2012 was a somewhat difficult year for us. In early 2012, a month into the new year and just a few days after we had paid off Bob’s Toyota Tacoma, we were rear-ended in a car accident on the way to the gym (as if I needed another disincentive to work out!). Bob’s baby, his pride and joy was totaled.
In the year before, Bob had gone to the emergency room for some abdominal pain. An x-ray of his midsection showed that he had kidney stones. The x-ray also inadvertently caught the lower part of his chest. The emergency room physician mentioned that there was a tiny dark spot at the bottom of one of his lungs; he should probably follow up with his PCP in a few months to make sure nothing was out of order. Fast forward to the spring of 2012, that “dark spot” was early stage lung cancer and had grown slightly. I was speechless and felt the life drain out of me. The thought of it still does.
In 2005, a year after we had moved from Hawaii to Seattle, my cat Giselle became seriously ill. As I was unemployed at the time, I watched her wither away, innocently not knowing what was causing the illness (until too late) and how much she was suffering. There is a large mass. Words I hope I would never hear again and still pray not to. One moment saying goodbye and then the next, she was gone.
Even if Bob’s lung cancer was not advanced enough to be considered Stage 1, it was still cancer. There is (and will probably be) no amount of rationalizing that will overcome the fear that this could happen again but elsewhere in his body and with more severity. I am both equally thankful and terrified of what that x-ray revealed.
In the summer of 2012, I also began my second class in the Masters of Taxation program at Golden Gate University. The course was Advanced Income Taxation. The only course in my undergraduate accounting degree that I received a “B”. I was determined to redeem myself.
Sometime between the end of spring and beginning of summer, I began feeling bloated. At first it was a slight nuisance (no shirt-tucking, pants with elastic waists) but by the middle of summer, it became unbearable. I had gone to my doctor who prescribed laxatives and Simethicone in case it was just constipation or flatulence. It was neither. It was, what she called, of idiopathic origin. Basically, she did not know the cause. You can imagine how unreassuring that was. She recommended that I see a gastroenterologist. After speaking with the gut specialist, who incidentally did not understand why I was there in the first place, we scheduled a colonoscopy. No problems just a few small polyps. The usual stuff. Whew I guess.
Late July, terrible pain in the lower-right abdomen. Not the usual poop and fart pain. Rolling around on the ground, crying like a big baby pain. Rushed to the emergency room for an excruciating four hour wait. X-ray revealed large gallstones. Time to get the inflamed gallbladder removed. End of the bloating? If only!
While all of this was going on, my boss and my boss’ boss decided that we should switch corporate income tax preparation software.
Since misery loves company. I also started getting more frequent migraines (with aura) that summer. The once a year occurrence now became a weekly ordeal. It wasn’t the pop-an-Excedrin Migraine kind of migraine. It was the leave-me-in-a-dark-room-to-lie-down-and-be-absolutely-quiet-for-the-rest-of-the-day kind of migraine. Yet another idiopathic response from the PCP. The hard part was that she was from the same small town in the Philippines where I was born; she knew my relatives and mine knew hers. I probably shouldn’t have expected extra effort but come on! We might have been cousins.
Out of desperation, I decided to do some online research and found an article about migraines being related to the constriction of nasal airways. Naturally, I scheduled an appointment with an otolayrngologist (Ear Nose Throat doctor). The ENT confirmed that septum in the upper recesses of my nasal passage was deviated and suggested corrective surgery.
By this time, you would think I was ten pounds lighter and well under way to a medical degree.
To recap. Cancer scare, graduate tax class, unexplained bloating, gallbladder removal, implementing new corporate income tax preparation software, frequent migraines, nasal surgery. What could possibly make up for all of this? A vacation to China of course!
Post Script. Still got a “B” in the class. Ugh. Bob had a lobectomy (removal of the dark spot and not full excision of the lung, like in the old days). Found out after returning from our trip, that my boss had put in his two-week notice; I liken the stress in those last few months of 2012 to a flight attendant flying the plane after the pilot decides to ditch the aircraft. My car was also on its last legs. I had to put oil in the engine weekly. On the positive side, my migraines disappeared. On the negative side, the bloat continues.
