2.1 x 2.0 x 2.4 cm

My goal this week is to be an excellent chicken.

You see, I am not the largest fan of visiting medical facilities to be poked, proded, and otherwise disturbed by medical professionals. I know they mean well, but I am overcome by such fits of anxiety that the entire experience is much more painful than it needs to be.

Maybe it was the IV in my head when I was a baby.

In any event, there is indeed a "mass in the right hilar region" of the dimensions listed as the title of this entry. Como? Que? Huh?

Best case scenario, it is an inflamation due to my immune system attacking an unknown invader (is it an invader at all?) and not giving up. All the white blood cells start piling up and eventually my lymph node is the size of one of those bouncy balls I had as a kid.

Not gonna list the worst case scenario. We're thinking positive here.

In any event, the poking and prodding will commence tomorrow, with a poke into my "beautiful" (as described by medical professionals throughout Chester County) vein and an injection of radioactive glucose (check back for glow-in-the-dark images!) for a PET scan. I'll let you do the research on that one. Best part of procedure? Sitting in a recliner under heated blankets as my cells feast on the glucose. Worst? Toss up between the IV and the fact I'll have to lie on a cold table with my arms above my head for 45 miuntes as I'm PET scanned.

In case you're keeping count, so far I've had CAT scan, now PET scan. This begs the question, when the DOG scan?

Tuesday brings me once again to the confines of the hospital, this time for a bronchoscopy, which will be uncomfortable, I'm sure, but hopefully I won't feel it because I'll be knocked out. First time under anasthesia (can't even spell it) so I'm sure I'll be so nervous I could puke. But don't worry, there won't be anything in my stomach for that to happen. No grub after midnight tomorrow.

I'm doing well and with so many other, much horrible things going on in the world, so many other very, very sick people out there, I'm just rolling with the punches.

Now I'm going to get outside. It is a beautiful day out there and I am going to suck in all the fresh air I can in my left lung. Smooches...