In The Beginning

I was diagnosis with rheumatoid arthritis three years ago. My hip was hurting me and I was running a fever on and off for a month. After running a fever of 102.8 on May 19 morning my mother called the primary care physician to get an appointment. She ran a mono test to see if I had mono but it was negative. She recommended that I go the the Cleveland Clinic to figure out what was going on. Our personal thought was that it was a joint infection in the hip. I was admitted to the hospital May 19 around the evening time. While we were in the emergency room they took four glass bottles that were a little smaller than Red Bull energy drink cans. These were to see if I had an infection in my blood. This made me very nervous because just because of how long it took it usually takes maybe one to two minutes to draw the blood. This took at least three to four minutes. Which made me uncomfortable just because of how long it took to draw the blood. Tuesday May 20 I had to wait all day to go to the MRI I ended up going to it around 6 pm. The next morning Wednesday May 21 it was unusual the doctors didn't come until about 11 am I always saw at least one doctor by at least by 9 am. So when the doctors asked me to come to a small room with my mother I was a little concerned. They said they saw a mass in the MRI which could be an infection but most likely it was cancerous. We were both really shocked I really didn't take in what else they said. My mom ended up calling my bother and my dad to come to the Clinic. A couple hours later I went to have a biopsy the biopsy was done with a big needle which was the size of a regular bendy straw, they then bent it over to suck out the tissue. They did this four times, but thankfully they gave me some stuff to settle me down other wise I wouldn't have been able to be still. This was all they Wednesday. The next day Thursday May 22 they sent me for an X-ray of my whole leg and another CAT scan. Friday May 23 they did a PET scan to see what is growing and where it is growing at. They saw the main mass in my leg they then said they also saw a small spot in my lung and a 2 centimeter mass by my kidney. Right before I was discharged I had to drink some nasty stuff to fill the GI tract to look at in the CAT scan. I was finally able to leave the hospital at 6:30 pm Friday.