I was not one to go to the doctor much and my parents were not the type that run you to the doctor every time you sneezed. We didn't have yearly physicals like the kids (mine included) have nowadays. I think it had been almost 4 years since the last time I had been to the doctor. I was mowing the lawn 4 days before I became a critical patient. I had signs of it, but other than the weight loss, nothing that was noticeable by others, and since I didn't really speak up and say I was having issues, how were my parents to know? I was always a large teen...180+ lbs give or take, but still very active. The 6 months prior to being diagnosed I had dropped to 92 lbs but my mom thought it was just a teenage thing, as I was always made fun of for my weight. I was also having trouble swimming. I had actually flunked phys ed because I refused to swim. I couldn't breath very well and adding the water and needing to take quick breaths, it just wasn't happening. I never told my parents the real reason why or that I was having problems swallowing and would have to chew my food literally to almost liquid before I could swallow it or the food would get stuck and it would hurt for hours. I also did not tell her that I wasn't monthly monster visits (I had 2 other sisters at home, so she wouldn't have noticed anything from supplies not being used) The day I was finally taken to the doctor, I had actually went to the dentist and when we came out my side was hurting really bad and my mom finally took me to the doctor because she thought I was having an issue with my appendix. As soon as the doctor listened to my lungs, he sent me over to the ER to have an x-ray done because he thought I had pneumonia. Our family doctor showed up about 2 hours later at the ER which was just weird back then...but he came over himself to tell us that it wasn't pneumonia, they had found a tumor in my chest. At that time they said there was so much liquid in my chest that they couldn't see well, but they thought the tumor was the size of a large strawberry. I was admitted and they immediately put a chest tube in to drain the liquid and the total liquid was 2 1/2 quarts that was drained. They repeated the chest x-ray after draining all the liquid and the large strawberry tumor was upgraded to a small watermelon size tumor. The tumor was pressing my esophagus closed and that was why I was having trouble eating and of coarse the pressure on my lungs was causing trouble breathing. The mass had my left lung completely squished. there was no air going into it at all and fluid was preventing full use of the right lung,1/2 squished from the fluid. It had my heart pushed all the way up against my rib cage and all that lower stuff (kidneys, liver, ovaries, etc) was pushed down into my pelvis. I was immediately transferred by ambulance to our large hospital about 1 1/2 hours away to be treated by an oncologist. Once I got there, they admitted me and the next day they had a needle biopsy scheduled so they could find out what kind of tumor it was, but during the procedure, you had to lay flat on your back and keep really still. Because of the weight of the tumor, if I tried to lay on my back, I could not breath, so I could not stay still enough for them to do the needle biopsy. So that was nixed and the next day, they did a surgical biopsy. I woke up in ICU on life support because when they took the little sample of the tumor, it irritated the tumor and it swelled and completely cut of my airway. According to my momma, they lost me and brought me back, but I was unable to breath on my own due to the cut off of the airway from the swelling. They expected me to be on life support for at least 7 days until the swelling went away, but they told her if they did not start chemo within 72 hours, I would be gone and they gave her the option to remove me from life support because the odds of me making it were about 3%. When I woke up later that same day on life support, my mom told me what was happening and I realized then that I was fighting the machine. I was having to time my breathing with the machine or it would burst air into my lungs and hurt. I wrote to my mom that I wanted off the machine and she said no because of the swelling. I wouldn't listen to her and I wrote to her that if she didn't have them take me off of it, I would wait until no one was in the room and pull the tubes out. Of coarse she told the doctor and they tried to explain to me that the tube was there to get the air around the swelling, but I wouldn't listen, so the doctors agreed to decrease the rate of breaths to 1/2 and see how I tolerated that. I did ok with it, so after 48 hours on life support, they decided to try taking it out and see if the swelling had gone down enough to breath on my own. When they took the tubes out, I did have a bit of trouble breathing if I laid down... but I found that if I sat up with my legs crossed indian style, put a pillow in my lap, and laid forward over the pillows, It took enough of the weight off that I could take my own breaths, so that is what I did, for days. 12 hours later I was started on Chemo. I was taken out of ICU 4 days after that and moved to the Oncology wing where I would make my home for the next 6 weeks. I went through 2 different chemo regimens. ABVD ( Adriamycin, Blyomycin,Vinblastine, and Dacarbazine.) and MOPP (Mustargen, Oncovin, Procarbazine, and Prednisone). They started with MOPP and I did fine with it, didn't even get sick. they did 2 treatments while I was in the hospital, and then they sent me home. I had to go back in 2 weeks later so they could administer my first dose of ABVD, I would have to stay in the hospital for another 2 weeks. It did make me very sick, but they let me go back home after 1 week and 5 days. I called the ABVD my hard chemo and the MOPP my easy chemo (the mind of a teenager...easy chemo.. is there such a thing?).The Adriamycin was the worst. It made me sooo sick. They would give me meds to help with the nausea, but it NEVER worked. It also made all my hair fall out. (on a side note, when it started to grow back in, It was stick straight which I thought was amazing as I have naturally kinky curly hair and always dreamed of having straight hair). The MOPP was easy because it didn't burn going in and it didn't make me sick until toward the end of the cycles. They alternated my treatments...starting with ABVD, waiting 3 weeks, then MOPP, waiting 2 weeks and then ABVD again and so on for 14 cycles of the chemo. After the chemo, they said I was in remission and when I went back for my 3 month check up, they said there was new growth again, so had to do radiation treatments. 30 days. After that they said I was in remission again and have stayed in remission since. I think the thing that really helps me keep everything in perspective is my kids. I was told I would never have any due to the damage done to the eggs from the chemo/radiation. I have 3. Having that constant reminder of the miracle that was given to me makes it impossible to not be thankful for each and every day!
Last summer I had them in "Stew Packs" around a campfire. Not your conventional meat to throw in, but pretty tasty! 
But, all in all, it was a good day. Not just because this is one of the last skills I have to learn in Skills Lab (blood administration is next), but today marked 20% of our Term being done! Can you believe how fast it's gone by??!!
38 WEEK MARK
