Wow, I had no idea....

August 9th, 2007

I woke up one morning and got out of bed like I had done thousands of other times. There were not too many days left of summer with my children home from school with me. We had just the day before took my nephews to the Atlanta airport so they could fly back to San Diego after a two and a half week visit with us. First things first today...was Registration Day at the kid's schools so we would spend a few hours doing that early in the day. It was also time to head back to the pool for some final days of relaxation in between getting the kid's ready for school to start back. We would also need to be pulling out the kids fall/winter clothes and be sorting through them and replacing what we needed to replace, then there would also be the million mile long school supply lists that all three would have to have ready in time to start back to school with. The day really started like any other day had and the children were excited about finding out who their teachers were going to be for the new school year, so the house was a buzz with talk about things like that. I straightened up the house for a few minutes then decided I would lay down and rest for a short while on the couch and watch some morning television before I had to get ready to leave and head out to the schools to register the kiddos. I had been having to do that more and more frequently for quite a while now...having to rest up between any physical things that I would do. I had just been feeling run down and worn out which I thought was to be expected out of a busy mother of three children.

After about a half hour of resting I went and got ready to leave for registration. First stop was to my son's elementary school. He was so excited. He got to see his class assignment and we headed down to the classroom and met his teacher. I filled out the necessary ton of forms as usual. I introduced myself to his new teacher and we spoke for a few minutes. Then it was time to make the mad dash to the middle school so I could get my 8th grade daughter registered. My oldest daughter had a friend that was going to meet us at the middle school when we got there and then ride down to the high school with us to walk around and see where her classrooms were going to be from her schedule. We arrived at the middle school and her friend met us out front. After figuring out where to go we were on our way to her homeroom class to get her class schedule and meet her homeroom teacher. A few more tons of paper to fill out. While picking up the papers I realized that I wasn't feeling so well but wanted to hurry up and move along figuring I could probably get back home and rest for awhile after everything was taken care of but I had really thought that by the time we left the high school whatever it was probably would have passed by then..I'm going to finish this blog tomorrow.

Ok well it isn't tomorrow, but time to finish anyway even if it is a wekk later!!

Ok so I went to the high school with all 3 children in tow and the good friend of my 10th grade daughter's. We arrive and we walk around and find all of the classes on her schedule. Everyone is havign a good time. I am really not feeling too bad but I am not feeling perfectly well at this point either. Then we made it through and started down the road heading back to the mountain, to home when we passed my sister and my nephew with his friends heading to the High school. They are upcoming Freshman! How exciting. So I swung a u-ie and decided that we would go and let my daughter and her friend be the upcoming freshman's tour guide figureing it would be good fun for everybody. Decided I was hungry so I let them out and they ran ahead while I ran with my two younger children down the road and back to Hardee's where we picked up ham biscuits for my crew. We finished eating in the car and I thought I was feeling a little bit better after eating and we went into the school to look for the older kids and my sister. We found them and was waiting while my sister was introducing herself and my nephew to his technology teacher. At this point I realize that I am getting sicker by the minute and was quite worried about making it home with the children. So I told them we needed to go really fast and that I would have to get home and rest before going on with the day.

We piled into the car and headed home. The children were really disappointed that we weren't going on to the pool as planned. I just couldn't do it anymore!! So, I went home and called my husband at work. He wanted to come home and take me to the ER. I explained to him that i really felt like it would all pass. This though has been my excuse for some time now and is really beginning to wear on my husband. So he agrees that he will give me a little while to rest but if it didn't pass then to the ER we would go. I agreed. I was actually in pain and it was really strange. My chest was hurting really badly. I have reflux and it didn't really seem related to that although sometimes it can fool you into thinking you're having chest pain. It just somehow felt different, more intense and I was getting kind of scared. I fell asleep for a few hours. I had told the children that after it passed we would load up, pick the friend back up and head out to the pool. Well, I woke up with my oldest daughter telling me that it was getting to be evening that she had canceled plans with the friend and had already told her sister an dbrother that I hadn't gotten better and needed more rest. I thanked her and apologized. Now I really felt bad...for the kids. I just wasn't feeling better at all though. I got up and moved to the couch in the living room and turned the television on figuring atleast I could spend the evening with the children.

I knew at this time my husband would be on his way shortly and that he was an hour away from home. He has a 1hr commute each day both ways. So I didn't call and tell him the pain was wosening I knew he would be home as soon as possible anyway. He came in and saw my chest pain had gotten worse and said that's it...get ready to go to the hospital. This is serious. I agreed that it was time to go to the hospital as I didn't know how much longer I could take the worsening chest tightness and pain and was honestly worried about my heart and it failing.

Off to the emergency room we go...

We get to the ER and sign in (Erlanger Hospital Chattanooga, TN).
We waited for about half an hour and was taken in to Triage. They went ahead and ran an EKG in there to see what the urgency would be. EKG was fine...so back to waiting. After a couple of hours we were brought back. Somewhere along the way back my husband couldn't keep up (he has degenerative disc disease and doesn't go at the speed we do) so we lost him when the door locked on him. I met the Dr. and they wanted to first do a chest x-ray. They sent me off for it. Then finally got my husband in there with us. Now we have been back there for about an hour. Chest x-ray results come in and the Dr. comes in with the results. He is shocked and asks if we know anything about a tumor. We say no and then he proceeds to tell us that I have a very large mass in my lung and they are going to go ahead and admit me in the hospital to keep running more tests. They assure me they will do everything to diagnosis and get this taken care of along with running all of the other tests that go along with the complaints I came in with as the tumor was just an unexpected finding.