First visit to E.R. - scary how close I came

Sat. Oct 4th Today was General Conference, and though I wanted to go with the boys to Priesthood, I just couldn’t do it. Julie and Katie went to a wedding Shower for Kirby during the Priesthood session. When she got back, I had been feeling very uncomfortable (a feeling similar to the shortness of breath from the fluid in my lungs) but it was different this time. I told Julie that I didn’t think I could make it through the night. I later realized that the Lord was prompting me to get to the ER right away.
So at 10:00 pm we headed to the emergency room at the hospital. It took a few minutes to check in, and then Julie went to park the car and they took me back to a room. Within minutes, there began a flurry of events that happened so fast, I still can’t remember it all. By the time Julie got back from parking the car and found me, there were four different Dr's working on me in that little room. They hooked me up to all kinds of monitors, checking my heartbeat, blood pressure and oxygen levels, put an IV in my arm, and put me on oxygen. They also gave me lots of pain meds, and some of them made me forget most of what happened that night. They then took me for a CT scan. Next, they gave me a lung treatment, where I breathed some sort of medicine in through a mouthpiece for about 10 minutes. That seemed to help me breathe more easily. We then waited for over an hour for the results of the CT scan.
Finally, the doctor came in and told us that there was fluid building up in the area (sack) surrounding my heart. This was called a pericardio effusion. Because of the fluid build up, they were afraid that my heartbeat was compromised. Next, a technician came in and did an echo-cardiogram of my heart, and the ER Dr called the cardiologist and the surgeon (Dr Woodbury) who was on call. They discovered I had an acute cardiac tampenod, which is a diminished ability of the heart to beat because it is being compressed by fluid in the sack that surrounds the heart. The cardiologist said that I needed emergency surgery to open a hole in the heart sack, to allow the fluid to drain, so my heart could beat properly. Things moved very quickly, and soon I was on my way to the OR. That is the last thing I remember.

Scans again

Thurs. Oct 2nd I had my lung area drained again for second time. I also had an MRI which showed some minor cancer in the brain.

Fri. Oct. 3rd Today I had a PET scan. Much more involved (but similar) to a CT scan.

First visit with Dr. Te (tay)

Wed Oct. 1st Met with Dr. Te (pronounced Tay) today. He has a great reputation of being a very thorough and excellent oncologist and we felt really good about him. We talked about the options and he scheduled a couple more tests like an MRI and so forth. We told him our main goal was to get through the upcoming wedding and then start on treatment. We also talked about maybe doing radiation to help with the pain in my back to make it a little more comfortable at the wedding as well. So we decided we would try and start the chemo the Monday after the wedding. We also set up to drain my chest again. The one thing that he and all the support people kept saying that really struck home with me was to not hesitate to call 24 / 7 if anything was worse or whatever.

Pre-treatment visits

Mon. Sept 29. Went and visited several people at City Hall again and it was good to see all of them again. I was out a little too long though, and got pretty exhausted, so I had to back off and go home and rest. Mom and Dad came down from Salt Lake to do what they could as well. But with their health, they are limited as well.

Tues. Sept 30 Rested a little bit today and got ready for the doctor’s visit tomorrow.

Hard to go to church

Sun. Sep 28. Julie did not want to go to church at all but went with me because I wanted us all to be together in church if we could. She lasted through the sacrament and then had to leave. The rest of us stayed for Sacrament Meeting and then went home.