I know recently I've been worrying a lot of you by my posts about prayers & positive thoughts for some health concerns of mine that have come up recently. Some of you I've been able to talk to, e-mail, DM, send smoke signals, let loose carrier pigeons, etc... to discuss personally, but frankly there are too many to do that on an individual basis. Believe me, that is in no way a burden; it's actually a blessing that I have so many people who care.
Let me start off by saying that I FEEL FINE. But what prompted this all was some back pain I'd been having at night, which woke me up pretty much every night about the same time. Add to that some frequent trips to the bathroom & I'd self-diagnosed as having kidney stones. After about a week of putting up with the pain, I made an appointment for the doctor. He seemed to agree with me, but also wanted me to get some blood work done, along with a CT scan & x-ray. I had all of those done in the same night & the results were available that night. The blood work was normal, but the scans did not show any kidney stones. Instead it showed some slight enlargement of my spleen & various lymph nodes.
Fast forward to now. After more blood work, a PET scan, visits to an oncologist & a consult with a surgeon, no one is still sure what is going on. For all intents & purposes, I'm a healthy person...just with slight enlargement of the spleen & lymph nodes. It could be that some infection is being fought off in my body causing the enlargements & it only showed up coincidentally due to the back pain (I had been lifting heavy things between putting a swing set together & moving items for an auction, which could explain the pain; remember who we're dealing with: a guy who doesn't DO physical labor). There are possibilities of lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, or a similar disease, but I show no symptoms of these. Also there exists a chance that I have some sort of cancer (lymphoma or leukemia), but again, I show no other signs of illness. The oncologist is pretty stumped at this point because he sees a patient that would be easier to diagnose if he felt or looked sick. But I don't & therein lies the problem. In another month I have some repeat blood tests to do, which will check levels against my previous tests. If the oncologist sees a change, I'll be scheduled for a biopsy of one of the lymph nodes (probably one at my left collarbone) to know once & for all what we're dealing with.
All I can ask from all of you is to keep up your prayers & positive thoughts, because that's all I can do for right now: keep on keepin' on & doing what I know to do. Again, to reiterate, I FEEL FINE. If that happens to change or if something new pops up from the next round of tests, I'll be sure to pass it along. Thank you again to all of those who have passed along your well-wishes &/or took a moment of your day to send me some encouragement. I've been on a roller coaster with this, but I'm determined to stay on the positive side of it. God only gives us things He knows we can handle & whatever it is that is thrown my way this time, I'll get through it. Knowing I have you all on my side helps.
Now, can someone please bring back the less-serious Shaun? I like him much better.
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