So the doc says, "I have good news and bad news..."

Who knew coughing could be so all-consuming? Maybe that's partly how TB came to be called consumption.

I am a spectacular cougher. Last night, I barely slept. Oh, how I wanted to drift off to dreamland. The coughing shook the entire bed and sounded like someone was shredding large sheets of fabric in the night. I slept fitfully, coughed a lot, slept a little, coughed a lot more...At 3:00, I got up and moved to the living room sofa. Sometimes a change of scenery makes all the difference.

I fell asleep and stayed asleep until my sleep was inexplicably taken from me. I heard Frank's voice invade my dream.
"May?"
mumblegrunt
"It's five-fifteen. I'm going to be making a lot of noise now."
'kay (I try to remain in my foggy quasi-sleep, knowing it will prevent the homicidal urge attempting to move into the front of my consciousness)
"hhhhh. hhhhh. slrrp. hhhh. slurrrp. hhhhh."
"Hey, Sparkle. [evil, dogicidal thoughts] Good girl. Thanks for the kisses. Go away."

Do they work as a friggin' happy morning, misguided, well-intentioned tag team?

Ten minutes later, Frank comes back and says, "Did you get some sleep?" How to answer? I don't remember what I said, but it probably was neither polite nor intelligible. I got up and stumbled back into the bedroom where instead of maintaining my still-near-unconciousness, I immediately had to prevent Frank's bad kitty from attacking my sweet kitty, who just wanted to lick me into calm and peaceful sleep.

I slept, but not all that peacefully.

Later, the phone rang. It was the always-perky Amy from the doctor's office. "Well, May, there's no indication of pneumonia or TB!" (TB?)
"Oh, that's gr--"
"...but there is something."
"What do you mean, 'something?'"
"There's a spot and a shadow on your lung. The radiologist has asked that you come back in for a CT scan with contrast. Have you ever had a CT scan?"
"As a matter of fact, yes. A few weeks ago. The most expensive 10 minutes of my life."
Perky Amy tells me that's good--I already understand the process! I asked her if she could tell me where this shadowy spot is, and she chirped, "Oh, gosh, I'm so bad at reading these things. I don't know if it's the right lung or the right side of the left lung. Or the right side of the right lung. They'll scan your whole chest, though."

Yipee.

Did I mention the other CT scan showed I have a cyst on my liver? It's probably nothing, just as the spotty shadow on my lung will turn out to be nothing...except expensive.

I really hope next week is better.