Healing Crisis: An Unexpected Turn of Events

This is a more personal blog, another installment of our New Lawyer Tour that was unexpected.

Last week, I went to the doctor to check out a lump on my neck. At the time, it was about 3 or 4 centimeters long. It was hard and not painful but had been hanging around for several weeks and I was concerned about it. After running several tests, including blood work, and a lot of poking and prodding, the doctor referred me for a biopsy at a cancer center. She gave me the "let's be realistic" talk that indicated that she thought it was cancer - specifically lymphoma. For the next week, I had just about every emotion one could imagine having. I had conversations with my family members and told a few friends but wanted to wait for the confirmation before telling everyone what was going on. It was a stressful week to say the least.

A week later, the lump began to grow rapidly and became very painful. It was close to 4 INCHES long and had swollen to a huge size. At the encouragement of my two friends, Michael and Will, I decided to go to the E.R. and check it out. The ER admitted me immediately and I had emergency surgery for a serious infection. As it turns out, my family apparently has some strange genetic predisposition to growing pockets of infection where no one else has pockets, much less infection. The pocket has probably been there all my life and it just inexplicably became infected and started causing problems. It was fully self-contained so it didn't show up in the initial blood work. But by the time I was in the ER, my white blood count was way out of kilter and it was in danger of bursting, causing a whole lot of problems, including quite possibly meningitis. I had emergency surgery that evening and was in the hospital on IV antibiotics for a few days. I still have a drainage tube in my neck and will be on strong oral antibiotics for the next two weeks. The drainage tube will remain in my neck until next week - it looks like some Borg implant. I keep saying "resistance is futile" a lot.

I feel like I've dodged the bullet and I'm very grateful that things have turned out as they have - it wasn't fun but it was a much better result than cancer! For those who've been sending love, prayers, healing energy, etc., I am very thankful for the support and have felt very blessed.

I'll be taking things slow over the next few weeks as I go through recovery. The doctor said it was likely to take a month or more to fully recover. Healing takes more energy than I expect. I feel good and I think I can do whatever I want to do but then I find myself having to sit down suddenly.