Me!
Sitting here waiting for Seattle to go on sale and it accured to me I haven't posted here in forever. Been working during the whole pandemic at a local hospital where I am the health screener at the main lobby. I ask all the questions and help visitors get to where they need to go. I've been there little over a year now and back in April, I was made lead. Pretty much the boss, but because I don't have "manager" background they call it the lead.
Back in May I started feeling funky, so I went and had a battery of tests done, one of which was a CT of my chest where they found a large mass in my lower lobe of my left lung and a little mass in my right. after a few more CT scans the doctor said because of your past smoking history and by the looks of it, I'm pretty certaibn it's lung cancer, but we won't know for sure without a biopsy.
May 29th, I had a breathing attack and had to go to the ER by way of Ambulance. The attack I had went on for HOURS and the best way I can describe it is like a stitch in your side after you've ran a long way, and you try to take a deep breath but can't because it hurts so much! Well, multiply that pain by 1,000! now have it last for hours. All I could do was fast shallow breaths to the point I almost hyperventilated.
While in the ER they give me another CT scan of my lungs, because I've told them I've been diagnosed as possibly having lung cancer. They come back and tell me it looks like you don't have lung cancer as the two massed in your lungs have shrunk! THAT'S AWESOME...THANK GOD!! but then what the hell is wrong with me?
They put me in the hospital and did a ridiculous amount of tests on me. My oxygen level went down as low as 74% at one time and they called code on me to intubate me! I refused.... Because I knew if I went on, I'd never come off. I was in the hospital for 2 weeks, from May 29th to June 11th. Twice codes were called on me because of low oxygen, but I fought back each time.
In the middle of the first week, they still had no clue as to what I had, so they decided to atleast rule out lung cancer, they did a biopsy and it came back negative! Thank God again! But then what the hell do I have?
Turns out I have a VERY RARE pneumonia called Cryptogenic Organizing Pneumonia! It's a dry pneumonia, so there is no fluid build up. Instead, the inside of my lungs swell up and rub against int inside walls of my lungs as I breath. OH JOY!!!! I was told it's so rare that they don't know all that much about it! I even had CDC in my room getting my information. They said only about 3,000 people in all of America have this. I told my kids to put that in perspective, our town had a little over 7600 citizens, so just under half of our town would have this vs the entire country!
They have no clue as to how I got it, Not covid, not black mold, not anything !
Since June 11th, I've been fighting the hard battle to get back my strength and the ablitiy to walk 50 feet without having to stop and catch my breath. I had a pharmacy of drugs on my counter that I take all day long, my breakfast is 9 pills, lunch drops down to 5, dinner is 5 more and bed time is 3! the main ones are steroids and antibiotics, which after 2 1/2 months I can report have done their job and gotten rid of the infection! I now have two different inhalers I use one every morning, and one during the day for the just in case. Thankfully I haven't had one of my breathing attacks in months. and after a long fight to get back to somewhat healthy, I was cleared to return to work on August 1st.
I still wear a mask when I go out, and I get dirty loooks from people, I'm just waiting for that one person to try and take it off me so I can unload 3 months of fear and frustration on them! LOL
Anyway it's been a messed up and scary few months. and my reward for not dying (as my wife put it), "For not dying, I think you buying Bruce tickets would be a nice gift!" Thanks hun!!!!! 
ESTRTBNDFAN
Todd
