My pre-diagnosis

To the best of my recollection, I remember having a cough, cold-like symptoms, and chest tightness the day I took my ACM Certification test in Salt Lake City, back on December 6, 2012. I passed the test successfully and equated this tightness in the chest from the stress and the excitement of passing the exam. Throughout the month of December, I continued off and on having these same symptoms, but so was everyone else. After all, we were in the middle of flu season.

During the Christmas holiday and into January, I felt pretty good although the cold symptoms continued-ear pressure, sinus, occasional cough and continued chest tightness. I decided to go see Terry Thompson, NP at the clinic. After a thorough assessment, she too, thought is was an upper respiratory infection, just like everyone else was having. She prescribed 10 days worth of antibiotics and an inhaler to try to open up the airways. I was sure I would get better after this.

Weeks passed and I just wasn't throwing this crap. The weekend of February 8, Bill, Kelli and I decided to drive up to Livingston, Montana to spend the weekend with Kristi and Greg. We thought it would be fun to have a girl's weekend, afterall it was Paulette's birthday and her mom was up as well. The boy's were going to go snow shoeing. We made reservations to stay at the Murray Hotel. We checked in and our room was on the 4th floor. I remember walking up the 4 flights of stairs thinking to myself, "I can't breathe-what is wrong with me?" I was so short of breathe and I could feel my heart racing. I recovered quickly and soon forgot how short of breath I was.

We had a great weekend soaking at Chico Hot Springs with the girls and had a yummy lunch in the bar. We also went and looked at a house that Kristi and Greg were interested in buying. It was an old house built in 1910 and was one of the original houses that was rented out to railroad workers in the early 1900's. We all fell in love with this house and it was quite apparent that this was the house that they one day hoped to own.

The weekend quickly came to an end and we headed home. In the back of my mind, I kept asking myself, "why can't I breathe and why is my heart pounding so hard, with the least amount of exertion." I was worried and knew that I needed to go back in and have someone re-evaluate what was going on. I told myself I would go in Monday morning and see Ann Gruwell, NP at EIRMC's new H2U clinic.

Monday morning, February 11 came around quickly and I was anxious to get in to see what she thought. No appointment needed-they were able to take me straight back. Anna did a thorough assessment and found that I had decreased lung sounds in the base of my left lung. This was a concern to her so she ordered a CXR and some blood work. The blood work was all completely normal which was an instant relief to me. The CXR was a different story. I remember coming back from lunch and having a message from Anna saying that she needed to talk to me about the CXR results. I knew by her voice that this must have showed something. I met up with her that afternoon and she shared with me that I had a large left pleural effusion in the left lung. It was a surprise to both of us and an obvious concern. Anna scheduled a thoracentesis, a procedure to have this fluid drained. The earliest this could be done was on Wednesday, February 13, 2013. What was to come would shock us all....