In The Hospital

This is probably going to be a bit lengthy because it's something I've kept to myself, other than my family and some close friends, since 2019 and is rather personal but after being on this site since 2006 I decided to share.

Back in July of 2019 I was diagnosed with stage 4 adenocarcinoma non-small cell lung cancer.  After a PET scan it was downgraded to stage 3.  My doctor told me she was going to be very aggressive with her treatment.  33 radiation treatments and 15 chemo treatments later and  continuing every 3 weeks immunotherapy treatments still going on today and I am still here and doing fine!!  However, the radiation treatments caused my throat to develop scar tissue and gives me problems swallowing at times.  I had my throat stretched (outpatient) twice and had gone 15 months without any problems until I had a reaction to a wasp sting and was so nauseous I spent some time in the bathroom.  My throat started to act up.  Depending on what I ate or if I didn't cut it up small enough or chew good enough, it would get caught in my throat.  On Sunday I decided to have a hotdog, 3 bites in and one of those bites got caught in my throat and off to the bathroom.  The terrible part is from then on I could not get any food to stay down.  It would get caught in my throat and I would be off to the bathroom.  I could only take small sips of water.  On Monday I messaged my doctors and it was recommended I go to Urgent Care. I went.  A CT scan and blood work later I was told they couldn't do anything and they had left messages with my Gastroentologist doctor who was booked solid for 6 months for outpatient EDG (throat stretching).  The doctor advised me to go to his office and talk to them which I did.  His nurse came out and told me to go to the ER.  It would be the only way to get things done faster.  On Wednesday morning I went to the ER.  They admitted me, my Gastro doctor was the one on duty that day, he performed the EDG and told me I had a bite of hot dog caught in my throat (he gave me a picture of it) which was stopping any food from passing through even thought I had no problems breathing.  They kept me over night and discharged me on Thursday at about 3:30 before hurricane Helene came through.  Sorry this is so lengthy and believe me I am thankful everyday.  I'm a terrible Catholic but I've always had faith in the man upstairs and he's still taking care of me.

We lucked out once again and only got lots of heavy wind and hardly any rain at all.  Tampa which is 50 miles west of us was shut down due to flooding and the panhandle of Florida has been devastated.