"To best serve yourself, gain knowledge and it is in that state that you will reveal to yourself truth which will empower, thus serve you, rather than dis-empower and limit you."
According to Dr. Tim Taylor,(not to be confused with the Tool Man Tim Taylor from Home Improvement) it all started between 8 and 13 years ago. It began like a tiny grain of sand in an oyster. This story would not, however, end with a beautiful pearl, but a horrible nightmare. One tiny stray cell with mixed up coding. This invasive intruder would silently grow into a monster three-fourths the size of the kidney it called home.
The first few years the menace was not noticed. As time went by I began feeling week. Because of Myasthenia Gravis that I have had for over twenty-three years the weakness was not anything new. Steve kept telling me that it was not MG and that I needed to see a Dr. He knew something was wrong. The PA I went to told me that he thought I was out of remission from the thymectomy I had had in 1992. But said he would run blood test to humor Steve. So we dealt with it. I was notified that I had low iron and either had colon cancer or an internal bleed because my iron level had dropped so rapidly. It was then that he revealed that my iron was low a few months ago when I had had the insurance physical but he hadn't said anything then because it was borderline low. Tests were negative and the PA decided it was just MG rearing it ugly head. We adjusted our life style of horseback riding, scuba diving, and motorcycling to enjoying the corvette and reducing physical activity. We enjoyed life for a few years traveling to corvette rallies, even going to Nashville for the Corvette 50th Anniversary.
End of November 2009 found me at Disneyland with our two daughters, Shari and Hillary, and their kids. On the 3rd day while watching little granddaughter Izzy as the others went on the sky ride I suddenly became very week and dizzy. We went to the hotel and I slept all night and all the next day. As long as I didn't eat anything I was fine. We left for home and I felt a little better on the drive but still could not eat.
We met Steve on Sunday morning because we were flying to Tampa for Steve's back surgery. While there I could only eat baby food. We were quite a pair the 3 weeks we stayed. We returned home on Dec 22.
I went back to the Dr and he really was no help. Just said I had to eat and if I wanted he could give me an iron infusion because I was becoming severely anemic. He made it sound like it was my call but didn't think it would help. His colleague agreed,so I just went home to try to adjust to my situation.
463
By this time I can see why I was reluctant to go back to the Dr. During the 7 years of pure "hell" I went through before the Myasthenia diagnosis I had been told my illness was, in my head, that I had Lupus, or MS. While being treated for Lupus, that I didn't have, with staggering amounts of prednisone, loosing my hair and going into kidney failure I went to a Neurologist, Dr John Foley, in Salt Lake. He restored my faith in medicine when he diagnosed MG before I had even sat down and that I had probably had it from birth, which is very rare. What a relief that was. Since that diagnosis no matter what illness I presented with I was always told it was just MG. I guess I just gave up this time.
By the end of March I was so sick I had lost 40lbs and had to walk with a cane. I changed doctors and was diagnosed with Renal Cell cancer at the first appointment. Removal of the left kidney was performed the following weeqk. One tumor the size of a small lime and one tumor the size of a walnut. Stage 1. Dr. Taylor said I would have died within 30 days because of low iron. The pathologist gave encouraging news that in his opinion it had not metastasized, but that I needed to have a chest x-ray every year for 5 years. Dr. Taylor told us at that time that metastatic renal cell cancer does not respond to radiation or chemo so if it spreads not much can be done.
Life went on. Twenty-eight grandchildren became the light of our lives. We each bought our Harleys and spent the summers scaring everyone on the road as we rode our bikes everywhere. What fun. We moved to Salt Lake and decided to go on a mission. Even though I had a clear lung x-ray in Nov 2011 I had to have another one April 2012. We were told that they would call if there was a problem but to consider it clear if we did not hear from them. We did not receive a call and the Dr. signed our mission physicals.
Off we went to the Philippines as the first Wheelchair Directors for the church for LDS Charities. It was wonderful beyond words. After 7 months we were assigned as the Country Directors for Humanitarian Services when a new couple came to take over the wheelchair initiative. We were able to travel all over the country doing water and food projects and calamity relief.
What a wonderful experience we had. See our mission blog at: ourphilippinemission.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment