What's this? A Visit to the MD

I was taking a shower the Sunday after Christmas when I noticed something unusual. As I moved the washcloth down my left armpit, I encountered a large lump. I quickly finished my shower and became very alarmed when I looked into the mirror. A lump larger than a golf ball appeared under my arm as I raised it. With my medical background, I knew this was in the lymph nodes and that it could mean cancer--even a secondary metastasis from another part of the body.

I quickly showed it to Viola. We tried not to race ahead to scary thoughts of inoperable tumors, but it's impossible to entirely stop the brain from those thoughts. I tossed and turned in bed that night trying to believe, without a lot of success, that this would turn out to be a minor infection.

I was able to see my family MD after two nights of worrying. He was visibly concerned when he saw the lump. Like me, he wondered if it was a sudden growth which might indicate an infection. It was hard for me to imagine that I hadn't noticed it previously, however, it only protruded when my arm was fully extended. The doctor ordered lab tests and chest x-rays. He included a test for cat-scratch fever which would take ten days for the results. Two weeks earlier I had been playing with a kitten at the home of friends. I teased a kitten named Buddy Guy and discovered he had much faster reaction times than mine. A small scratch on my finger didn't seem like much at the time. Now, we crossed our fingers that Buddy had given me a fever.

Our 25 year old cat sleeping in her favorite place behind the ancient Buddha stele knew how to soak in the good vibes.