Done with the lumps, but on to the clumps.

     It's bee a little over a year since I finished my last chemotherapy.  It still seems crazy that it's been that long.  It's almost like chemo and cancer and all that was in another lifetime.  I remember waiting for the hard times of chemo to just be bad memories.  I thought the tough times were over, but now we have found another little bump in the road.  I am happy to say, it's NOT cancer.  I am still cancer free!  However this news did throw me for a loop.
     A couple weeks ago I started having a bit of chest pain, so after talking myself out of it for a week or two I finally contacted the doc.  Mom and I went up to Huntsman for my appointment on Thursday, February 27th (exactly one year to the day that I found out I was cancer free).  Dr. Halwani saw me and decided to just go ahead and do all the tests to rule out the major stuff like my heart, lungs and cancer.  I got an EKG and more labs drawn which both looked normal.  After that mom and I went down to the 2nd floor to get me a CT scan.  I had to drink two bottles of semi-nasty crap over the space of an hour and a half before I could get scanned.  By the time I was done with the CT scan we had been there for about 5 hours. "Sheesh!" I thought.  I had to get home that night to go on a little outing with Jaclyn for our little bachelorette thang before she gets married next week.
     After I the scan we went back up to the clinic to talk to the doc about what it showed.  Now, the days prior to the visit my mind had gone wild about what could be wrong.  I went from wondering if I would need open heart surgery to thinking it was probably just something like acid reflux.  By the time we were back up in the office I just thought it was nothing...a muscle spasm maybe.  Halwani came in to talk to us.  The first thing he said was the good news, no cancer.  The next thing he said was quite unexpected, (like everything my body has been doing the last two years).  He said the scan showed that there were multiple clots in my lungs.  It was hard not to immediately think I might die.  I mean, I watched a guy die at work from what they thought was a pulmonary embolism, and now at 21 years old, I have many of them.  It has just been so scary...and so surprising. 
     So after talking to Halwani and Aryn about blood thinners and stuff we found out they were going to admit me to the hospital that night and likely send me home the next day.  I have to say, I have the best people up at Huntsman.  Dr. Halwani said I was their baby, and I sure do feel like they care about me lots.  Halwani, Mary and Aryn are always making sure I get the best. 
     A little later we met with the Hematology Team and went down to my room on BMT, 4547.  Carlee came over, then Dad and Emily, shortly followed by Katie.  We soon had the whole family there, in a matter of speaking, as we were facetiming Andrew and KateLyn.  I'm so lucky to have a family like mine.  I was happy almost all of them could be up there with me.  Mom and Dad left a little later, then Carlee.  Katie, Emily and I watched The Bachelor, it was a juicy one!  Emily spent the night with me.  We ended up leaving the hospital around 3:00 on Friday, after some good teaching about the medicines I will now be taking.  In order to prevent the clots from growing I have to take some blood thinners.  Lovenox is a belly shot that I'll need twice a day for a week until the Coumadin is therapeutic.  Then I'll be done with the shots and only taking a pill each day, yay!  Eventually the clots should dissolve and we can figure out why they got there in the first place.  So we'll see!