Huh. Well, I get in the car and drive to Maya’s for a massage, since I’m feeling oh I don’t know, a little tense these days. So she’s working on me for a while and she says, “What’s this lump here on your spine? Is that tender?” She pokes it, hard.
“No. Why?” I say. (In fact, it’s about the only thing she poked all night that didn’t hurt.)
“Hmm,” she says. (Even though I’m face down on the table, I can imagine her face because it’s her “my brow is deeply furrowed because I’m concerned” tone.) “It’s like a muscle knot, but it isn’t. And it’s not bone. You should ask your doctor about it, it isn’t normal.”
“Oh,” I say. “That’s just the lung cancer. It grew through my lungs to the back of my spine.”
“That’s not funny,” she says. But I dunno, I kind of think it is.
Hang in there, Susie. After I left the Army, the VA did a chest x-ray and found a spot. They asked the usual questions.
I was in Georgia during Hurricane Andrew. After crossing Florida it came north again and dumped rain on George for what seemed like 40 days and 40 nights.
A whole bunch of us who were not native to the area got pneumonia-like symptoms. I coughed bad every night for months. The Army doctors didn’t have a clue. My CO was hospitalized with the same thing.
The rain left behind lots a fungal spores that are cousins to the spores that cause Valley Fever (I started researching this after the VA found the spot on my lung). So that’s what we all had. But I had no idea it would leave it’s mark on my lung.
The good news is that the VA had me come back for another x-ray a few months later. The spot had not changed. It was just scar tissue left behind.
The joke might not have been funny to your masseuse if she or one in her family fights/fought with lung cancer.
Still, my mom died of cancer (not lung cancer, though) and I think it was funny.
i’m kind of superstitious…. i dont think you should joke about stuff like that…it’s like tempting fate…. and my uncle had asbestos exposure while working at a steel mill….many years later, he went to the doctor about back pain… which turned out to be a tumor on his spine… the original cancer was in his lung, from the asbestos.
Susie, keeping my fingers crossed for you. And if its TB it’s very curable.
And even if it’s lung cancer, my neighbor survived that — he’s fine — just missing a chunk of lung.
Well, I do think you should joke about it as much as you can. I also think that you should get any questions answered. Joking about it won’t change the outcome. “Fate is the hunter.” Not getting questions answered, might.
Gug
Travis, now that you mention it, I had a fungus tumor removed from my sinuses about ten years ago and I’m guessing that’s what it is.
See, this is why I don’t get massages.
Sending you lots of good vibes, Susie.