The Bee Team

On a Thursday afternoon in December 2025 I went to urgent care with left side pain, fever and shortness of breath. While I was there, the shortness of breath began worsening and I had them call an ambulance and transport me to the local hospital. In the hospital, imaging revealed I had a pleural effusion (fluid in my chest cavity) which had collapsed my left lung, my spleen and liver were enlarged and there was a mass in spleen as well as over my pancreatic tail. Friday morning I had an ultrasound guided thoracentesis (they used an ultrasound to insert a needle and drained) 500+mL from my chest cavity and my left lung re-inflated. (This is a VERY strange sensation and I would avoid it if possible).
That afternoon the hospitalist came in and reviewed the results of my CT scan, and that it was suspected that despite low risk factors, I was looking at potentially having pancreatic cancer. There was a lot of crying. My sweet friend dropped what she was doing and came to be with me because John was at an appointment with the girls and I was alone in the hospital trying to process. My parents were already on their way and I had the hospitalist tell them over the phone because I couldn’t. My sister texted and asked me if I wanted her to come and she got on a plane an hour later and spent the next 2 days living in my hospital room with me. She was an absolute whirlwind of making things happen while she was there and even after she left.
Over the weekend I saw a research oncologist who didn’t have a lot of information for me as the suspected cancer was not his area of expertise.
Monday morning, the hospitalist was able to get me scheduled for a CT guided needle biopsy before I was able to discharged home. I saw another oncologist that morning who said that what he had seen in my chart made him think we were looking at lymphoma.

A week later, the biopsy results came in positive for Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma. And new tears came because no one wants to have cancer, but lymphoma? Lymphoma I could fight and win.