Hospital Musings
From: Joel Wagner
Sent: Sunday, December 23, 2001 7:37 PM
To: Joel Wagner
Subject: Hospital Musings
Wow. What an unexpectedly exciting period of time the last few days have been. For those of you who don’t know, I’ll go ahead and give a brief rundown. On Thursday, I went to school and was grading practice records in Ms. Gipson’s office, minding my own business when a sharp pain and shortness of breath suddenly overtook me. I got up to walk around some to see if it was a muscle spasm or something but it didn’t help. The resultant pain is something I cannot describe and never again want to experience. I was ultimately taken to the emergency room of Huguley Memorial Hospital in Burleson, which was the nearest hospital.
Initial thoughts were that it was a kidney stone. The initial X-Ray didn’t find anything, and yet the pain remained. So as a result, the doctor ordered a couple of chest X-Rays be done, and they revealed something strange that seemed to be the culprit. As it turns out, I have an 8cm mass near my left lung. Since around the beginning of October, I have been experiencing some pain and discomfort when taking deep breaths, and when playing my horn, breathing is something that I frequently am called to do. I had gone to the doctor about it on a couple of occasions and nobody ever stopped to consider the need to X-Ray my chest to see if there might be something in there causing my breathing trouble. I have been sick some, but that has been attributed to allergies which I typically get this time of year.
After discovering that, the doctor had me stay in the hospital overnight on Friday and my case was passed over to a lung doctor. On Friday morning, I went in for a biopsy around 9:45 and was back in my room by 10:30. I didn’t see my doctor the rest of the day. Around 1:00, they came in and disconnected my IV. My aunt works for another doctor who goes to the hospital where I was staying, and he came by on Friday and gave me some initial results of the cytology part of the biopsy. Apparently, there are two parts, one wherein they look at the core of whatever it is and the other is an analysis of the fluid surrounding it or whatever. At any rate, the cytology did not show any signs of cancer, so that was encouraging. The entire day on Friday was spent in a sort of limbo where I didn’t know if I was going to stay in the hospital or not. Around 8pm, I figured out that I wouldn’t be going home. Shortly after that, I received the cough syrup that the doctor had ordered about ten hours before.
On Saturday morning, I was given another dose of antibiotic through the IV needle that was still in my hand. It’s amazing how much better I began feeling once they put me on the antibiotic on Thursday, and continued to feel better, to the point where I was feeling better on Saturday than I have since at least September. The doctor came in around noon and told me that I was going to be able to go home. I will call his office tomorrow (Monday) and make an appointment to find out the final results of the biopsy on Wednesday.
During my hospital stay, I was so happy to hear from so many friends and family members who were concerned for me. I solicit your continued prayers until this whole ordeal is over, and it is so humbling and comforting to know that so many people went out of their way to call, send gifts, and even to come by and visit me.
I now realize how easy it has become for me to simply take things for granted. “You do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away” (James 4:14). How many times have I read that and not once taken it to heart? I have experienced the pain that comes with death. I was in a car wreck a few years ago where a friend of mine died in the seat next to me. I know that I live only by the grace of God. And yet, I take it all for granted. I continue living as if tomorrow is guaranteed and all of the plans I have made will come to pass. It’s amazing how what was vitally important in my life only a few days ago can so quickly sink back in priority with the myriad of other seemingly less significant details.
I firmly believe that I will soon make it through this entire ordeal, and believe me nobody wants it to be over more than I do. Thank you for everything that each one of you does for me! I hope to hear from you all soon…
Recent Comments