We were not prepared for this one.

Saturday morning Mark began to complain that it was becoming difficult for him to take a deep breath. For the two day previous to this I had noticed labored breathing after he came upstairs and was watching him more closely. When he mentioned it I asked him to write a note to his oncologist right away, knowing that that they would see it on Monday morning.

Monday morning came along and we realized that his breathing was labored even while sitting in his chair. I had several appointments that day and was relieved to get a text from him letting me know that his doctor had ordered a chest X-ray and we could drive to the South Jordan clinic any time that afternoon. When I came home he was busy with work, but we eventually made our way. (He still puts in a full day’s work each day – fortunate he can work from his recliner.)

We asked them to read the films right away because we didn’t want to drive home (an hour south) only to be told to come to the Huntsman (90 minutes north). It was 4:00 p.m. They told us the condition had worsened – we hadn’t even known there was a “condition.” There was a lot of fluid on his lungs and our oncologist told us to go straight to the E.R. Thankfully there is an E.R. attached to this clinic.

Everyone knows what a fun time there is to be had in an emergency room. It was seven hours before we were able to leave… but we didn’t leave together. Mark was taken via ambulance to the ICU at Huntsman. They wouldn’t let me drive him because it was unsafe for him to be out of their care. He insisted that I go home to get some decent rest for the night.

In Mark’s words, here is the text that I received the next morning: When I got here at 11:30 last night the doctor came right in. At midnight they removed 3 liters of fluid from the left lung! The doctor said he had never seen that much in one person and said he was amazed that I was walking around and still able to breathe. He said it must have been gathering slowly for several months and my body compensated by redirecting all my blood to the right lung. He said people live with one lung and that is what I was doing. They were surprised that I was not getting any oxygen.

We called this our 24 hour X-ray because I brought him home at 4:00 the next day. We hadn’t been prepared to be gone so long. Apparently those little lung tumors want to wreak havoc just as his primary tumor caused all sorts of unusual symptoms while it was still alive. Apparently the need to regularly drain the lung is something we may be facing in our future. We need him to be healthy enough for surgery on October 11 to remove that trouble-making tumor from his leg.

The E.R. stage and the ambulance crew had also been amazed that he could talk and function normally without oxygen. What this tells me is that he is strong. I am counting on it!